Former Royals right-hander continues his tour of AL Central after returning to Twins

There’s been plenty of former Kansas City Royals who’ve found new homes this winter, some more recently with the team like MJ Melendez and others, like Carlos Santana, who’ve been away from Kauffman Stadium for several years now.

And another one of those distant old friends has found a familiar new landing spot this week, one that brings him back to the AL Central yet again.

After spending time with the Royals, White Sox and Twins in the past, Minnesota announced they’re brining Liam Hendriks back to the organization he started his major league career, signing him to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, as first reported by FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray.

Former Royals arm Liam Hendriks returns to Twins and AL Central after signing minor league contract

While Hendriks is a former Royals arm, his time in Kansas City isn’t what he’s best know for. Having been part of a 2014 pre-trade deadline deal with Blue Jays that sent Danny Valencia north of the border, Hendriks only spent a half season in with the club.

In 19.1 innings of work across six outings (three of which were starts) with the Royals, it was a bit of a mixed bag of results for Hendriks. He threw to a 4.66 ERA, 2.20 FIP, 1.50 WHIP and .317 BAA with just a 17.4% K-rate but a 3.5% walk rate.

Hendriks started his career with Twins before moving to the Blue Jays, whom he sandwiched his Royals stint with, before heading to Oakland where he really began to make a name for himself.

In five seasons with the Athletics, Hendriks threw to a 3.08 ERA in 663.2 innings across 247 games. Here is where he began his closing career, where in 2019 during his first season anchoring a bullpen he converted 25 saves and received his first career All-Star nod.

He would later add two more All-Star appearances in both 2021 and 2022 after returning to the AL Central and joining the White Sox, establishing himself as one of the league’s premier closers.

But since then, Hendriks has dealt with several instances of health adversity. After a difficult cancer diagnosis at the start of 2023 he didn’t get the chance to pitch long after his treatment before suffering an elbow injury that required him to have to undergo Tommy John Surgery. This kept him off a major league mound until last season.

And with the Red Sox, in his first season back in 2025, he’d struggle mightily. Between dealing with elbow and hip inflammation he didn’t pitch much. And when he did, he only managed to throw to a 6.59 ERA.

Now the hope will be that the 37-year-old Hendriks can tap into some of that closing pedigree this spring and get another shot at taking a big league mound, whether that be with the rebuilding Twins or elsewhere around the league.