The Minnesota Twins signed three-time All-Star reliever Liam Hendriks to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training on Thursday.
Hendriks, who turned 37 on Tuesday, made his major league debut with the Twins on Sept. 6, 2011, and appeared in 30 games from 2011-13 before finding great success and dealing with much adversity in his career.
The right-hander appeared in just 14 games last season with the Boston Red Sox, going 0-2 with a 6.59 ERA, seven walks and 12 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings.
The native of Australia went on the injured list with right hip inflammation, suffered a setback and missed the rest of the season. He had a right elbow ulnar nerve transposition procedure in September and became a free agent in November.
Hendriks underwent treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in early 2023 and made his debut that season on May 29 for the Chicago White Sox. But he pitched in only five games — going 2-0 with one save and a 5.40 ERA in five innings — before an elbow injury required Tommy John surgery and led to a lost 2024 campaign for rehabilitation.
For his career, Hendriks is 33-36 with 116 saves, a 3.88 ERA, 166 walks and 739 strikeouts in 663 2/3 innings over 490 regular-season games (44 starts) for the Twins, Kansas City Royals (2014), Toronto Blue Jays (2014-15), Oakland Athletics (2016-20), White Sox (2021-23) and Red Sox (2025).
From 2019 to 2022, Hendriks was selected to three All-Star Games and in the other year, 2020 with Oakland, he finished ninth in the American League Cy Young Award voting and 13th for AL Most Valuable Player.
Minnesota also signed right-hander Julian Merryweather to a minor league contract with an invitation to big-league camp. Merryweather, 34, has a career record of 6-7 with four saves, a 4.72 ERA, 73 walks and 177 strikeouts in 158 1/3 innings over 152 games (five starts) for the Blue Jays (2020-22) and Chicago Cubs (2023-25). He was 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA for the Cubs in 21 relief appearances last season.
