It feels like this is a long time coming, even if only to hardcore Cubs fans.
Throughout his career, Kyle Hendricks has largely been an underappreciated pitcher. Not necessarily in Chicago, of course, where Cubs fans know the true extent of his talent, but certainly across the league. He’s also often been stuck behind some high-profile and talented pitchers in the Cubs rotation (Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, Yu Darvish, etc.), steering the spotlight away from his accomplishments. But during Spring Training earlier this year, Cubs Manager David Ross narrowed the Opening Day 2020 nod to just Hendricks or Darvish. And today, we learn that Hendricks will get his moment.
Congrats, man. You deserve it!
Kyle Hendricks is our Opening Day starter.
Giddyup. pic.twitter.com/VfbesqgQrh
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 16, 2020
This will be the first Opening Day start for Kyle Hendricks and it’ll come against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 24th. But as someone who helped get the Cubs to the World Series in the 2016 NLCS and help win it in Game 7, I think he’ll be plenty up to the task. You can probably expect Yu Darvish to follow, with Jon Lester, Tyler Chatwood, and Alec Mills thereafter, likely dependent on some matchup favorability.
Against the Brewers for his career, Kyle Hendricks has a 3.08 ERA in 119.2 IP with a 22.4% strikeout rate and a 5.1% walk rate. He has looked very sharp in the intrasquads so far, so here’s hoping he’s ready to dominate out of the gate.