White Sox closer Liam Hendriks is named American League Comeback Player of the Year after battling back from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and sealing emotional return to baseball

Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendriks was named American League Comeback Player of the Year on Thursday evening.

The 34-year-old Australian announced in January that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was starting chemotherapy. In April, Hendriks completed treatment and announced that he was cancer-free.

Hendriks returned to baseball 39 days after announcing on May 29 that he was in remission.

Hendriks played in five games before being placed on the injured list on June 11. In August, it was announced that he had undergone Tommy John surgery and would miss the remainder of the season.

Still, Hendriks, who was recovering from cancer, made sure he made the choice to win the prize.

‘That was an eye-opener. I didn’t feel too many symptoms, but I did have some lumps,” Hendriks said this summer at the ESPYs, where he won the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.

“It just shows you the power of the mind,” Hendriks continued. “If you think there’s nothing wrong and you believe you can do anything, then you can do anything.”

Hendriks is a three-time All-Star and was named American League Reliever of the Year in 2020 and 2021.

“I threw 100 miles per hour while I was going through stage 4 lymphoma and then came back after eight rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of immunotherapy and was able to go out there and throw 96 miles per hour,” Hendriks said.

‘That’s not physically who I am. That’s all this, that’s all mental.’

No date has been set for Hendriks’ return to baseball, but it’s possible he could return to the mound by the end of the 2024 season.