Kyle Hendricks

Yu Darvish had the better overall season, but Hendricks was once again stellar for the Cubs in 2020, and it was the latter who started Game 1 of the team's Wild Card series. Hendricks does not rack up strikeouts like Darvish or other top pitchers across the league, which keeps him a bit below the radar. He posted a 7.1 K/9 in 2020 and hasn't topped 8.0 K/9 since 2016. Hendricks instead relies on excellent command and the ability to effectively mix up his pitches to keep hitters off balance. Throughout his seven-year MLB career, Hendricks has never had an ERA higher than 3.95 or a WHIP higher than 1.19. That type of consistency makes Hendricks an extremely valuable fantasy asset, even if he doesn't miss as many bats as other frontline starters. Heading into his age-31 season, Hendricks will aim to eclipse 200 innings for the first time, which was a stated goal before the 2020 season was condensed.

Durability, reliability and consistency define Hendricks' career. He's compiled at least 30 starts and 177 innings in four of the past five seasons. It would be 31 and 180-plus if the Cubs didn't shut him down and let him pitch on the last day of the 2019 season. While there's nothing overly egregious in Hendricks' 2019 indicators, his xFIP and SIERA were well over 4.00. This may signal some skills erosion and an impending ERA correction, but his 10.3% swinging-strike rate was his career best and his 16.2 K-BB% was his highest since 2016. Hendricks' velocity and pitch mix were the same as usual, so while ERA estimators are usually telling, this could be an exception. The good thing is Hendricks' lack of strikeouts keeps his acquisition cost low, so the risk implied by 2019's xFIP and SIERA is baked into the cost. Hendricks remains an option to buffer ratios while we chase strikeouts elsewhere.

Hendricks had one rocky month (7.03 ERA in June) but was otherwise very good in 2018, finishing as a top-30 starting pitcher in terms of earned value. He threw a career-high 199 innings and induced a ton of weak contact -- his opponents' soft-contact rate was among the highest in the league. Hendricks' changeup graded out as the absolute best among qualified starters by FanGraphs' Pitch Values. His fastball averages a mere 86.9 mph, but because of the movement and deception, the pitch graded out as above average. He's never going to be a huge strikeout pitcher with his arsenal (7.6 K/9 for career), but Hendricks is one of the smartest players in baseball and he's proven effective with the way he mixes his pitches and approaches certain hitters differently. He still has a good defense behind him and a good offense powering him, so Hendricks should once again be a coveted arm on draft day.

Even though his ERA rose by nearly a run last season, Hendricks solidified himself as the Cubs' ace while Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta saw their numbers plunge following the team's World Series-winning campaign. With a fastball that sits in the mid-to-high-80s, Hendricks isn't a prototypical top-of-the-rotation arm, but his brilliance lies in his ability to stay ahead of hitters in the count, avoid mistakes and eat innings efficiently. Those attributes rarely yield lofty strikeout totals for the right-hander, but Hendricks is capable of netting fantasy owners above-average production in wins, ERA and WHIP so long as the offense and defense supporting him remain strong. Staying healthy was an issue for Hendricks in 2017 and prevented him from justifying his draft-day price, but he was sensational upon returning from right hand tendinitis in late July and presents little risk heading into spring training. He turned in a 2.19 ERA and 3.79 K/BB after the All-Star break, both of which were roughly in line with his 2016 marks.

Hendricks took another step forward in 2016 and established himself as one of the best starters in the National League. Concerns about his strikeout rate in 2015 were erased as he improved his swinging-strike rate to a career-high 10 percent, while maintaining the pinpoint control he's shown throughout his time as a professional. While he does not overpower opposing hitters, Hendricks locates his offerings exceptionally well, and he consistently works ahead in the count by pounding the strike zone early (his 68.6 percent first-strike rate tied him with Johnny Cueto as the MLB leader among qualified starters). His changeup continues to be his best pitch, and that offering generated the fourth-most swinging strikes among all changeups league-wide last season. Even though his skills appear to be stable, Hendricks' ERA seems almost certain to rise, but he could stay below the 3.00 mark if the defense behind him continues to rank as the league's best.

Hendricks saw a substantial gain in strikeout rate last year, from 5.3 K/9 to 8.4, despite zero increase in his swinging-strike rate. Called strikes were the stark difference in his profile, as his called strike rate jumped six percentage points to 38-percent, third-highest among qualified starters. He shifted to a sinker-changeup focus and he buries both pitches low & away to righties and lefties for called strikes: sinker for righties, change for lefties. Hendricks also exploits the biggest general change in the strike zone as a means to gain a lot of these strikeouts: the lower third. He threw 52-percent of his pitches in the lower third, 13th-highest among the 78 qualified starters. He leveraged the framing of Miguel Montero and David Ross as well, posting an 8.8 K/9 (24-percent K rate) with them. The strikeouts will likely decline without some added swing-and-miss, but his groundball lean and penchant for strikes should enable him to maintain solid value.

Hendricks has put a lot of innings on his young arm, but if you're going to pitch as well as he has, 180 innings seems appropriate. He blew threw the minors in less than four years, dominating at every stop, before he got the call from the Cubs last year, when he finished 7-2 with a 2.46 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in 13 starts. Hendricks' excellent control (15 walks in 80.1 innings) contributed to his strong results, but his strikeout rate was poor. He had good strikeout rates in the minors, so there is hope that he can improve in that area. If he does, Hendricks will become much more useful to fantasy owners.

The Dartmouth-educated Hendricks was the Cubs' Minor League Pitcher of the Year when he went 13-4 with a 2.00 ERA between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa. Even better was the outstanding 128:34 K:BB ratio in 166.1 innings. Given his success on the field and between the ears, it looks like he could be spending time in Chicago this season.