Cubs Ink Kyle Hendricks to Four-Year Extension

The Cubs joined the group of teams handing out contract extensions on Tuesday. The Cubs announced a four-year contract extension with Kyle Hendricks on the last day of spring games.

The Cubs and right-handed pitcher Kyle Hendricks have agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension covering the 2020-2023 seasons. The deal includes a club/vesting option for the 2024 campaign. Terms of the contract were not officially announced.

According to multiple reports, Hendricks will be paid a guaranteed $55.5 million for four seasons … $12 million in 2020 and $14 million in 2021 through 2023. The deal includes a vesting club option for 2024 worth $16 million with a $1.5 million buyout. Hendricks contract includes $2 million in incentives for the 2022-24 seasons for winning the Cy Young award, $1 million if he finishes second or third, $750,000 for a fourth or fifth place finish and $500,000 for a sixth-tenth place finish. Gordon Wittenmyer also reported the deal includes a suite on the road.

The option vests based on Cy Young voting for the 2020 season.

Hendricks will make $7.405 million this season (2019).

Hendricks, 29, has gone 52-33 with a 3.07 ERA in 133 appearances (132 starts) covering the last five seasons since breaking into the big leagues with the Cubs in 2014. His 3.07 ERA is the fifth-lowest mark of any active pitcher with at least 100 career starts. Hendricks became the first Cub to lead the majors in ERA since 1938 when his 2.13 mark in 2016 helped garner a third-place finish for the N.L. Cy Young Award, a season in which he started and won the clinching game for the Cubs first N.L. pennant since 1945 and started the decisive Game 7 of the World Series that saw the Cubs win their first title since 1908.

The right-hander has already made 10 postseason starts in his career, tied for the most in franchise history, and boasts a 2.98 ERA in his playoff career, fourth lowest in franchise history.

During his Cubs career, Hendricks has enjoyed a stretch in which he allowed four runs or fewer in 48-straight starts from August 21, 2015-May 24, 2017, the second-longest streak in the majors dating to 1913, and went 74-straight starts from June 24, 2015-March 30, 2018 allowing eight hits or fewer, the longest streak in franchise history.

Hendricks was acquired by the Cubs from Texas on July 31, 2012 in the Ryan Dempster deal and earned Cubs minor league pitcher of the year honors a season later. He made his big league debut on July 10, 2014 (The Anthony Rizzo Game versus the Reds) and has reached 30 starts in three of the last four seasons. n 2015, Hendricks reached 32 starts in his first full big league campaign before going 16-8 with a 2.13 ERA in 30 starts in 2016, becoming the first Cub to lead the majors in ERA since Bill Lee in 1938. Hendricks went 7-5 with a 3.03 ERA in 24 starts in 2017.

Last season, Hendricks led the Cubs with a career-high 33 starts and 199.0 innings, going 14-11 with a 3.44 ERA.  He closed out the campaign by going 9-3 with a 2.65 ERA in his final 16 starts dating to July 9.

Hendricks was originally selected by the Texas Rangers in the eighth round of the 2011 Draft out of Dartmouth College.

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