Lucas Giolito and Liam Hendriks stood in the visitors dugout and tipped their caps to the crowd in appreciation Thursday evening after the Chicago White Sox played a tribute featuring the two pitchers.
They received a nice ovation as highlights from their time with the White Sox played on the Guaranteed Rate Field video board.
Giolito and Hendriks returned to the ballpark for the first time with the Boston Red Sox on Thursday. Both are in various stages of recovery from injuries.
“I feel like I grew up here,” Giolito said. “This is where I experienced the lowest of the lows of my career and I experienced the highest of highs of my career. And I wouldn’t trade any of that for anything else.”
Giolito went 59-52 with a 4.20 ERA and 993 strikeouts in 162 starts during seven seasons with the White Sox from 2017-23. He made huge strides from 2018 to 2019, earning All-Star honors during the 2019 season. He threw a no-hitter in 2020 and was terrific during the Game 1 of an American League wild-card series against the Oakland Athletics.
The White Sox traded him to the Los Angeles Angels in July.
“I grew as a pitcher and a baseball player, but that’s also where I kind of grew as a man,” Giolito said. “So I have so much love for the city. I have so much love for the White Sox organization and the opportunities they gave me. Some of my favorite memories are, I guess, less about personal accomplishments and more about just the relationships I developed along the way.
“Before I came in to see you (reporters), I popped into the training room on the other side to say hi to some folks. It just brings back a lot of memories and emotions. It feels weird being on this side after so many years. But that’s part of the game and I’m getting used to that for sure.”
Hendriks signed with the White Sox ahead of the 2021 season and became an instant fan favorite. He had a 2.76 ERA, 76 saves and 201 strikeouts during three seasons (2021-23) with the team, earning All-Star honors in 2021 and 2022.
Hendriks made an inspiring return after being diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma last season.
“That’s one of the moments I’ll always remember,” Hendriks said of his return on May 29. “The memories we’ve had in this situation before, even before the diagnosis and everything like that, the happy memories, the memories of winning on this field, the memories of what we were able to accomplish.
“And then post-diagnosis, coming back out here and the fan base embracing both my wife and I and really coming together. The White Sox organization, the fan base here, we loved it here. We felt embraced. We felt like it was a family here, and it was definitely sad to go.”
The Sox declined his $15 million club option in November, and he signed a two-year deal with the Red Sox in February.
“It wasn’t a surprising thing to me,” Hendriks said. “I was still hopeful but it is what it is now and I’ve landed in a great situation over here with Boston and it’s fantastic.
He jokingly added, “And I’ve got a chance to be around Giolito again, which is never any good.”
Hendriks underwent successful Tommy John surgery in August and said the “goal is still being back in August and being back out here just in time to see the White Sox in September (in Boston).”
Giolito, who signed a two-year deal in January, underwent successful right-elbow ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) repair with internal brace in March.
“It was pretty out of nowhere,” he said of the injury. “I felt pretty healthy, checking all the boxes coming into spring training. My Tommy John, it was like 11, 12 years old, and those things kind of have a shelf life, I guess. Some guys are good to go. Some guys need two or three of them. Now we have the brace surgery, that’s what I got.
“I feel very good about it as far as getting in the right physical position for next year. But it’s weird. I’d gone a lot of years where the biggest thing I had to deal with was a 10-day IL stint, a hamstring pull or something like that. Whereas now, missing an entire season, it is a very strange feeling for me. It’s really put into perspective how much I value going out there and being available and competing. I miss it a lot.”
While discussing the White Sox’s current situation, Giolito reflected on his time with the club.
“Part of me is always going to root for the team, just because I was here for so long,” Giolito said. “So, it’s tough to see the record and everything like that, but at the same time, it’s a process. It’s just that kind of situation you have to go through, that low period, to start to chisel away and figure things out.
“And that’s the one, I guess, regret or thing that I think back on our times, is we went through that period and then we have that window where we could have really done something special. We just didn’t capitalize on it. So it’s always something I’m going to look back on and be like, ‘Damn, I wish we could have done that.’ ”
