Five days before his first start of the 2019 season, Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks signed a four-year, $55.5 million contract extension.
Then, he blinked.
Before a guy team president Theo Epstein had just called “one of the half-dozen most effective pitchers in the game” knew what hit him, he was 0-3.
In his fifth and final start of April, Hendricks got lit up by the Diamondbacks for seven earned runs — the first time in his career he’d given up that many — to fall to 1-4 with a 5.33 ERA.
“Not good,” he said at the time.