Kyle Hendricks knows what it takes to make it in Major League Baseball.
The 162-game trek of the regular season is familiar to the 35-year-old Southern California native across his 12-year career. With Joe Maddon as his manager for the first half of his career, Hendricks was provided room to screw up — messing around with his mechanics and pitch arsenal — to become a top-end starting pitcher that helped the Chicago Cubs claim the 2016 World Series.
“It established a lot of confidence in me,” said Hendricks, who started more than 30 games four times in five seasons from 2015-19.