It was about an hour before the MLB trade deadline on Friday afternoon. Kyle Hendricks walked to the outfield on the visitors side of Nationals Park to play catch as he always does the day before he starts. By the time he returned to the Chicago Cubs clubhouse, the team he helped lead to the 2016 World Series title was unrecognizable.
It had been gutted.
"I didn't know the whole scope until I got back in," Hendricks said over the weekend. "It's definitely been really tough. Still is. It's going to take a while to process. It's just very different around here without those guys.