BOSTON -- Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks posted on his Instagram story Thursday morning that he’s received death threats in the wake of his recent on-field performance.
“Threats against my life and my wife’s life are horrible and cruel,” Hendriks wrote in his post. “You need help. Comments telling me to commit suicide and how you wish I died from cancer is disgusting and vile. Maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate your life’s purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their families.
“Whether you do it from your ‘fake accounts’ or are dumb enough to do it from your real account, I think I speak for all players who have had to deal with this in their career when I say: Enough is enough.”
Hendriks, 36, recently returned to the mound for the first time in nearly two years after overcoming non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s a five-time nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball through character and philanthropy.
The threats against Hendriks come less than two weeks after similarly disconcerting threats were made against Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. following his start on May 10. Earlier this season, a heckler in Cleveland also made a comment at Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran regarding Duran’s suicide attempt.
Hendriks was charged with the loss in Wednesday’s 5-1 defeat to the Mets, allowing three runs while recording two outs.
In an interview with reporters prior to Friday’s day-night doubleheader against the Orioles, Hendriks said he thinks the threats on social media started during that outing.
“I don't even think it was after the game. It started during. Obviously I didn't see it until after,” Hendriks said. “Unfortunately it's rampant within sports. I've had people from different organizations, I've had people in different sports reach out about their own experiences with it. I've had people that have had their home addresses leaked, people that, it’s a lot more deplorable than what we've had.”
Why did Hendriks decide to go forward with his Instagram post?
“Enough is enough,” Hendriks said. “At some point, someone has to make a stand. And it's one of those things where, the more eyes we get on it, the more voices we get talking about it, hopefully it can push it in the right direction. We can get something pushed across.”
Hendriks made it clear that the type of threats he received are hardly isolated to him, and he’s talked to teammates who have endured the same things.
“With the rise of sports gambling, it's gotten a lot worse,” said Hendriks. “Unfortunately, that tends to be what it ends up being -- whether it be Venmo requests, whether it be people telling you in their comments, ‘Hey, you blew my parlay. Go [expletive] yourself,’ kind of stuff. And then it's, ‘Go hang yourself. You should kill yourself. I wish you died from cancer.’ That one kind of hit a little too close to home for me with everything I've gone through.”
Hendriks would like to see people who make such vile threats be held accountable.
“This is one thing that more people need to talk about so we can get some sort of action, some sort of response, some sort of repercussions for the people doing it, whether they're burner accounts or their real accounts,” Hendriks said. “This is something that is deplorable. There needs to be some sort of punishment so that people can think twice before they start doing this stuff.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora expressed empathy for what Hendriks and other players go through on social media.
“Obviously we're in the public eye, and people feel like they have the right to say whatever they want,” Cora said. “Sometimes it comes from real people. Others from burner accounts, fake people. And it just puts everybody in a tough spot. We educate our players. If it's up to me, I'll bring my daughter here and go through every account and filter, so we don’t have to pay attention to that. Obviously everybody's different.”
Hendriks expressed gratitude to people and groups who have offered their support.
“I've had a lot of people reach out, whether it be private security firms, whether it be our own building, saying, ‘Hey, what can we do to help or anything like that.’ The outpouring of love has been fantastic,” said Hendriks. “But at the end of the day, it's all well and good to have that outpouring of love, but we need to stop it and nip it in the bud before it gets to that point.”
A 14-year MLB veteran, Hendriks is in his second season within the Red Sox organization.