Red Sox’ Liam Hendriks addresses Alex Cora’s ’slip of the tongue’ that he will not pitch again this season

Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks has been an afterthought since landing on the injured list on May 27. Alex Cora said on Sunday that it was unlikely that the veteran reliever would return to the mound this season.

That apparently was news to Hendriks.

“That was surprising. That kind of shook me a little bit,” said Hendriks. “I was like, ‘OK, let me read this thing.’ That was frustrating. It was like, ‘Have they not told me anything that’s going on? Am I out of the loop? What’s going on?’ Everyone I’ve spoken to about this has said, ‘No, we’re pushing to get you back this year.’ You hear that, and you’re like, ‘Are they just lying to my face to appease me?’ Which is not the case. It was just a slip of the tongue, unfortunately. It was definitely not a good thing for me to hear. But we hashed it out, and we’re all good.

“It’s way too early to say I won’t pitch this year,” he said. “If everything goes well, I will definitely pitch this year as long as we keep moving in that direction. I spoke to A.C. about it, and it was just a slip of the tongue. He apologized, and we’re moving on.”

Since signing with the Red Sox prior to spring training last year, the veteran right-hander has faced numerous issues. Hendriks has appeared in 14 games this season for Boston. He’s been on the IL a couple of times this season; the first time he was placed on the IL was on March 27 with right elbow inflammation. Hendriks went back on the IL two months later on May 30, with what was described as right hip inflammation but later was diagnosed with a sports hernia. As he was ramping up with throwing, the discomfort returned, and a second opinion revealed he had been dealing with a strained abdominal side wall.

“I saw a different guy, and he was like, ‘You’ve got the body of a gorilla, but you’ve got the hips of a cheerleader,’” Hendriks said. “I didn’t like that euphemism as much. I like, ‘Your body is a brick (expletive)-house, and your door is made out of a sheet.’

“A little bit of the rehab was not necessarily being pushed in the right direction, and then I was over-throwing when they told me to throw and re-injuring it consistently.”

Hendriks said that he started feeling discomfort in his midsection during an outing against the Rangers on May 8.

“It definitely didn’t help, and it was something I wasn’t quite aware I was about to do,” he said of pitching multiple innings. “That was a communication thing.

“My job is to get people out. I’ve always said, ‘If you want me to do anything, you let me know,’ instead of letting me know through a (text) chain I don’t look at. I like that face-to-face conversation: ‘Hey, look, we need you to be available for extras (more than one inning)’ ... even though that was one thing they told me I didn’t have to do during spring training.

“A couple outings after that, I was sitting at 91 (mph). So not a great situation.”

Hendriks believes he’s on the right track, but has only been throwing from 60 feet. He still thinks he can contribute out of the Sox’ bullpen this season. If he can pitch, he presents the Red Sox another option as they push for a spot in the postseason.

The 36-year-old is in the second year of a two-year, $10 million deal and believes he can make a difference.

“I’ve got a brand new arm,” said Hendriks. “It’s good that on the trajectory we’re going, even if you get back in mid-September, it’s not just two weeks. There’s going to be a longer time to still continue to play. And that’s something that’s pretty important. If you’re pushing back to try and get back for the two weeks, it’s pure pride. If I’m pushing back to get back for two weeks plus potentially playoffs, then it’s to help this team win.”

This is not the first time this season that Hendriks has expressed some displeasure with the Red Sox. Back in May, he went public with his desire to pitch in more high-leverage situations.

“There were a couple games where it was like I was the last guy in the bullpen,” Hendriks said back in May. “It’s a new experience for me. I felt like I had been pitching well to get trusted in a couple of those situations, and it didn’t come to fruition. We had a couple chats. I got in there today, and it didn’t quite work out.”

At the time of his frustration, he told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier that he had “no idea” what his role in Boston’s bullpen would be and that his lack of usage had become a “source of contention” that resulted in “multiple conversations” with the team.

He never requested that the team trade him, but made it clear he was unhappy.

“I just want to pitch,” he told Speier. “I feel like I can make contributions to this team. I feel like I can make a lot more contributions than I have been, and I just want to be given that opportunity.”

The lack of communication between Hendriks and the team has been an issue on and off this season. Which makes you wonder, does he not like what the Red Sox are telling him, or is there a true inability to communicate between both parties? If Hendriks can get healthy, it’s worth seeing what he has left in the tank.