Red Sox’s Liam Hendriks, Alex Cora Address Social Media Threats

Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media Thursday to condemn posters who have made threats against his and his wife’s lives following Boston’s loss to the New York Mets at Fenway Park on Wednesday night.

Hendriks posted to his Instagram story on Thursday, expressing his displeasure with the social media users.

“Just an FYI: Threats against my life and my wife’s life are horrible and cruel,” he posted. “You need help. Leaving 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 reevaluate 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.”

Before Game 1 of the Red Sox’s split day-night doubleheader Friday against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, Hendriks spoke with reporters and addressed the growing issue on social media.

“This is almost a daily occurrence for almost everyone in this clubhouse. That’s the upsetting part, and it’s not being controlled in the right way,” he said during NESN’s pregame coverage. “This is continuing to happen, whether it be through Instagram, whether it be through Twitter (X) or TikTok or any of the social media apps or anything like that, it’s not being handled by any which way.

“At some point, something’s got to break, and it better not be any of the guys that are receiving this stuff.”

This is not the first time Hendriks has been involved with online threats. In 2019, while a member of the Oakland Athletics, he was part of a lawsuit filed against a bookkeeper who had made several violent threats to athletes and their families across several sports.

“A lot of them are keyboard warriors. A lot of them are burner accounts,” he recalled. “But we’ve had ones where they’ve specifically said, ‘I’m going to come through your sliding door and slit your throat while your wife watches.’

“We had a sliding door at the time. That was terrifying to the point where Oakland PD came through and swept our house to make sure that nothing was there that night. It has escalated a lot further than what it is currently. Where I’m at now, I’m luckily in a secure building, so I’m not as concerned safety-wise, but when I go on the road, yeah, I am concerned for my wife. If she’s there alone or anything like that, it does raise those issues.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora told NESN’s Tom Caron he believes the online threats have gotten worse since sports gambling has been legalized.

“One hundred percent. 100%,” Cora said on NESN’s pregame coverage. “With the way things are going, right, as far as like sports gambling, people, they take it personal.

“People think that these guys are perfect; they feel like these guys are going to help them make a lot of money. And when they don’t do their thing, their quote-unquote ‘don’t do their job,’ they take it personal, and they conduct themselves this way. And it’s not acceptable.”

Cora added: “It’s not acceptable at any level. It doesn’t matter if it’s professional sports or college sports. These guys, they work so hard in their craft. And for them to worry about something else, it’s not good. And it happens a lot. We have to do a better job of stopping this.”

The Red Sox skipper understands how social media platforms have grown over the years, and ball clubs have taken the initiative to educate their players.

“We educate our players in spring training and during the season. We educate their families to try and avoid this distraction,” Cora explained. “But it’s very hard. It’s hard, and I’ve been through it. Players have been through it, and it’s not a good place to be, and hopefully, people can be better. That’s all we can ask for.”