After pitching in only 14 games over the course of a two-year contract with the Red Sox, reliever Liam Hendriks — as expected — will be a free agent again this winter.

The Red Sox declined their end of Hendriks’ $12 million mutual option Tuesday, according to a baseball source, and will pay him a $2 million buyout. He will officially become a free agent Wednesday.

Hendriks was signed in February 2024 as the Red Sox took a gamble that he’d fully recover from Tommy John surgery in time to become a major contributor — and potentially the team’s closer — in 2025. He got into rehab outings late in 2024 but a setback with his elbow kept him from pitching in the majors that season. He competed for the ninth inning role in spring training this past year but lost out to Aroldis Chapman, then la

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