New reliever Liam Hendriks wants to help A’s and animals

New reliever Liam Hendriks wants to help A’s and animals

“That’s our main thing — anything to help animals,” said Hendriks, who is on the board of the Remember Me Thursday animal center and also works with the nonprofit Players for Pits.

“When Liam was 4 or 5, he decided he wanted a cat, and not knowing much about cats, he named her Spot,” Hendriks’ father, Geoff, said by phone from Australia.

Liam’s always had a soft spot for cats and dogs, and it gives him a focus outside of baseball.

“It’s really cool that’s a passion for Liam and his wife, they’ve thrown themselves into it,” A’s closer Sean Doolittle said.

Hendriks also will be putting his skills to work in Oakland’s bullpen, of course, but initially, baseball was an afterthought for Hendriks, merely something to do after Australian Football between seasons.

“When I was 6, it was a choice between cricket and tee-ball and cricket would take six hours and tee-ball half an hour, ‘My parents were like, ‘Yeah, you can do whatever you want but ... tee-ball!’ ” Hendricks said.

Hendriks had every intention of doing so, too, but showed a lot of promise in baseball as a first baseman and a starting pitcher.

When Hendriks got a chance to go to Australia’s top baseball academy at 17, he had to make a choice.

For hitters, it can throw timing off, A’s manager Bob Melvin, adding that with Hendriks, There’s some kind of herky-jerkiness.

Melvin said Hendriks is likely to be Oakland’s sixth-inning reliever, but fairly interchangeable with John Axford (seventh inning) and Ryan Madson (eighth), because they’re all hard throwers.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.