Participation in the postseason usually garners a significant revenue bump for qualifying teams, which made it particularly painful for the small-market Rays to miss out on the revenue from 10 home games in 2020. Not only did the Rays lose that potential revenue because of coronavirus, but this year’s playoffs actually cost them money, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. They’re also missing out on their usual revenue-sharing check, as well as, obviously, attendance revenues, notes Topkin. It’s going to have an affect on Rays’ roster decisions this winter. That could mean smaller cost-saving moves like non-tendering Hunter Renfroe, or it could mean more impactful moves like dealing core players Kevin Kiermaier or Blake Snell. Rays GM Erik Neander is likely to be active exploring the trade market, but that’s nothing new for Tampa.
- Rich Hill finished a successful one-year stint in Minnesota with a 3.03 ERA/3.88 FIP across 8 starts totaling 38 2/3 innings with 7.2 K/9 to 4.0 BB/9. It’s those last two numbers that might trouble the 40-year-old Hill. From 2017 to 2019, Hill posted 10.68 K/9 to 2.97 BB/9 with the Dodgers. Still, Hill was largely effective in 2020 by keeping the ball in the ballpark. But he didn’t accomplish his primary goal: winning a World Series. Hill has only appeared in five postseasons throughout his 16-year career, and he’s never won a World Series. In choosing his next team, writes WEEI’s Rob Bradford, Hill’s primary calculus is playing the odds and trying to find a place to contribute that gives him the best chance of winning a World Series.
- That said, Hill hasn’t ruled out joining his hometown Red Sox, per Bradford. Hill does offer an assessment of Boston’s needs this offseason, saying, “Bullpen. Work on the bullpen. I think the lineup is good. Get everybody back. Obviously getting Sale back is huge. Eddie [Rodriguez], having him come back, being healthy. And Nathan [Eovaldi]. Those are three really, really, really good guys.” It’ll be tough sledding for the Red Sox in the AL East, though returning Sale and Rodriguez to the rotation would be a healthy start.
If hes looking for a ring, why go to the red sox? Makes no sense.
He has been on teams that won championships shortly after he left…, cubs, red sox, cards nationals, dodgers… he was drafted by the Angel’s the year they won it all but didnt sign.
Seems like he doesnt know what a championship team looks like.
Excellent point. He’s a hopper. He needs to stick with one team and understand that the team has a window for a championship. Like with the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox. Stick around and the team will eventually break through.
He was on the Cubs in 07/08. They won’t in 2016. He was horrible back then. Wouldn’t exactly say it was “shortly after” he left that the Cubs won. Gimme a break and at least try to get it right when talking about sports history.
Yeah, and when did he play for Washington?
2015 he was with Washington
He signed a minor league deal. He didn’t make the starting rotation in spring training. He didn’t want to be in the bullpen, so he opted out of his contract after he was sent to AAA and became a free agent
@brad, he’s 40 years old. Not much time left for “eventually.”
The only one that was more than a few years… sorry. I didn’t think I needed to list each one for you.
What does a champion roster look like?
The 2009,2011,2013 Giants ; 2012 Red Sox all failed to make the playoffs and were written off in 2010,2012, 2013 & 2014 when they all won the WS.
The 2018 Sox were great but the same roster in 2019 not so much. Ditto for the 2016 Cubs who failed to win since.
The NYY have not won since 2009 despite having a great looking roster since. And until this year the LADs had a great roster with no wins in 32 yrs.
I think it’s a combination of talent, health, a couple of guys have career years, a few lucky plays or calls, and downright getting hot at the right time.
You can make your evaluations and run your spreadsheets, but humans win World Series. Get enough of those who can play sound baseball and you might have a chance if you’re lucky.
When has he played for the Nats?
He grew up in Boston. Think the point they were making was ‘chase a ring’ OR ‘go back home’.
Besides Red Sox only a year (2022) from contention if all goes well. They’ve bounced from last to first twice in last ten years. One of those times winning WS.
Part of it is being able to “stay on the hill” and not on the DL.
You obviously don’t know either… I don’t think Red Sox will be good at all but remember 2013? After the Valentine disaster? No one thought we would be good that year.
Then there’s the Nats. No one expected them to be horrible this past year.
Maybe you do know, I don’t know, but the point is that teams can switch from night or day over the course of a season, especially a big market team like the Red Sox. Do I think they will? No. Do I rule it out? Absolutely not.
Truth be told, however, Rich Hill isn’t the answer either way. We would be lucky if he pitches 30 innings without getting injured.
Wouldn‘t the White Sox be a good fit? They need pitching, and signing him won‘t break the bank.
Like the Sox haven’t gone worst to first before?
effect *
Rays suck!!!
Oh yeah. Being #1 in the AL and going to the World Series makes the Rays suck. Suuuuure.
@BOB Green-eyed monster isn’t a good look. Unless your team was the Dodgers then your team didn’t go far enough in the WS & they are the team that sucked.
Hill seems to be in a good spot. If a competiting team doesn’t pick him up, a team that’s rebuilding will pick him up and trade him to a competiting team at the deadline.
If he doesn’t get injured…
“Hill’s primary calculus is playing the odds and trying to find a place to contribute that gives him the best chance of winning a World Series.”
If only he could’ve pitched through his blisters while on the Dodgers. Such a shame.
Correction: if only he could pitch through his blisters period.
Please not the Sox. This guy will not stay healthy.
He only has to stay healthy until Sale gets healthy to be worth a 1yr gamble.
On a minor league deal MAYBE–nothing more
Good luck with that
stay healthy until Sale gets healthy
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I thought I’d be the only one to point this out, so kudos.
Assuming that Sale and ERod break in slowly, or limited to about 100 IPs, then Hill makes more sense for us than anyone else. For most teams, throwing 120 IPs, and then going on the DL is an issue.
For the RS, pitching well until the ASB, and then giving up his starting gig to Sale/ERod, is a huge benefit.
What we actually need is 1.5 SPs. Two SPs for the 1st half to replace Sale & Erod, and then one SP to replace Houck (inning limit) in the 2nd half. Hill could be a high-quality one-half guy.
If they handle his season right Houck should have innings left in Sept/Oct.
What the Nats screwed up with Strasberg yrs ago was to pitch him until he was out of innings and shut him down on Sept 10. What made this so strange was they had John Lannan at AAA all yr until Sept 10. With a little creativity they could have had innings left with Strasberg in Sept/Oct.
So sad,Rays are the 2020 World Champs and lost money.
They didn’t win the World Series.
Yes,They did.It looked like the Dodgers won, but at 4am the Rays scored a bunch of runs while people slept. The media confirmed the victory,so its official. RAYS 2020 WORLD CHAMPS!
Lol
Rich Hill on the Rays makes sense.
Hill may never win a World Series, but he sure is becoming a candidate for the Jamie Moyer Award.
Hill only averages 88.2 MPH on his fastball, but it’s crazy to think Moyer averaged almost 10 MPH less in 2012 at 79.2 MPH.
Just to show how slow that is, Sergio Romo and Brent Suter were in the zero perecentile of fastball velocity in 2020 and they averaged 85 MPH on their four-seamers.
Didn’t know there was such a reward for such a mediocre pitcher.
Did you leave your sense of humor at the bus station? If you go back it might still be there.
Wasn’t exactly humor. Moyer never really was a great pitcher. Career FIP over 4.00, in the mid 4.00’s. Most homeruns given up, which is easily because he pitched the longest. But I don’t believe in rewarding a guy just for length when his stuff is mediocre.
Hill is a good pitcher, he just gets injured a lot. My reference was made completely toward Moyer. I realize now it may have been arbitrarily written.
I’ll say it was.
Sox have gone worst to first before. Really don’t think it’s out of the question considering the power in that lineup and the arms that will be coming back. Hill could be a great contribution to that staff and eventually the bullpen.
The worst to first teams of the Red Sox past were much more talented all around then the current team…which doesn’t really have a reliable bullpen and a lot of question marks surrounding potential starters…..very very questionable and other than Devers and Xander exactly where is all this power you mention?
exactly where is all this power you mention?
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They finished .008 behind the White Sox for best slugging percentage, so that suggests they have power, and that was with badly under-performing performances from JDM & Benni. With average years from those two, they’d have easily lead the league in slugging percentage.
When you have a stud player like Blake Snell and can’t pay him because of revenue sharing in 1 year I have to ask should you really own a team? Everyone knew this 60 game season wasn’t producing revenues but if you can’t afford a team in these circumstances maybe you shouldn’t own one at all.
Move on know it all.
The regression in the strikeout and walk numbers might give me pause a little, but the bottom line is that Hill was still very effective and should still command a job somewhere. But between his age and injury history, I wouldn’t be too picky if I was him.
Why would they want a 40 year old pitcher??? They need to dig into the money bags and bring in two very good starting pitchers and fix the bullpen! Stop play poor Red Sox.
Back to the Dodgers as a swingman/opener since Gonsolin and/or May will likely end up in the rotation.
Have to agree. He just isn’t a guy you can hand the ball to every fifth day. His forte is spot starting and functioning essentially as a 5th or 6th starter just as he did with LAD.
Most are neglecting the effect of the lack of Revenue Sharing on the large market teams. RS money doesn’t drop from the skies; it’s paid into by the big boys. So the lack of RS money for the Rays means the Red Sox will have that much more to spend; and that 45M number, on both ends, seems pretty accurate.
Can’t see TB moving Snell, though. Renfroe et al are almost sure to go; you can have KK for the ephemeral bag of balls. It’s actually a good winter for the poor performing-higher revenue teams (Detroit? Baltimore?) to offer teams like the Rays some salary relief, and pick up some decent prospects, thereby accelerating their rebuilds.
Again, winning or losing doesn’t affect much in TB, but has huge revenue consequences for teams like the Tigers and O’s.
I like what the Twins thinking was in regards to Hill. This is a guy they hoped to get a dozen or so starts from during the regular season but his real worth is in the postseason.
He’ll catch on somewhere. The falling K% is certainly troubling. Especially seeing how he threw in the Central. But I could see Hill as potentially that second starting pitcher the Yanks could/should add.
He won’t break the bank.
Tell ya. Wouldn’t have minded him taking the mound in Game 2 of the LDS. Instead we had…well whatever the heck that fiasco was.
Is Hill seriously considering Boston has a World Series contender? Boston is at least 2-3 years away and regardless whether management wants to admit this they are in a rebuilding mode. If he just wants to return to his hometown team then just say that but don’t sound like a moron and try and say you feel they can win a World Series.
I have to say that whoever is posting the MLBTR tweets is doing a great job. I just read that Rich Hill wants a ring and laughed, so thanks for that lol. I interpreted it is him just wanting a big, gaudy, shiny ring lol.
I’ve been so busy dreading what the Braves would do this offseason I didn’t think what it must be like to be a Devil Rays fan for the offseason. Just thinking of them trading Blake Snell because they can’t afford his contract is terrible.
Hope he doesn’t go back to the Dodgers
The Sawx are not one or two players away from contending so JTR makes no sense, especially at $20million plus a year. It would only make sense if they rehired Dombrowski as GM. They brought back Cora, right???
I wish he would have stayed with the Dodgers for just 1 more year. He would have filled in nicely with David Price opting out. However, he may have been tired of being micromanaged and pulled too early during games by Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers made him an offer?
There was never a formal offer, at least not one that was released.
Exactly my point. He couldn’t turn down an offer he never received.
I never said he turned anything down or was offered anything. All I said was that I wish he stayed for another year because I thought he would have filled in nicely. I feel like you just wanted to stick it to me for saying something wrong.
Then your initial comment made very little sense, which was my point. You may believe the random Dave Roberts digs never get old, but they do.
Jeezus Blueskies LA – In my past experience with you, your comments can be very pretentious and condescending. It’s as if your saying, “I disagree with you and so you are wrong.” Is that your intention?
And as for my comment involving Doc, I said, “maybe,” as in its a possibility, not an absolute. I do not believe the “random Dave Roberts digs,” but what I do believe is you’ll pick apart this comment and try to push me back down in the mud, again. It makes the environment you bring around tiresome.
Blueskies is the same guy that said whoever won this years WS wouldn’t count and should have an asterisk (paraphrasing). His team won and he showed his hypocrisy. Can’t take anyone with his profile pic seriously. Ever.
Holy hell. I want a link to that first comment.
Your qualification makes no sense. If you think pointing that out is “pushing you into the mud,” then so be it. It’s your issue, not mine. Tiresome is right.
Completely untrue. It isn’t a paraphrase, it’s a lie.
No, your pretentiousness is your issue, and clearly I’m not the only one who has a problem with it. How you choose to interact with people on this forum, which includes belittling, is on you. MLB Trade Rumors can be a very positive outlet for fans, but when an opinion or thought does not coincide with how you think, you make a large effort to not just tell others they’re wrong, but to look down on them as well.
In this case, you misinterpreted my comment. You inferred I wrote that a contract for Hill was offered and then you made my supposition about Dave Roberts an absolute when I was only thinking out loud and trying to put myself in Hill’s shoes. Those interpretations are, again, on you, but you couldn’t leave things alone. You had to chime in with an “I’m right, your wrong” series of comments. It’s amazing you don’t even see a modicum of truth in this.
You’re the insulter here, not me. I just disagreed with you, and said why I disagreed. I don’t take disagreements as insults, I take insults as insults.
You’re right. You should feel insulted. Being called “pretentious” and condescending” shouldn’t feel like complements. But if you don’t believe you’re insulting, you’re blind to your own writing as well.
Your writing indicates an air of superiority. For instance when you misattributed by initial comment for the thread regarding Rich Hill, you had assumed that I thought or wrote that Hill turned down or was offered a contract. Instead of being direct and writing, “Well, he wasn’t offered a contract so he couldn’t stay,” which is a more pleasant and innocuous contribution, you had to answer me Socratically with, “The Dodgers made him an offer?” At the time, you and I bloody well knew that they hadn’t.
Then you continued to make some of my guesses with Hill and Roberts into concrete facts. You want to see what’s not there, because you can’t stop your need to point out a wrong or rather a thought that doesn’t coincide with yours.
And now to throw your hands up and say, “I just disagreed with you” is disingenuous at best to the big picture. You weren’t “just” disagreeing at all. Your Socratic method at the beginning of this conversation is evidence of that.
I don’t want to create enemies. I want to like you, I really do. I think the community at MLB Traderumors is a lot more fun when people an banter and get along, even when they don’t see eye-to-eye on certain things. But it’s difficult when your comments are misread, mis-analyzed or misinterpreted as this creates confusion and an unhealthy environment.
I’ve seen tons of people suggesting the Phils offer Erik Neander the job of Team President. I believe he could walk away from his contract with TB since, in relation to a team’s front office hierarchy team president is a level above GM, a promotion is oftentimes grounds for leaving. Of course some would jokingly say that going to Philly’s front office is a demotion but at least he could work for an owner that sometimes acts like he want to spend money.
Neander wants to stay in TB because they gave him a shot and he is a product of Rays baseball
Rays are too close to turn back now. Replace Morton with a trade for Lynn.
how all you can do is singe him than trade at trade deadline
I wouldn’t mind Hill back in Boston if the price is right. That being said he is correct the bullpen needs help badly especially the back end. And a healthy Sale and a healthy Rodriguez would go a long way to getting the Sox back into contention
The Rays by not picking up options on Zunino & Morton and by waiving Roe the team has already shaved over $20mil of payroll. The Rays have options in what players to make available in trades. If Morton does not come back then a Snell trade this offseason looks more unlikely. A Glasnow trade & Morton resigning makes sense for the Rays. The team will have a few pitchers coming back from injury for 2022.
just a singe mlb current commission has no clue what he doing.
miss out on the revenue from 10 home games in 2020..
ray should have be allow to sale tickets . you have ws ticket buyer .
but how how many player looking to get traded after ws trip.
Ronaldo Hernandez c and Xavier Edwards need to see more mlb time next season
Hills a winner! He’s crafty knows how to pitch obviously! Little disturbing his walk numbers but would love to have him on sox, we’re borderline contenders IF sale Andrew e rod come back healthy! Big if!!