Rich Hill is currently amidst his 18th big league season, with the long-tenured southpaw set to reach his 43rd birthday before next Opening Day. Among active players, only Albert Pujols — who has already announced 2022 as his final season — is older than the Red Sox’s hurler. Hill, however, tells Rob Bradford of WEEI he feels physically able to continue his playing career beyond this year. He nevertheless also expressed a desire to spend more time with his wife and son, pointing to the amount of time players spend away from their families over the course of a 162-game schedule.
With that in mind, Hill tells Bradford he could consider an atypical approach to next season — sitting out the first few months with an eye towards joining a contender midseason. Hill, who will be a free agent again at the end of this year, suggested he could stay in shape and continue to throw independently for the first few months of next season before pursuing an opportunity with a club around July. “If we look at the trade deadline, even for this year, everybody needs more pitching,” the pitcher noted. “Whether that be out of the bullpen and/or starting, it’s that opportunity to be able to help a team that’s going to be able to go into the postseason and make some things happen, especially with the experience I have in the postseason.”
To be clear, Hill didn’t definitively state he was committed to the half-season approach. He expressed confidence in his ability to hold up physically if he went the traditional route and signed with a team over the offseason and played a full schedule. It seems he’ll wait until the offseason for he and his family to officially settle upon their plans, but Hill pointed to some benefits that could be associated with a hypothetical half-season approach. Waiting until midseason would give him and his representatives at ACES a clearer picture of the standings to target a playoff contender. He also indicated a preemptive rest period could have performance benefits for the stretch run.
“You’ll be 43, but there’s obviously some more to give inside, where you can take those extra couple months to rejuvenate and put the work in and the time in the gym. It could be beneficial for that second half,” he opined. “You’re trying to come back and be as productive and fresh as possible. … I’m not saying I wouldn’t be for an entire season. It just might not be ideal for my family. (It might be better) to spend half the year with my son and my wife, where we can enjoy each other, and start to move in that direction.”
Hill, who has suited up for a whopping 11 teams in his big league career, signed a $5MM guarantee to return for a third MLB stint with the Red Sox last December. He lost most of July to a left knee sprain but has been a useful back-of-the-rotation contributor when healthy. Hill has given the Sox 82 2/3 innings of 4.68 ERA ball. While his 18% strikeout rate and 8.4% swinging strike percentage are each below-average, he remains a capable strike-thrower and has held left-handed opponents to a meager .220/.278/.320 line in 54 plate appearances on the year.
Between that production and Hill’s wealth of major league experience, he should still find interest from teams during the upcoming offseason. Whether he elects to pursue a job during the winter or holds off until the middle of next season remains to be seen, but his comments to Bradford indicate he’s eyeing a 19th MLB campaign in some capacity.
Hes a lefty he could play for several more seasons. Just ask Jamie Moyer.
That is on thing Hill has on his side; for his age and experience he does not have nearly the milage on his arm as he could have. I’d like to see Hill back in Boston on another one year contract
Yeah let’s waste another 5 million on a 5 era pitcher who can’t stay healthy sounds like something Bloom would do.
Hill said if he returned midseason he’d be targeting a contender.
I agree he’s a solid journeyman that that any team would benefit from. Regardless of key stats, his opponent BA is .220. Not bad for sure. My only hesitation is that while we await off-season moves to gauge his usefulness in Boston, he’ll get scooped up by a division rival. Bloom is looking way over the horizon, and while that’s not popular with RSN, it likely spells the end of Hill in Boston.
Please, don’t bug Jamie Moyer with questions while he’s warming up.
A current ERA of 4.68 might be an indicator of what his decision should be.
An ERA of 4.50 isn’t really too and when you think about it. That equates to a pitcher throwing 6 innings of 3 run ball on average. Some teams would love to have that consistency out of their 5th starter, especially a team with a good offense and solid bullpen. Plus ERA doesn’t paint a full picture of a pitcher’s effectiveness over an entire season. 2-3 bad starts can really skew a pitcher’s ERA in the wrong direction, especially for a pitcher who starts 20 or less games in a season which is what to expect out of Rich Hill going forward.
Not this year Hill isn’t.
This year, Rich Hill has started 18 games.
In 7 of those 18 starts, he went less then five innings and gave up 3 or more earned runs.
In only 3 of those 18 starts, he went at least 6 innings.
That said, it should be noted that Hill is being pulled early regardless in just about every game he starts regardless of how he pitches. Now Traditionally for Hill, he will pitch well the 1st time through the order, get hit up the 2nd time through, then bear down the 3rd time through. This year however, Hill is being pulverized when facing the order both a 2nd and 3rd time through the order/lineup
If he can fix that trend, he’s more in line with he has been and what you describe him as being. Otherwise, he’s a good reliever/opener pretending to be a bad starter; no disrespect to him meant with that.
It also sounds like he may be willing to come out of the bullpen, or maybe function as an opener. 2-3 innings of solid pitching in the second half/postseason next year could be very appealing to a lot of teams.
@Dorothy_Mantooth it’s worth giving a contract at minimum value but expecting repeated success and offering more money is a bit foolish. Guy can barely stay healthy. There’s no consistency if he’s on and off the IL.
Someone offering him several million might be an even better indicator on what his decision should be.
Also, his FIP is in the low 4’s. He’ll have offers.
Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina are the last remaining players to play against the Montreal Expos (in Pujols case actually play in Montreal), with Bartolo Colon unlikely to get another MLB opportunity the Montreal Expos officially die with their last games
Miguel Cabrera definitely played in Montreal too, 03 and 04 with the fish
Forgot about Cabrera. He too may be hanging them up after this season
No way Cabrera is leaving $30M+ on the table for next season. Detroit could potentially release him but he’s not going to retire on his own and forfeit that final monster payday for 2023.
He needs more family time so he and his wife can keep getting arrested.
I love Rich Hill but I think it’s time for him to call it a career.
I think Rich Hill could still throw that big sweeper at 60, but it’s time to call it a career.
Can’t get back that time with family.
Disrespectful to the other FT guys…really.
Good for Hill. If you recall, he had a real tough go if it for a long time due to injuries that prevented him from playing a lot during what should have been his prime years. He had to go all the way back to independent ball before signing with Boston in his mid 30’s (the first time), after which he has stayed in the majors and performed quite well. If he’s still effective enough to pitch next year, why not give it another go? Teams know exactly what to expect out of him so if he’s a good fit on paper then a deal should be there for him. Today’s fitness options and technology should allow more players (mostly pitchers) to extend their careers into their early 40’s so long as they can avoid the dreaded arm injury. Hitters tend to lose their abilities to hit the fastball by the time they get to age 40 but there have been a few success stories there as well. (Nelson Cruz is a recent one).
Fast twitch muscles tend to vacate the body as you age. Hitting is almost all fast twitch. Pitching is more a combination of fast and slow. The slow twitch are willing to stick around for awhile. As far as training goes, the knowledge has always been there. Now you can track it, which means more accountability for the players.
18 years, being a starter a majority of the time, yet doesn’t even have 80 career wins, also his career has been one long IL stay. after another.
$67M in career earnings. Good for him.
For what it’s worth, I ran my second fastest marathon a few days before my 47th birthday. It was a Boston Qualifier which is not too shabby for someone my size. (There was a Clydesdale Division and I won it.) I stopped pitching at 41 but still had my arm until about 50. Plus, I ran a mile in 5:50 when I was fifty and I had a PR of about 5:30. If you are willing to work at it, you can maintain yourself for quite longer than the normal expectations. But you have to be willing to have a consistent approach, excellent diet and make sure you get 8 hours every night. It’s not for everybody but it can be done. I’ll be following a fifty year old friend on Saturday while he runs a 26 mile training run to get ready for a 100 miler in November. I don’t think he has much of an arm though. But he is still running like a young buck.
I wish Rich Hill well. He has had so many nagging injuries but obvious pitching skill.
P.S. If you run 68,000 miles over 42 years, you might need double hip replacement.
It was a nice ride while it lasted.
I feel about as good now as I did 30 years ago. And I know I can do a lot more. For some reason, I use to be 20 pounds overweight, lost 20 pounds, and I am still 15 pounds overweight. Probably muscle loss. Still, as a philosopher might say, it is as much about the journey as the destination. I’m not a kid, and I still want to get ripped, study martial arts, hit the weights, etc.
ps-At 3 miles a day, I will catch you in a short 62.1 years.
Joe, you can pass me anytime and I’ll only yell encouragement. I’m still thinking about running but will have to wait and see. I know it’ll be my body that tells me, not my mind. Yes, it’s the journey.
Guy sounds like a salesman to me. If I were in management I’d have no interest in him or this set up he’s throwing out there. He’s going to be 43 next season. Physically he’s in an entirely different point of his life. 6 months from now he won’t feel like he does right now.
If Moreno still owns the Angels next year, he will sign Hill for 1/20 and say he addressed pitching.
Think we’ll see more of this half-season approach for veterans in the future. With the expanded playoffs (and very probably more expansion of that to come) the regular season is becoming more and more meaningless. Right now 20% of teams make the payoffs. At least 20% of teams are always in some sort of teardown/rebuild. So at most 60% of the teams are going for the last 2 or 3 playoff spots. Rather then a veteran sign a contract to pitch all year, he can spend time with his family, keep in shape and instead of being traded at the deadline to a team / city he might not want to go to, he can select where he wants to play – the city, the players, the manager / coaches, etc. he wats to be with. Additionally – as happened with deGrom and Scherzer this year – he can come in fresh physically as opposed to dragging (as Scherzer was in late 2021). All this – along with the fact that the team doesn’t have to trade prospects to acquire him – means that he can demand a disproportionate salary….maybe he plays half a season but gets paid for 75%. A veteran can do this the last 3-4 years of his career, no problem. No different than any older worker coming back and working part-time rather than working full-time or going into retirement prematurely.
I like his approach. Family first, while keeping your options open, I think guys like this have a lot to offer, for the right team. Almost every team in baseball will need a 3-month SP. Either you have someone on the IL that isn’t returning until next July, or you will lose someone to the IL by next July.
He’d have a ERA less than 3 in PNC w KeBryan Hayes at 3B. Trade to contender at mid season
He’ll get signed by the Yankees then rack up an ERA over 6.00. Then he’ll get released and sign with another team and proceed to pitch lights out.
No, he’ll sign with the Yankees, pitch one game, get released, then sign with the Yankees, pitch one game, get released, then sign with the Yankees, pitch one game, get released, then sign with the Yankees, pitch one game, get released, then sign with the Yankees, get traded for an injured centerfielder, and then pitch lights out.
Hahahahahahaha spot-on homie
Love you guys that believe a .220 batting average and 4.00+ ERA are solid numbers! Bottom line is, guys performing like that won’t be around very long.
To be fair, this is the first time since 2015 the league average ERA has been below 4.15. A 4.50 ERA in 2019 was the average.
Dodger fans becoming the new insufferable DBags of Baseball.
Headline should’ve ended in is retiring
Let’s face it if anyone he is certainly over the Hill