Rockies Claim Sam Hilliard From Orioles

1:31pm: The teams have now announced the move. Baltimore isn’t making a corresponding transaction at this time. Colorado placed Senzatela on the 60-day injured list.

1:20pm: The Rockies have reacquired outfielder Sam Hilliard, claiming him off waivers from the Orioles, Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports. Neither Colorado nor Baltimore has announced the move yet.

The Rox will need to make 40-man roster move to facilitate the addition, but that can be accomplished by placing either Antonio Senzatela or German Marquez on the 60-day injured list. Both right-handers are recovering from 2023 Tommy John surgery. The claim also opens up a spot on the 40-man roster for the O’s, who had not previously announced that Hilliard was designated for assignment or placed on outright waivers.

It’s a reunion between Hilliard and the team that originally selected him in the 15th round of the 2015 draft. Current Rockies GM Bill Schmidt was the team’s scouting director at the time and held that role throughout the years that saw Hilliard develop and break into the majors in Colorado.

From 2019-22, Hilliard appeared in 214 games as a Rockie, playing all three outfield spots and batting a combined .212/.294/.423 with 29 homers, 15 steals, a 10% walk rate and an ugly 32.7% strikeout rate over a total of 639 plate appearances. Strikeouts have long been an issue for Hilliard, who touts an impressive .265/.346/.570 slash and 62 homers in just 942 Triple-A plate appearances but has punched out at an unsightly 28.5% clip at that level.

With the exception of the 2023 season, Hilliard’s entire career has been spent with the Rockies. The Braves picked him up in a Nov. 2022 trade sending minor league righty Dylan Spain to the Rox in return. Hilliard appeared in 40 games and hit .236/.295/.431 through 78 plate appearances in Atlanta, fanning in an eye-popping 42.3% of his plate appearances. A heel injury ultimately sent Hilliard to the 60-day injured list, however, and the Braves tried to pass him through waivers following the season — at which point the O’s claimed him. His stay with Baltimore will prove fleeting; Hilliard went hitless in five spring plate appearances as an Oriole and is now back with his original organization.

The Rockies were on the lookout for a left-handed-hitting outfielder who could handle center field for much of the offseason. They inked Bradley Zimmer to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training, giving them one such option, but Hilliard provides another candidate for that role — not only one who’s on the 40-man roster but one who’s out of minor league options. Hilliard can’t be sent to Triple-A without first clearing waivers, which puts him in strong position to break camp with the Rox, where he’d be a lefty complement to right-handed-hitting outfielders Brenton Doyle and Sean Bouchard.

Hilliard and the Orioles avoided an arbitration hearing earlier in the offseason by agreeing to an $800K salary for the upcoming season. The Rockies will now be on the hook for the entirety of that sum, which checks in only narrowly above the $740K league minimum. Hilliard has 3.094 years of big league service time, meaning he can be controlled via arbitration through the 2026 season.

As for the Orioles, it’s fairly common for them to agree to modest big league salaries with depth pieces and then attempt to pass them through waivers, hoping a salary north of the league minimum will help that player clear and be retained in the upper minors as depth. They’ve previously done so with names like Anthony Bemboom, Jake Cave and Ryan O’Hearn (the latter of whom eventually emerged as a key contributor in 2023). It’s certainly of note that today’s transaction clears a spot on the 40-man roster, as Baltimore now has additional leeway to make a free-agent signing, trade acquisition or waiver claim of its own.