The Red Sox released Rich Hill, tweets Christopher Smith of MassLive. The veteran southpaw can latch on elsewhere for the final few weeks of the regular season. Since he’d be signing after the start of September, he will not be eligible for this year’s postseason if he continues playing.
Boston designated the 44-year-old Hill for assignment on Friday when they promoted rookie righty Luis Guerrero. That ended his latest stint with the Sox after four big league appearances. Hill logged 3 2/3 innings of two-run ball. He struck out five of 15 batters faced while issuing a trio of walks. With his fastball sitting in the mid-80s, Hill leaned most frequently on a 70 MPH breaking ball in that limited sample.
Whether Hill signs with another team or sits out the rest of the season, he managed to get to the majors for a 20th straight year. This was the Massachusetts native’s eighth different stint with the Red Sox, including minor league deals, and his fourth separate appearance at the big league level in Boston. Hill deliberately waited until the tail end of the season to sign, inking a minor league contract with the Sox in mid-August. The team called him up ten days later.
MLB’s oldest active player now returns to the open market. If he signs anywhere for the stretch run, it’d be with a contender. Hill can’t play in the postseason but could potentially work in a swing role to help push a team to October. He reportedly drew interest from the Yankees, Dodgers and Twins when he was building up earlier in the summer.
All three of those teams occupy a playoff spot. New York holds a half-game lead on the Orioles in the AL East, while a slumping Minnesota team is trying to hang onto a 3.5-game edge on the American League’s final Wild Card spot. Los Angeles has all but wrapped up another NL West title, but they’re looking to lock down the top seed in the National League while dealing with a number of rotation injuries.
Oh no not rich hill getting cut. Oh no
It’s finally a wrap for Rich Hill.
They’re over The Hill.
Rich Hill has made 4 distinct appearances with the Red Sox. I know that Rickey Henderson did the same with Oakland. Has anyone made more than that?
Billy Martin. 😉
Bobo Newsom withWashington.
Bobo !
Greatest Bobo in MLB history.
Jesse Chavez arguably has 5 or 6 with the Braves depending on what classifies as “distinct”.
Tony Fernandez with the Blue Jays (1983-’90, 1993, 1998-’99, 2001)
Rudy Seanez had 4 stints with the Padres (1993, 2001, 2005, 2006 (after starting the season with the Red Sox)
Ah yes, I am a Padres fan and I remember Rudy Seanez. He wasn’t bad at all in his final year of 2008 with the Phillies. He didn’t make the postseason roster, but I am sure he got a ring with the team.
Made it to season number 20 in The Show.
Pretty darned good.
It is, but most of those years he was bouncing around from team to team…
How is that relevant? Almost more impressive with that considered. He managed to be effective enough to stick around without any long term deals.
He’s not a good locker room guy … That’s how it’s relevant.
I beg to differ.
foxsports.com/stories/mlb/rich-hill-is-mlbs-oldest…
Cool, you can beg and differ all you want… Congrats you found 1 story on the Internet of him being a decent guy.
With multiple anecdotes and quotes across managers, team execs, and players throughout his career.
What’s your source? Deadspin? Bleacher Report?
I’d think it would be difficult for him to last 20 years if he were a pain in the clubhouse.
And you’ve posted no stories of him being a not decent guy. Congrats to your made up BS.
Manfred Rob’s Earth Band, Nah, I have what is called a job my guy and I’m traveling, but that’s all well and good, but of course his teammates, gms, and all those people are treated well, don’t bite the hand that feeds you…I was a club house attendant for Cleveland in 2013 when he was on the team… Everyone “below” him was treated crappy…
redmatt, quite possibly, I never said he wasn’t talented, I just said he wasn’t a great locker room guy…
You’ve just said below that he also “not the best teammate”. If you’re going to be inflammatory towards someone, at least be consistent with your narrative.
I did say that too and you can see that on TV when you watched his starts. Multiple times he’s yelled at teammates on the field for errors and it wasn’t just in his year in Cleveland.
not sure what they expected from the guy
I think they were hoping for 2 or 3 wins from him which was unrealistic. Sox are 3 games out of the last WC position, and that’s (imo) largely due to the FO’s relative inactivity over the winter. Kudos to them for even being in the hunt this late, but if they come up a couple wins short, that’s on the FO.
F anybody but him
Not sure why people hate on him. I will always cheer for someone continuing to pursue their dream and passion, no matter how old they are!
If someone wants to keep playing and a team is willing to roster him, who are we to root against that? Wouldn’t we all wish we could be playing a game and getting paid at 44 years old?
Cause he’s not the best teammate and likes to show up his teammates…
Waldo
“Not sure why people hate on him”
Some of them are unhappy with themselves, so they project it onto others. That, and craving attention that they can’t get for saying something positive or insightful. Trolls.
Others are just part of the toxic sports culture. Stimulus and response. Like a chat bot, they think that these are the words that are supposed to follow. Old player -> washed up, retire
It’s pretty sad
I work in a different field, but I play their game and continue getting paid at 63.
There’s a subset of people, like myself, who were against the Rich Hill signing this time because he didn’t provide any value to the team. It was a publicity stunt.
But then I dug into his numbers again, and while he pitched in 20 seasons, he only amassed 16 bWAR. He threw 30+ starts in two seasons, had one good relief season but was mostly used as a starter who got hurt. Received 0 cy votes, 0 all-star games, so while he pitched in 20 seasons he was largely just another guy out there. I never understood all the fanfare around him.
Joe
From 2015 to 2019 he had a 73 ERA-, 83 FIP- and 85 xFIP-.
He was a well above average starter (on a per inning basis) during that time.
And during that time he started: 4,20,25,24,13 games or an average of 17ish a season, half of your starter workload.
We often see a pitcher pitch well for half a season and then completely disappear for the other half.
Starters who get hurt still have value as a 6th or 7th man in a rotation, and, long relief guy.
They’re NOT someone you want to pencil in your starting 5 in the offseason, but, when they’re 6th man or 7th man they can be that depth that makes or breaks a championship run due to the next-man-up approach they afford an organization as your true starters get hurt.
Heck, Rovers, Lamborghinis…. they’re horrible cars. They have their niche they’re great at too, but, that niche isn’t being primary every-day transportation doing the work expected out of the average automobile.
Joe
“And during that time he started: 4,20,25,24,13 games or an average of 17ish a season, half of your starter workload.
We often see a pitcher pitch well for half a season and then completely disappear for the other half.”
And? Point?
17 games of dominance still counts
GASox
Mostly correct
Except Hill was definitely penciled into the starting 5. Teams just knew they had to have some depth behind him.
@Joemo
There doesn’t need to be any fanfare to acknowledge longevity and determination. You can do that without saying Hill is a Hall of Famer. No one is saying that.
Informed – so I probably have a very pessimistic view of Hill right now because I’m a Red Sox fan who was hoping for actual pitching reinforcements and not just good stories.
So yes, congrats on Rich Hill for pitching in 20 seasons. I wish that the Red Sox didn’t waste time and money on him or Paxton. Now if they could have went to the Yankees to eat up money and a roster spot for their good stories, I’d be all for it.
@Joemo
Fair. Having a vested interest in Rich Hill’s performance this season, and the utility of signing him over someone else, is a reasonable factor to having a more negative opinion about him.
He couldn’t throw strikes for my Pads last year, if it makes you feel any better. I appreciated his effort, but it was not great. This after I had personally called the trade for him, and supported it.
Hopefully he didn’t pick that Hill to die on (career wise).
We old guys like to see the older guys keep living the dream!
It was a nice story to see Hill come back but father time is undefeated and it’s seems like it’s the bottom of the Hill for Rich
If he would’ve signed in July, he could’ve been relevant to a team’s playoff hopes rather than becoming an end of season spectacle. Good for him though.
One of the few players who’s grandchildren got to watch them in action!
Didn’t Julio Franco’s great-grandchildren watch him play?
Yup!
Well thank God we went out and scooped him up for those 3 innings, who knows where the Red Sox might be without him?
3.2 innings pitched with 1 hit, 3 walks and 5 Ks at 44 years old. That’s pretty damn good ⚾
Boston kind of screwed him. Now he can’t even pitch in the playoffs and they barely used him.
In all fairness, he waited until the end of the year to make himself available. After 19 years, he should have known his spot would not be guaranteed, but based on performance, and team need, especially on a contender. Boston treated him like any other late season extra.
Not really. Hill knew what he was getting into and if another team wanted him and planned to give him a legitimate shot he would have signed there
Rich, we hardly knew ya. Only reason you signed was chance to be in playoffs and this means you can’t.
At least he managed to reach the coveted 1,425 strikeout plateau. But interestingly, in 20 seasons he never had a save, in spite of 138 relief appearances.
Dodgers sign Rich Hill and get him a 3 (or 4) inning save challenge.
Even if he’s out there with just memories of fumes in the tank, the Dodgers still could get some use out of him down the stretch.
Can’t be any worse than Buehler or Miller at this point….
No matter how he pitched or if he was a good teammate or not, I will always remember and appreciate the time Dick Mountain stepped off the mound in Game 6 of the 2017 WS to let the fans extensively boo Yuli Gurriel in response to his gestures mocking Yu Darvish.
Rich Hill is still better than some of the guys in the pen now. Cora be doing some dumb sht all the time. It’s bad enough the Sox are a top grossing team in MLB and are fielding a bag of sht daily. As long as Sox fans buy tickets to watch crap, crap will continue to be provided. Fans are the reason they don’t sign anybody worth a crap.