Rich Hill is still cruising along at 45 years young, biding his time in the minor leagues with the Royals while waiting for a big league opportunity. The southpaw recently passed on a June 15 opt-out date in his minor league arrangement with Kansas City, Robert Murray of FanSided reports, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s sticking with the Royals indefinitely. Murray adds that the Royals wouldn’t stand in Hill’s way if another team presented him a big league offer. Whether it’s expressly written in Hill’s contract or there’s merely a handshake agreement, it seems Hill effectively has a rolling upward mobility clause — similar to the situations of Craig Kimbrel and James McCann in Atlanta.
Hill is the oldest player in affiliated ball, but you wouldn’t know it based on his results. He’s pitched 24 minor league innings and limited opponents to a 3.38 ERA despite sitting just 88.9 mph on his fastball. He’s punched out 33.7% of his opponents against a 7.4% walk rate.
Hill started ramping back up with the Royals’ Complex league affiliate — mentoring many young teammates in his short time there — but has now made three starts in Triple-A and continued looking sharp: 16 innings, 2.81 ERA, 29.7% strikeout rate, 10.9% walk rate. He’s pitched five, six and five innings in his three starts with Omaha, running his pitch count up to 94 in his most recent outing.
It’s been a few years since Hill has enjoyed sustained big league success. He logged a respectable 4.27 ERA in 124 1/3 innings for the 2022 Red Sox and had a nice first half with the 2023 Pirates before fading badly after a trade to San Diego. That second-half slide contributed to a 2024 plan that saw Hill wait until the final third of the season to sign, hoping to stay fresh for a contender down the stretch. It didn’t really work out as hoped; Hill pitched just 3 2/3 innings in the majors last year (all with the Red Sox).
This year’s timing seems like it could have the potential for better results. Hill signed with the Royals in mid-May and is now fully built up at a time when there are several clubs around the league in need of pitching but very few arms available on the trade market. The Royals themselves could be one such team, with Cole Ragans gathering multiple opinions due to a rotator cuff injury that seems sure to sideline him for a significant period. Righty Alec Marsh is also on the 60-day IL for Kansas City.
Of course, at any point in the season, there are myriad teams looking for options while arms are in short supply. Several of Hill’s former clubs — Twins, Cubs, Dodgers, Mets, Padres — have notable starting pitchers on the injured list at present. All are quite familiar with Hill as a pitcher, teammate and person. The Astros, Rangers and Blue Jays have each incurred recent injuries in their starting rotations as well.
Hill isn’t likely to dial it back to his 2015-20 form (2.92 ERA in 505 innings), but he could potentially hold down a fourth or fifth starter’s gig for a team in need while their injured arms mend and/or until the trade market picks up in earnest. At the moment, it seems like he’s all but freely available to a club that is willing to give him a look in what would be his 21st season with at least some action at the major league level.
Nobody cares what Rich Hill is doing.
You gotta love these clowns that incorrectly think they speak for everyone. Clowns that take the time to comment on an article that they supposedly don’t care about.
Bet the Red Sox front office does, they said they’re in the market for pitching help.
Maybe the Sox can swing a cleverly maneuvered deal with the Royals. Hill for Jarren Duran?
Hill is not on the 40 man he’s a minor league contract
Wouldn’t put it past our FO at this point.
I know I do, his story is awesome.
Anyone who doesn’t like Rich Hill doesn’t like baseball. And that’s all there is to it.
Dick Mountain WILL ride again!
I do. It’d be so cool if he played on just 2 more teams to beat Edwin Jackson’s record
Marlins Pirates and Rockies could really use him
The headline in October will read “Dick Mountain clinches World Series for BJ’s”
He will throw 6 perfect innings, only needing 42 pitches to do it. In the 7th he will be carried to baseball heaven by the ghost of Lou Gehrig. Floating into the sky never to be seen on this earth again.
Don’t look back Jamie Moyer, somebody is gaining on you!
Moyer and Hill pitched with the Cubs.Neither threw extremely hard and had long careers.I wonder if maybe you don’t have to throw high 90’s.I watched both of them in the afternoon of my childhood.Same with Maddux and Prior and Kerry Wood.
TB Sox NY: That’s why analytics slanted towards how hard a P throws is pretty useless.
Maddux wasn’t a soft-tosser. He was probably about average, maybe even slightly above-average at his peak. He’s only slow when you compare him to great pitchers of his era, like Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, and Randy Johnson.
Mlb1225, yup. Maddux threw hard. I don’t like when people tell me he was just a control freak. (Though he had great control)
Maddux threw in the low 90’s with the Cubs, which was relatively “hard” for the time. During his run with Atlanta he was in the high 80s, around league average to below average (the first year of Statcast was 2008 and the avg fastball was 91 MPH for reference). Then as he went on into his late 30’s and early 40’s he was in the mid to high 80s.
The average fastball today is 94.2 MPH.
Now Smoltz on the other hand was a hard thrower.
The Mets are bringing Bartolo Colon back….for the Oldtimer’s Day game.
Just for the banquet afterwards.
Let’s face it we knew he’d be staying for the banquet regardless of whether he played.
Still early. Might see him in July/August.
I wonder how Rich Hill is doing.
It’s be cool to see him come full circle with the Cubs again, but I’m not sure he’s a marked improvement over anybody they have currently. Rea, Brown and Horton have all been fairly solid fill-ins thus far.
“Over the Hill” Rich
Dudes so old teams require an indemnity clause in case he kicks the can on the mound
89 mph with a 33% K rate.
Boy, those kids’ll swing at anything
That’s the problem; they aren’t used to seeing anything that slow
Hill has the potential of being possibly the only player in MLB history to be placed on the IL with an enlarged prostate.
At this point Hill might be “Doc Wingate”, barely registering on the radar gun
Savannah Bananas on Line 1……
Hill was a positive contributor with the Bucs in ’23 and was reportedly a good influence on the young staff. But the years pile on harder and harder after 40.
Wonder if Spaceman Lee is still pitching in senior leagues? He was at 68 a few years ago and still throwing mid 80s.
According to his wikipedia page, it seems Lee’s most recent appearance with the Savannah Bananas in 2022 (age 75) ended with him collapsing during warmups and a trip to the hospital.