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!
Pretty sure Jamie Moyer’s arm is made of rubber.
Satchel is smiling down at you
I’d like to think so.
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.
First year of Statcast was 2015. From 2006 through 2014, they used pitch f/x.
You are correct. The article I pulled from had 2008 baseballamerica.com/stories/did-greg-maddux-ever-t…
I don’t know if I’d say Maddux threw hard, he just threw harder than what many people think. He probably averaged like 88-90 MPH in his prime. At the time, which would have been around the mid/late-90s, that would probably be average. You always hear the comparrison between Kyle Hendricks and Maddux, but probably a more apt comparrison would be someone like Logan Webb, Bryan Woo, or Joe Ryan today, just in terms of velocity and low walk approach.
Yes, which is what I said in my earlier comment
Webb (93 MPH), Woo (95 MPH) and Joe Ryan (93) all throw much harder than Maddux. They’re also three of my favorite pitchers. They definitely have a low walk approach but they also all strikeout batters at a much higher rate than Maddux.
Hendricks in his prime was much more like Maddux than those three. He wasn’t a big strikeout pitcher and had a similar velocity and relied on the change up, but even he had a higher K rate.
The equipment used to measure pitch speed has changed several times over the years. If Maddux was timed with today’s equipment, he would be faster. Likewise, if Chapman was clocked on older equipment, he would be slower. It has to do with where in the flight of the pitch it is measured. Maddux was not a soft tosser.
And those are their averages. I’ve seen Webb run it up to 96 regularly and Joe Ryan 95-97 regularly as well.
More proof that pitchers don’t need to be throwing at max effort every pitch to be effective.
Keep in mind that Hendricks is pitching in an era when strikeouts are far more common, when Maddux didn’t. Hendricks’ K%+ for his career is 87, topping out at 109. Maddux’s K%+ for his career was 100 and went above 110 multiple times throughout his career. He was much more of a strikeout pitcher than many remember.
Probably the best comparrison to prime Maddux that is active today is George Kirby. Slightly above-average in velocity, elite at limiting walks, strikeout rate that usually sits right around average, maybe slightly above. Logan Webb consistently sits with a walk rate around 5-6%, and a K% around 22-23%, which is about average.
You brought up Webb and also keep moving the goal posts. You keep arguing against yourself. And yes, George Kirby is a much more accurate comparison when it comes to command, although he’s lost some of his command this year, but Kirby averages 96 on his fastball and has been up to as high as 99.
Maddux had slightly above average strikeouts during his prime (albeit he only surpassed 20% K% twice and only had over 200k once), but he was never a hard thrower. Even would admit that and has on many occasions. He didn’t try to throw max effort or get strike outs. He pitched to contact, he focused on location and changing speeds and eye level. It literally was his calling card.
Hendricks is still the best comp. He just didn’t have near the run of dominance Maddux did. But those 2-3 seasons he was close to Maddux. He was slightly above average on K’s, low ERA, low walks. had similar pitch repertoire (fastball-changeup) and pitch shape. They also had average-to-below average fastball velocity.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I’m not moving any goal posts and I didn’t think I was arguing with anyone about anything. A 20% K% back in the mid-90s was very good. From 1991 through 1998, Maddux had a K% that ranged from about 18% to 23%. The league average never went above 17% throughout those seasons. In total, he had 11 seasons with an above league average K%. He had as many seasons with a strikeout rate above the league average compared to below the league average (minus his 1986 season where he only pitched 31 innings). Whether or not Maddux tried to get strikeouts or not is a different story.
I still think that if you compare how velocity was back then vs today, Webb and/or Kirby are the best comparrisons of today. They throw about average to above-average in terms of velocity, run strikeout rates that range from average to slightly better than average, and are great at limiting walks. That to me fits Greg Maddux to a T. Hendricks never threw with league average velocity, and rarely had a league average or better K% across a full season.
This is exactly why we need a simple stat like K/9+, where it’s adjusted for the year and the ballpark. I know some numbers would be ridiculous compared to their peers (Rube Waddell, Walter Johnson, Bob Feller), but then we could point at the K/9+ Maddux and easily show he was above average for his era.
Herb, you can easily look up his K/9 and the average season K/9 right now. Greg Maddux was slightly above average in K/9 during his prime.
I think using strikeout rate (K%) is significantly better than K/9. If a pitcher allows 10 hits and five walks in one inning, but strikes out 2, their K/9 is the same as someone who has a perfect inning, and strikesout two batters along the way. In both cases, it’s 18.0 K/9 ratio, whereas the former is a 16.7% K% and the latter is a 66.7% K%.
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
All these hitters are geared up for the heater but can’t hit the breaking ball. Trouble with the curve…
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.
So Rich has another 30 years left in him. Awesome news.
Hopefully he learned the knuckleball from Matt Waldron while with the Padres. He could be the first active pitcher eligible for senior discounts.
The man is a national treasure who should be in the game for as long as he wants.