The Royals announced that veteran southpaw Rich Hill has been designated for assignment. The move opens up roster space for right-hander Thomas Hatch, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Omaha.
After being released by the Red Sox last September, the 45-year-old Hill didn’t sign a contract until inking a minors deal with Kansas City in May. Hill pitched 11 outings of ramp-up work in the minor leagues before his contract was selected to the Royals’ roster a week ago today, and he’ll head into DFA limbo with a 5.00 ERA to show for his two starts in a K.C. uniform.
Hill allowed just one earned run over five innings against the Cubs but received no run support in a 6-0 loss on July 22, and the Braves touched him up for four earned runs (on six walks, three hits, and two homers allowed) in as many innings in a start yesterday. That was apparently enough for the Royals to designate Hill, and he may now be headed for yet another chapter in a career that has now stretched across 21 Major League seasons.
If Hill clears waivers, he obviously has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A, so the ball is in his court as to his next step. Hill may opt to just remain with the Royals, and while the club could release him, the Royals may want some rotation depth available in Omaha with so many other starters on the injured list.
A waiver claim isn’t out of the question, given how many teams need starting depth right now, and could still need more arms depending on how the trade deadline shakes out. Pitching-needy clubs could wait until after the 5pm CT deadline on Thursday to put in a claim on Hill, should they have a sudden hole to fill in a rotation following a trade or two.
Should Hill head to free agency once more, it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to find another minor league contract elsewhere, given how long it took him to land with the Royals. Yet another reunion with the Red Sox can’t be ruled out, or Hill could try to find a brand-new organization in an attempt to secure a unique place in the record books. Hill and Edwin Jackson share the record for most career teams (14), so suiting up with a 15th different club at the big league level would make Hill the most well-traveled player in MLB history. Retirement is naturally another option, if Hill decides to finally hang up his cleats after 24 total years in pro ball.
To put it in perspective, Hatch was only seven years old when Hill was drafted by the Cubs in 2002. Hatch signed a minor league deal with K.C. during the offseason and has yet to see any big league action — his contract was previously selected on June 5 but just for the first game of a doubleheader, and Hatch was DFA’ed before the nightcap.
Assuming that this stint with the Royals leads to an in-game appearance, it will mark Hatch’s first time on a Major League mound since the 2023 season. The 30-year-old Hatch posted a 4.96 ERA over 69 MLB innings with the Blue Jays and Pirates from 2020-23 before he spent the 2024 campaign in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp. Hatch has a 4.22 ERA, 20.1% strikeout rate, and 7.2% walk rate across 91 2/3 innings and 18 Triple-A starts this year, and he’ll be the next pitcher to try and fill a hole in Kansas City’s injury-riddled rotation.
Old Man replaced by a freshly-hatched spring chicken.
I’m guessing they brought him up just to help him tie the record
Crazy that Rich Hill has the 29th highest k/9 in mlb history of pitchers that have thrown a 1000 or more IP.
That puts in front of guys like:
Johan Santana – 42nd
Curt Schilling- 55th
Roger Clemens – 57th
Wow that is crazy. Especially when seeing those 3 names!
jata – too many millions of dollars in the business for an owner to be that nice while considering his team in the chase at trade deadline but, nice story that it turned out for him all the same.
If it had been last game of season and they did it, could be a nice thing.
KC decided that’s not the Hill they wanted to die on.
Braves should be a good fit.
Yeah right now he’s a fit. We need warm bodies to throw some innings.Guess he’ll do.
Exactly. They’re bringing in guys like Fedde and Carrasco just to fill innings because they’re so banged up. He’s never played for them, so he’d break the record, too.
Fedde, Carrasco…why not Hill?? Each start it’s throw five innings or give up 10 runs, whichever comes first.
@holee cow:
The Braves just acquired another soft tossing pitcher, Carlos Carrasco, so please noooooooo
C’mon Rich one more team and the record is yours and yours alone
I really hope he signs somewhere and starts just so he can break the record for teams played for.
For real. There are multiple teams going nowhere who could surely use some innings eaten and could step up and give Dick Mountain his due! Cmon Colorado be part of history for once!
Pretty sure the Rockies are going to make history one way or another.
Lol fair
@DonOsbourne:
To the Rockies go you Rich Hill, to the Rockies. I know the Braves are going nowhere but I am so tired of watching the Braves opponents just all seem to crush them. Besides, we also are cursed with Bryce Elder until the end of time.
I mean what better place for dick mountain to set that record than the team that is literally named after mountains? Can I get an amen lol!?
San Francisco. He hasn’t played for the Giants yet. They already employ 1 starting pitcher over 40. What’s one more ?
Dick Mountain needs new blood. Who hasn’t he played for?
Braves, and they need bodies these days.
Be Brave Atlanta. Dick Mountain is coming for you.
Rich Hill is so old, that when he started his career, his name was Poor Knoll.
And after he smoked his first joint he became Grassy Knoll.
Rich Hill is the new Mike Morgan ? Team hopping specialist
he should come put the pen cause he does well for a few innings
8 walks and 2 homers in 9 innings? He didn’t really pitch much better in his 11 minor league starts.
No thanks.
I hope the Giants pick him up, that way he’d have played for every California team. I cannot think of anyone who has done that.
Plus it would be a record # of franchises played for,
Atlanta is on line 1 for you, Rich…
Cubs put in a waiver claim or sign him to a minor league contract to have him come up in September as an expanded roster guy, give the rotation a rest, and have him finish his career where he started it 20 years ago.
Maybe not the sexist outcome, but kind of a cool one still.
I don’t think any women would be offended by this outcome. Haha
He’ll just hop on the Braves charter flight to CIN and start for them Saturday.
Back to the Pirates ⚾
Breslow on line 2 for “Over the Hill” Rich.
Red Sox will bring him home…again.
Not sure why Hill just doesn’t retire already?!
Some of us just want to play major league baseball.
Because teams keep signing him and paying him money to play baseball? That’s just a wild guess on my part.
End of the line!
Yankees are another notch on the belt he could add just for funsies.
Perfect timing, now he can be Boston’s big deadline acquisition so Breslow and Kennedy can tell us how hard they’re trying and how excited they were to go get their guy. 49 million year old Rich Hill is gonna push us over the top!
Hate to say it, but Hatch’s minors numbers looks like a Rockies ace.
The author forgets to mention that Hatch was actually a higher Cubs draft pick (3rd round) than Hill (7th).
Rich Hill was good for a number of years. At this point why sign him for a week of subpar pitching. GMs should give prospects a shot as their ceiling has to be a lot higher than a 40+ year old DFA a waiting to happen.
I thought he pitched good in his two starts, got taken deep by Acuna and Ozuna, too many walks, he could get in a groove and give you a couple good months.