Rich Hill is headed back to the majors for a 21st season. The Royals plan to select Hill’s contract from Triple-A Omaha, Robert Murray of FanSided reports, and he could pitch for them as soon as tomorrow. Hill signed a minor league contract with Kansas City back in May, and he’s been pitching with their Triple-A club all summer.
The Royals currently have Cole Ragans, Alec Marsh and Michael Lorenzen on the injured list. Marsh hasn’t pitched all season due to a shoulder impingement. Ragans has been out over a month due to a strained rotator cuff. Left-handed reliever Daniel Lynch IV is also on the 15-day injured list due to a nerve issue in his elbow. Hill has been working in Omaha’s rotation and could make a spot start, or he could give manager Matt Quatraro another left-handed relief option while Lynch is on the shelf.
Hill, 45, has had mixed results while pitching for the Storm Chasers. He’s posted a 5.36 ERA in 42 innings, though the bulk of the damage against him came in two rough outings. He’s had a pair of quality starts and another pair of solid five-inning efforts. Hill has allowed one run over his past seven innings and fanned 11 opponents in that time. Hill unsurprisingly isn’t throwing hard, but the 88.4 mph average on his four-seamer is up from last year’s 87.6 mph average during his Triple-A stint with the Red Sox.
Time will tell whether this latest promotion comes with any staying power, but it’s remarkable that Hill continues to pitch at a competitive enough level to get major league looks in his mid-40s. He made a brief return to the Red Sox last August, and once he toes the rubber for Kansas City, he’ll have appeared in 21 consecutive MLB seasons. Hill from 2010-14, totaling just 75 2/3 MLB frames in that five-year period, but he’s hung around to pitch at least 3 2/3 major league innings each season dating back to 2005.
Since Hill’s improbable resurgence with the 2015 Red Sox and 2016 A’s, he’s tacked another 938 innings of 3.66 ERA ball onto his unique career. Notably, the Royals will be the 14th team for which Hill has suited up at the MLB level. That ties him with right-hander Edwin Jackson for the most teams in major league history.
Dick Mountain is back!
Go Rich! You can do it!
fred – I’m rooting for him too!
At least this time he pitched 50 innings in the minors,which is 48 more innings than when the Sox promoted him last year.
I would have liked to see him have more success in Omaha, but I know the Royals are in a rush because they are fading in the standings.
Can’t wait to see him pitch again!
Wow – I feel like he must have incriminating pictures on someone…
Obviously nothing on Jerry Reinsdorf lol
Why?
Scads of teams need non-embarrassing pitching as the weather heats up. And non-contenders aren’t trading their prospects.
Nailed it Tim! DFA’d after 2 starts, but you clearly understood his value more than I did.
Now tied with Edwin Jackson for the most teams played on…hope he gets traded at the deadline
Or sign with another team next season in June.
That would be amazing. I didn’t think Eddie J’s record would ever be tied, let alone broken
Brewers need bullpen help. That be sweet if he gets traded there. I don’t think he’s played for the brewers
He hasn’t. The list of teams Hill has played for (yet) is:
Astros
Blue Jays
Braves
Brewers
Cardinals
Diamondbacks
Giants
Mariners
Marlins
Nationals
Phillies
Rangers
Reds
Rockies
Tigers
White Sox
Interestingly he played in both the Cardinals and Nationals organizations but didn’t reach the majors with either team and wound up with the Red Sox upon release from both clubs
I love this post.
I feel like no one talks about his gazillion different stints with the Red Sox
He was in Boston during all of the eras, Ortiz, Pedroia, mookie, devers
Missed the Padres.
He played for the Padres. The list is teams he hasn’t played for
My bad. Misread.
FYI– your list actually says “has” played for, so might want to edit
My bad on that. Thank you for pointing it out
So you’re just going to ignore him going 9-3 with the A’s?
Since i cannot edit my original post the list is of teams Hill *hasn’t* played for:
Astros
Blue Jays
Braves
Brewers
Cardinals
Diamondbacks
Giants
Mariners
Marlins
Nationals
Phillies
Rangers
Reds
Rockies
Tigers
White Sox
Qwerk – Doesn’t matter, Drew Pomeranz will eventually have the record.
Jacob Barnes with 9 currently.
Like the bad date that never seems to go away.
I’ve never been paid to go on a date but maybe I should ask.
YBC – The money usually isn’t that great, but the benefits can be ;O)
There’s a name for a person who gets paid to go on a date…
His AAA stats are not inspiring on the year thus far. About the same he posted with boston last year. Its amazing he’s still pitching at age 45 though
Guy – He pitched in a grand total of 2 innings last year in the minors with a zero ERA and 0.500 WHIP. ….. methinks that’s a tad bit small sample size to compare ;O)
Oh, I was talking about his cup of coffee in the 4 games he got into with Boston at the major league level. Yeah I know its a small sample size. I wouldn’t be surprised if he posted numbers similar to his 2023 campaign with the Padres at the major league level, if he gets into that many games this year
He’s a healthy arm and sometimes that’s enough. Dallas Keuchel may be next
Some where Jamie Moyer smiles ….
And Phil Nierko
And Charlie Hough
Guy’s a legend. Should be in the Hall of Legends.
I’m going to start one up tonight. I’ll be the only one voting on who a legend is with emotional decisions based off random stats made up by nerds and jocks alike.
Jesse Orosco is my first pick. ERA+ of 126.
Julio Franco is my second pick. OPS+ of 111.
So you are basically like the Hall of Fame…
@Rsox
No, the Hall of Fame is for Famous players. Mine will be for legendary players like Rich Hill.
In that case i submit for your consideration Jamie Moyer
My submission is Julio Franco. Oh, and Bartolo Colon. No Hall of Legends is complete without Bartolo. Make sure the exhibit includes footage of his home run hit, not the many he gave up.
Big Sexy definitely deserves some love!
Have to admire someone who continues chasing their dreams, no matter what age they are! Glad to see Dick Mountain back in the big leagues.
The sun never sets on old Dick Mountain.
From one old fart to another, welcome back Rich Hill. Hope you pitch til you’re 50.
He’s pitched in MLB during 6 presidential terms. Crazy.
Nolan Ryan pitched 7 terms! Started with LBJ, ended with Clinton!
Or from The Beatles white album till Nirvana Nevermind
Dick Mountain to the rescue
The legend rides again, I love to see “old” MLB players and other outliers.
Jess – Bill Lee is still pitching for Savannah at age 78.
No kidding? That’s pretty incredible actually. If I make it 78 I’d be happy to be half that mobile haha.
FPG
I proudly wear my # 37 Bill Lee jersey to Fenway ,when I get to go. It’s amazing he stills toes the rubber for the Bananas . He could barely lift his left arm when he retired from baseball in his mid 30s. What a character….
cdc – You know who else is a character and was at Fenway recently? Oil Can Boyd, do you remember him? I saw him pitch for Brockton years ago.
One of the greatest nicknames ever. Allegedly from drinking beer as a teenager in Mississippi.
cdc – Yep it was either beer or moonshine, I can’t remember which one he confirmed. It’s been a while. LOL
Bring your grandpa to work day…. I’m sure the 13k/0BB intrigued them.
Is this the same Rich Hill who was throwing a gem in ‘18’ WS??? Bless you Dave Roberts..
The same guy that lost a perfect game on a walk off homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning. I wanna say it was Josh Harrison. He would just the right pesky hitter to break up a perfect game like that.
Edit: He broke up the no hitter. The perfect game ended on a fielding error .
Fun to see, but a reasonable possibility is that he’s up to be showcased for a trade.
No. Its not reasonable. Any team could have had him for free.
Royals need an opener for the Lorenzen spot in the rotation starting tomorrow night against the Cubs. Lorenzen has an oblique injury, so no one knows when he’ll be back for sure. My guess is that Hill only goes two, maybe three innings before getting replaced by a hard throwing righty like Jonathan Bowlen.
Reportedly Hill is starting Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.
Starting pitcher in Hill’s MLB debut? Greg Maddux.
Roughly 4000K’s behind Ryan, and only 10 Wins from 100….lets go!!!!
He began as teammates with Mark Prior, Kerry Woods, Nomar Garciaparra, and Greg Maddux – that was a very long time ago
They’ve awakened the beast!!!
mixed results is correct! in a recent AAA outing.He struck out Ten, but he also walked 4. maybe if he did well, we could trade him to somebody else..
I hope not. does anyone here remember a
few seasons ago when the Royals signed Matt Harvey of all players ( the guy who argued with his manager to go back out for the ninth in game five of the World Series in 2015)?
Julio Franco 2.0!
When Hill broke into the majors, Benito Santiago, Larry Walker and Marquis Grissom were still playing.
Final seasons for all 3. Hill missed possibly playing against the Expos by one season
Faced Carlos Delgado and Mike Lowell in his first big-league inning.
So were Jeff Bagwell, John Franco, and Rafael Palmeiro
Rich Who?