There is “plenty of trade interest” in Royals submarining left-hander Tim Hill, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com writes. The Yankees are among Hill’s most ardent suitors, according to Feinsand.
While he didn’t debut in the majors until 2018 and hasn’t posted lights-out results since then, it’s still not hard to see Hill’s appeal. He’s a respectable reliever who comes with several years’ team control, as he’s not slated to reach arbitration until after the 2021 season or free agency until the conclusion of the 2024 campaign.
The groundball-heavy Hill’s coming off a season in which he induced worm burners at a 57.3 percent rate, struck out 8.85 batters per nine and walked 2.95. Those solid numbers helped the soon-to-be 30-year-old to a 3.63 ERA/3.84 FIP across 39 2/3 innings. And the relatively soft-tossing Hill, owner of a 90.2 mph average fastball velocity this past year, proved capable of retiring same- and right-handed hitters. Granted, Hill was markedly better against lefties (.217 wOBA) than righties (.316).
For the Yankees, adding Hill would seemingly give an already strong bullpen a third sturdy lefty to go with Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman. The club’s bullpen is facing the departure of righty Dellin Betances in free agency, though injuries prevented him from factoring in during its 103-victory, AL East-winning campaign in 2019.
Who?
Great baseball fan
If you know this guy you’re some type of super super fan. Middle relievers on trash teams aren’t known to even avid fans
@king beas
OR..OR…ORRRR maybe he was watching a game of his home team and they were playing the Royals and he said “Wow..who is that sling shooting sidearm lefty on the mound? Oh.. Tim Hill. Ok.”. He then went on to do what thousands of other mlb fans do. Went on with his life.
He sells propane and propane accessories.
Sweet Lady Propane
I tell you what
Propane is God’s gas.
Dangit Bobby
Hank hill baby
Lefty specialist that played at Palomar college with me way back. Saw him pitch on acid once, then he got cut lol
Palomar college in San Diego?
He was on it or you?
Must be swapping Clint Frazier or Andujar to get this guy.
We’ll happily trade you Tim Hill for Miguel Andujar! He screams Royals. Line-drive hitting corner infielder? Yes please.
Could be a sneaky underrated pickup for anyone
And the rich get richer. I am a believer in Cashman. Although I hate the Evil Empire getting stronger, I think Cashman is an amazing GM.
The Yanks stopped being the evil empire long time ago. Also, since when it’s bad to get better?
Did they though? They were still one of three teams this year to exceed the luxury tax theshhold, so it’s not like they’ve signicantly curbed their spending.
bj … says the Yankees fan
Amazing?? They haven’t won in the largest market with a high payroll in over a decade. The only reason he is even talked about is because he is the the GM in NY.
I guess you missed the part where we had more players on the DL than on the 40 man roster but still managed to run away with the division due to amazing under the radar pickups like Gio Urshela, Michael Tauchman, Luke Voit etc.
I believe the Yanks are the losers in the Voigt deal, Gallegos turned into an elite reliever and the Yanks have a a fat DH that is slowly falling apart
I don’t think either the Yanks or Cards lost the trade. Each side got a fairly good piece. I wouldn’t say Gallegos is an elite reliever yet, but he was really good last year. If Voit can stay healthy, he can be one of the high end batters in the mlb.
@kahnkobra
I can suggest that Voit’s body fat percentage is probably lower than most of us. He’s thick but he’s no Barto. He AIN’T no Barto!!! (every barbq joint everywhere).
Methinks thou might be over exaggerating. I don’t think he ever missed any real time until 2019 with the oblique injury. That can be mitigated by having him do less weights and focus on strengthening his core.
But thus far as a Yankee, in 658 PA, he’s .280/.384/517 (901 OPS) w/ 35 homers. His only knock is being a below average defender (by 1B standards) w/ a high K rate, although that’s mitigated by his high walk % and OBP
I’m glad that GG had a gppd breakout year. Yanks had the 2nd best bullpen according to fWAR. We dealt from strength to bring in a guy with 5 years of control to fill a position that’s been impossible to satisfy since Teixeira retired. It was supposed to be Bird’s for the future but we know how that ended.
Even with the loss of time injured, Voit’s 1.7 WAR was the same as GG’s 1.6 WAR. That’s with Voit missing 50 games and GG having an all-star caliber season.. Let’s chalk this up to a win-win situation?
Voit is strengthening his core one chicken wing at a time
Yes, win win. Gallegos value at the end of the bullpen was huge as was CMart’s work.
Yankee you made my point.
The Yankees, for your information CrazyLarry, while not winning the WS in a decade also have the highest winning percentage in that same decade which according to all but you, is attributable to Mr Cashman and his staff providing the players to make that happen.
Maybe we shouldn’t talk about things we don’t really know…right!
The idea is to win Rock. Baseball is not horseshoes and leaners don’t count. No bonus points for getting close, which in reality the Yankees on,y achieved once recently in 2017.
deweybelongsinthehall, that means every year 29 teams are failures which is a really warped way of looking at things. Not everyone is going to win the world series. Not coming away with the trophy doesn’t mean your seasonw as a failure it just meant it wasn’t your year.
Yankees7448, I was just responding to Rock’s degrading of another poster, which I felt was disrespectful. He could have made his point without that last line. I’ve stated my feeling about Cashman many times. His work making small moves ahead of the curve allowed the team to absorb those injuries last year without having to pay a premium because of the emergencies they faced. That said, for all the salary they’ve paid the last ten years, they haven’t been to the WS.
Have never read a post from this person, and quite tired of all the Yankee hater “experts” who know little about the team.
Largest market, and biggest payroll…sound like somebody in the know?
And frankly, i hope we don’t start have to worrying about what constitutes disrespecting when comments are made.
We’ll again agree to disagree Rock. Everyone has opinions but why the negativity and assault on someone who you admit you know little about? I just re-read his post and frankly, there are many others who likely support it. Big market clubs clearly have a financial advantage with no hard cap in the sport.
deweybelongsinthehall, fair enough.
exactly
He’s made amazing acquisitions, even if I hate them improving, he’s a great GM.
They are “interested”. did I miss the part where they acquired him?
No, but apparently you *did* miss the “RUMORS” part of this website’s name.
Did you miss the part where Pasha2k said “and the rich get richer…”, as if hes already a yankee?
@greg7274
I KNOW you missed the part where @pasha2k said
And the rich get richer. I am a believer in Cashman. Although I hate the Evil Empire getting stronger, I think Cashman is an amazing GM.
The “I hate when the EE get’s stronger” would indicate that he isn’t a Yankee fan. Also, he’s not the writer of this post and thus has no say so or influence over the person who DID write it.
Huh? South?
South… I was explaining tigernuts post to agentx. The OPs post seemed to have an untrue inference.
I didn’t miss anything. And I couldnt give two sharts about Cashman or his teams undeniable, unfair advantage over other markets. I clicked on a ROYALS story.
So go pick a different fight.
…childish nonsense
Nope, you got me there. Thanks for calling me on that… and apologies to Tigernut2000 for the quick trigger.
The rich get richer bc the Yankees are looking to acquire a middle reliever? Save yourself time and Go vote for Bernie Sanders and get off these posts.
Rag, as a matter of fact I am voting for Bernie!
Makes sense. Let’s be lazy and take money from people who work hard. Socialism is an idea that only works for people who never has a job.
That’s an ironic statement considering capitalism is literally a handful of men sitting around getting rich on the labor of others.
Whose brother that is so kinda attitude!
Directed to Rag
I don’t follow the Royals very much so he’s an unknown to me. Based on what I see in the numbers. I see the appeal but what would the Yankees offer for him?
It won’t be much. The guy is definately an under the radar pickup and has 3 years of arbritration left but he’s just about 30 years old. Maybe the Royals take a flier on a formerly touted prospect like Chance Adams plus another minor leaguer.
Or maybe Jonathan Holder? The wheels came off his car last year but he was pretty good for us in 2017 and 2018. If the Royals can get him back on track they would have basically traded one solid 30 year old reliever with years of control for a slightly younger solid pen arm with years of control.
Stanton straight up.
Yankees could use a 3-for-1 type trade to clear out some roster crunch.
Royals could use a 3 for 1 trade for an influx of talent.
I could use a 3-for-1 for a kickass Saturday night.
…HEY-OOOH!!
I am going to be that guy who says trade Frazier for him thinking its still 2017
I wonder how the new three batter minimum will affect his value. A third of his appearances were 2 batters faced or fewer and his OPS against RHB (.755) is a lot worse than against lefties (a fantastic .461).
as a Royals fan the Yanks aren’t getting Hill for nothing. Hill is good and under a team friendly contract. he had a ruff start to last season but turned it around and ended with respectable numbers
How about Chance Adams and Luis Cessa?
I don’t know if the Yankees give up on Cessa. I don’t love the guy and think he’ll never be anything more than ok but the Yankees brass seems to like him a lot. They have given him a whole lot more rope than most fans would have given him and this year he finally seemed to at least somewhat reward their patience.
I was fine with Cessa but his lack of options makes him a tricky case.
I can’t see them keeping him around all season – cash him in now.
I agree. Best case scenario is that one of our more high ceiling guys like Louisiga pushes him out. But he gave us a solid 81 innings last year. With all the injuries we endured last year I think they will hold onto him and see if he can repeat that performance.
@jonesadoug
I know it’s good for the site to say “the Yanks are one of the teams interested in him” But that doesn’t exactly make me think he’s someone they value so much to give away good prospects. His ERA/FIP is 3.63/3.84. The 90 mph FB he throws 75% of the time isn’t exciting but he does throw a tremendous amount of GB. Royals aren’t going to give him up for garbage but I doubt they’ll get a decent farm system’s top 10 prospect.
Why?
I guess you can never have too many solid RPs but I honestly don’t really see all that much of a fit for the Yankees. He wouldn’t really be a high-leverage guy and the LOOGY is now a thing of the past – at least in the traditional sense – now that pitchers have to fave a minimum of 3 batters so if the Yankees were to acquire him I guess they’d be looking at him as a match-up based middle-reliever? Not a bad thing to be sure but also not exactly an area of need for the Yanks — though I suppose he’s also really cheap so if the price (prospects) is right. why not?
I remember when yankee fans used to make fun of teams that had great success winning but nothing to show for it. They would croak 27 championships like frogs in a beer commercial. Now that they haven’t won squat in ages they’re bragging about their winning seasons. And their big headline is that they might be interested in some guy who’s going to pitch 35 innings.
Pepperidge Farm also remembers.
best response ever. Thanks!
Yeah, cuz there’s usually so many “big headline” trades and signings by Thanksgiving weekend. Fair weather fans are part of the package. Singling them out to make a point isn’t making much of a point.
Sorry for the double post.
?????
@whyhayzee
1 in 11 years or 5 in 14 years is “haven’t won squat in ages? Yep says the Astros, Mets, M’s, Rockies and a host of other franchises.
And I’m pretty sure whatever moves they make will be more significant than maybe trading for Hill. It’s 11/27. No one big has signed with anyone. Lighten up and switch to something more mellow.
@whyhazee
Nobody’s “croaking about their winning seasons…simply responding to the insinuation that the last 10 years have been a disaster and waste of fans time…
The ultimate goal is to win the WS, but we’ll take 100 wins 2 years in a row as a good consolation prize any day.
Never heard a Yankee fan reference a consolation prize Rock. I don’t mean to pick on you Rock but this had me laughing. Seriously, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that both teams have great upcoming years so the rivalry picks up. 2019 was such a disappointment as a Red Sox fan that I do understand your point. As it’s happening I agree with you. But after the fact, we’d both take the Red Sox last two years over the Yankees’. Nothing like a duck boat or Canyan of Heroes parade.
10 years is ages now? Back in my day when I walked up hill 10 miles in the snow 10 years was just a decade. 10 years is ages ago? How many teams haven’t even played in a world series in the past 20 years?
I am all for this. We’ll take Aaron Judge please.
You’ll get nothing and like it!
And what has Judge done in a big game? Just askin!
intimidated shorter guys?
A .910 career OPS in the playoffs? Or does that not fit your narrative?
I understand the Yankees are preparing to replace Betances but I’m not sure if Hill fills that void. He’s talented and a bargain so the Royals aren’t going to give him away. I feel like we can find some serviceable options in free agency and non-tender candidates. Royals fans, can he get right handers out?
According to ESPN he has actually faced more right handers than lefties in his career. He’s better against lefties though. 211 batting average from lefties and 259 from righties. I guess the idea is to take a pitcher whose already good at generating ground balls and try to make him even better.
*sighs* it’s going to be a boring offseason for the Yanks
Yup
Tim Hill is a great kid. Me an my grandson we’re hanging out in the parking lot at Kauffman stadium hoping to get some autographs last September and he was the only player to stop and sign. We watched all these luxsery cars pass us by then this little Honda Civic pulls over, it was Tim, he signed for about 40 people. Made my grandson’s night.
Sucks 🙁