Sept. 14: Bradford has issued a correction, tweeting that Hill’s waiver period does not expire until today. Hill has not yet formally gone unclaimed.
Sept. 13: Padres southpaw Rich Hill went unclaimed on waivers, reports Rob Bradford of WEEI (Twitter link). San Diego doesn’t have to outright him to a minor league affiliate. In all likelihood, he’ll remain on the Friars’ roster for the final couple weeks of the season.
The Padres put the veteran southpaw on waivers earlier this week. With their playoff hopes dashed, they tried to offload the roughly $817K remaining on his $8MM contract. No other team bit, leaving San Diego on the hook for that sum.
It’s not an especially surprising development. Players acquired after August 31 are ineligible to participate in the postseason. Hill is an impending free agent, so he’d only be available to another team for the final two and a half weeks of the regular season. Even with clubs permitted to carry 14 pitchers on the roster in September, there wasn’t enough upside to absorb Hill’s above-minimum salary for just a few weeks.
The 43-year-old also simply hasn’t pitched well of late. He has been tagged for a 9.25 ERA over 24 1/3 innings since the deadline trade that sent him from the Pirates to San Diego. That includes two innings of two-run ball last night against the Dodgers. (Teams are permitted to continue using a player who is on waivers pending resolution of the claim.) He has allowed multiple runs in all but one of his eight outings as a Padre and has only gone beyond four innings once.
While there’s no sugarcoating his performance over the past six weeks, Hill was a reasonably effective back-end option for Pittsburgh. He worked to a 4.76 ERA through 22 starts for the Bucs, striking out 19.6% of batters faced against an 8.9% walk rate. Those are below-average marks but serviceable for a fifth/sixth starter, enough to pique San Diego’s interest at the deadline.
Overall, Hill sports a 5.53 ERA across 143 1/3 innings in what is his 19th year logging MLB action. He can work in a multi-inning relief capacity or make another start or two as San Diego plays out the string. He’ll have to take a cut relative to this year’s salary if he wants to continue playing, but he’d surely at least find minor league interest if he’s interested in prolonging his career.
The Mountain has fallen 🙁
Father time is undefeated.
Urban legend has it, that Rich Hill once struck out Jesus on a curveball in the dirt.
you trying to say Jesus Christ can’t hit a curve ball?
Funny
@brandon. And since he is all knowing that makes the legend even harder to believe. But joking aside it’s probably time for Rich to hang the cleats up.
Hill deserves to decide for himself should a club invite him to spring training next year. Given his age, in my view he should be limited to two to four innings and appearance. Win-loss record is immaterial as his contribution is total innings to save others from being overworked. He himself seems to have worn down.
Freddie – You mean hang up the orthopedic shoes.
Jesus has all the answers of time, space and the universe, but was never able to stay back on breaking pitches. They always bedeviled him.
….edible babies…? Hmm. I don’t remember that part of the story
Jesus Aguilar?
Jesus Alou
he did. it was Jesus Larardo.
Ithe red sox one year needed a starter the last week of the seaon, dfa, on the roster or not. win and make they playoffs, so stranger thing shave happened.
Probably over the hill anyways
Fire AJ Preller.
…says every Dodger fan.
Bahahahaha. I don’t think there’s a single dodger fan who isn’t a Preller fan, gwynning
Come back to the Buccos so we can flip you again next season Dick Mountain.
With the worthless manager Shelton using relievers to start games it wouldn’t be any worse if they brought back Hill for the last 2 weeks but Nutting would never agree to spend any more than he has to
idk this seems like how a final season would go….
Dick Mountain has fallen off the hill! Someone will give him $3mil next year. Just as KC & the 1-15 Zach Greinke!
Why does Richard translate to Dick? I don’t see the resemblance.
“Disinformation”? Do you mean they lied about their birth names?
Not claimed? Guess the league is over the Hill.
Guess that means he’s no longer King of the Hill.
Maybe he will sell propane and propane accessories now.
Probably more gas than he ever threw!
Sometimes you need to hang up the cleats.
Or he will start as the TBD for the Reds Thursday.
Thank God we get to keep Dick Mountain around a little while longer.
I love Dick Mountain.
Best news ever. Now, Rich Hill can sport a Padres hat on his Cooperstown plaque.
Pontiac Aztec reference? Hysterical.
How much money are they really going to save if he signs elsewhere.? 15-16 games left…so about 500K-600K.
With 15 left, you would save $741k, and almost as importantly, as a 3rd time offender, and maybe $60M over the cap, there is either a 95% or 110% tax on the savings.
There is really no reason to not save maybe $1.4M if there is no downside.
Er, why would anyone pay nearly a million bucks to have 2-3 starts from a guy with an ERA over 9 since the ASB?
Preller must think not everyone else is as smart as him, I guess
Someday, I’m going on climb that mountain..
I think the waiver wire is going to shell him
Didn’t pitch well for the Buccos either. Pirates should of signed Sonny Gray instead of RH.
In other news…Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
If only the rosters weren’t set at 28 for Sept. It would be cool to see Rich Hill come full circle and sign with the Cubs even if it’s only for 3 weeks. They could use another lefty out of the pen with an occasional start. Which would realistically be maybe 2 starts.