The Yankees are bringing left-hander Tim Hill back on a one-year, $2.85MM contract, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Hill, a client of Paragon Sports International, will be paid $2.5MM in 2025 and has a $350K buyout on a $3MM club option for the 2026 season.
Hill, 34, opened the 2024 season with the White Sox but was released in June after being tagged for a 5.07 ERA in 23 innings with the South Siders. He turned his entire season around upon signing with the Yankees, for whom he posted a pristine 2.05 earned run average in 48 innings from mid-June through season’s end. He tossed another 8 1/3 innings during postseason play and held opponents to one run during that time.
The veteran Hill is a sidearming sinker specialist who relies far more on grounders than on missing bats. A whopping 68.2% of batted balls against Hill were grounders. Conversely, his paltry 10.7% strikeout rate was the second-lowest among all pitchers who tossed at least 40 innings in 2024. No pitcher allowed a higher contact percentage than Hill’s 88.7%, and none had a lower swinging-strike rate than Hill’s 5.7% mark. Even with the lack of missed bats, that huge ground-ball rate and a terrific 6.5% walk rate (5.2% with the Yankees) helped Hill to mitigate damage.
As one might expect from a player who so rarely misses bats, Hill yielded quite a few hits in 2024. Opponents batted .290 against him — an average of 10.3 hits per nine innings pitched. However, the overwhelming majority were singles. Hill faced 291 hitters and only yielded nine extra-base hits (seven doubles and two homers). He was more effective against lefties than righties, but neither hit for any power against him. Southpaw swingers hit .273/.321/.322, while righties hit .303/.352/.352. Hill’s penchant for allowing contact could theoretically get him into trouble, but with so many singles, so few walks and so many grounders, he saw eight double plays induced behind him; only 11 relievers in all of MLB generated more (five of whom also simply pitched more innings).
Prior to their agreement with Hill, the Yankees didn’t have a lefty projected to be in the bullpen. They didn’t even have a left-handed reliever on the 40-man roster. He’ll now join a relief corps headlined by trade acquisition Devin Williams but also featuring Luke Weaver, Ian Hamilton, Fernando Cruz (another trade pickup), Mark Leiter Jr. and JT Brubaker. Jonathan Loaisiga, on the mend from last year’s April UCL procedure, will join the group eventually but could open the season on the 60-day injured list.
The bullpen could expand further if and when the Yankees trade Marcus Stroman, who they’ve been shopping throughout the winter. The roster would have six starters if the season began today, but a trade of Stroman will thin out the rotation and perhaps free up some money to bring in another lefty and/or add the infielder the Yankees have sought this offseason.
Adding Hill’s guarantee to the books pushes the Yankees’ projected cash payroll to just over $285MM, per RosterResource. They’re already in the top tier of luxury penalization, which means Hill will come with a 110% tax against the $2.85MM AAV of his contract. That weighs in at a $3.135MM tax hit, bringing the total expenditure for re-signing Hill to $5.985MM. RosterResource now has the Yankees’ luxury ledger at a bit more than $305MM. Of course, trading Stroman could reduce that bill substantially, though there’s no feasible way that the Yankees would duck the tax entirely (or even scale their overages back to less than $40MM, which would be required to avoid the penalty that drops next year’s top draft pick by 10 spots).
About time!!!
I really thought they had signed him already. It seemed inevitable.
Good move Yanks!
I wonder why that took so long to get done?
“Took so long”..Other, bigger priorities by the Yankees. Big fish are almost always more coveted than smaller fish.
So it took time to set the hook, you are saying?
I heard Mr Krabbs laughing in my head when I read this
hey so all of the Yankees big moves happened over a month ago. the tim hill signing did take unusually long for such a small deal
@mlb
Obvi the Yanks did some heavy lifting already. What I meant was the two were an obvious fit, and the money seems pretty light to me.
“Some heavy lifting already”..Yep, definitely an obvious fit. I just assume the time it took was filled with doing due diligence(both player’s agent & team’s GM)on several other potential acquisitions.
I imagine there’s also plenty of other nuances(player medical reviews etc..)that we as fans don’t even know about.
As the article states hill allows alot of contact. While it hasn’t translated to power numbers as of yet, one has to believe it will eventually start to especially if that sinker stops sinking
It’s the supposed reason Boone brought Cortes in instead of Hill to face Ohtani/Betts/Freeman. He wanted more potential swing and miss.
Another example of the Dodgers’ scouting report coming to be. Boone didn’t want the ball in play, and went with a rusty starter vs. a good reliever to try and avoid stressing his defense with several runners on.
agree. imagine having such a shaky defense that you’ll do anything to avoid a ground ball
And Betts and Freeman had already taken Hill deep in previous at-bats in their careers….
I think the team is banking on that sinker continuing to be good. Soft contact is as good as no contact at all, sometimes better
I hope so, some are really good for a long time. Others go the way of Dakota Hudson, you never know. Hill has had a few good seasons recently. Last year after going to the Yankees he found it after struggling all year with the white sox, club house culture perhaps?
Bullpen arms are known to vary from year to year. Hill has been decent three years running
Historically, there are guys like Hill who get told by the team early on that they’re a very safe bet to be re-signed, but that there are other priority positions/players that need to be figured out first and need all the front office’s attention and once those are sorted out, the team will circle back to that player who’s deal is going to be smaller, less complicated, etc. and basically since the player knows there won’t be much of a feeding frenzy for their services, they trust in the process and wait for the team to ping them and let them know its time to hammer out their crumb sized deal, make it official.
And lets be honest- a deal that will max out at 2 years/$5.5M with maybe a few small perks or no perks at all, but is still gonna take a few days to hammer out and will be a relatively lucrative windfall for that player *should* be put on the back burner until the massively complex, detailed negotiations and courtships of the eight and nine figure, multiple year commitment contracts other players will be commanding get settled.
Knicksfan, likely he was hoping for a two year deal and had to settle for one.
Yankees : Tim, we’d love to bring you back so you can face the top lefty hitters in the biggest spots.
Tim Hill : Um……
Someone has to go from the 40 man roster. Assume it will be Roansy Contreras or Yoendrys Gomez since they don’t have options remaining.
Neither does Brubaker but assume he’s the 8th man/swingman/long RP when they trade Stroman and IL Loaisiga.
Probably wait a week until pitchers & catchers report to move some to 60 day
Neither does Peraza.
@YBC – Have to think they’ll keep him unless they upgrade significantly at 3b.
It was a tough Hill to climb but it’s done. Ahahahaha!
Okay. what about Moncada or someone for 3B to complete the roster? I don’t trust DJL
NOBODY does! Ahahahahaha!
Absolutely No to Moncada
He’ll probably do just fine, although 4.2 k per nine is a little reason for concern. I know ground balls are his calling card. Either way, not much of a risk for the price!
It’s always a concern with low K rates but the Yankees, on paper, have improved their infield defense over last season. And this is without knowing who is playing second or thirdbase. Wells will be better than Trevino at threatening runners which is a certainty.
I agree! and I still think it’s a good signing (especially with the club option.) Hill is that guy that you call on when you need a double play to end an inning.
if peraza wins a starting role the infield d will be improved. if djlm/oswaldo are platooning at third and jazz is moved back to second not sure how much better they will be considering goldschmidt is worse than even the post-concussion version of rizzo
“Every day Timmy” was his nickname in SD. Fan favorite and def has a role on a staff.
That’s a really reasonable price, and his salary for 2026 would also be a pretty good price. Blake definitely worked his magic on Hill last season, very good move.
I’m done complaining. Thanks, Brian!
Agree, this wraps things up with a bow on it.
Good move, an obvious one, but we needed him back. They finally got something done in February. Hopefully they’ll be another move for a third base so the team can be complete.
Hill back on the hill.
There we go! I like the option for 26, if he’s good we easily bring him back without all this wait and guesswork.
Now can we haz one more, pleeez?
Settle down. Who do you think the Yankees are?! The Dodgers?
Lolz, we have needs, man!!! But maybe today’s the day.
National Lefty Day.
One more lefty would be great in case he gets hurt or flops. If there are any more out there.
I’m hoping a Stroman trade can bring another one.
How many Lefties do the Yankees have in the pen at this point?
The Red Sawx and Orioles are loaded Lefty lineups. Should have at least 2 guys in the pen for NYY…
Hill is the first one in their 40-man roster. The rest are projected starters.
Chafin is still out there. They list the available lefties in the Twins signing Coloumbe article. Just an FYI since you were wondering, Ghost.
Actually, it’s Salzilla, in the comment section that listed all the available lefties. It was the Coloumbe article though.
Yes chafin ,beeks and poche i think are the only half way decent lefty relievers available
Ok, Yankees fans want to dump Stroman. Send Marcus and 18 mil (essentially 1/2 his salary since he is highly likely to hit 140 innings and vest option) to SD for Wanda Peralta.
SD gets a #5 SP and NY gets another Lh option out of pen.
SD on the hook for a possible 18 option in 26 but he is free in 25 which helps. Wandy saves 4.2 which can be used for Iglesias or similar guy to fill out roster.
SD has a few AAA BP options ready.
The positive: Fits seamlessly into the pen and showed the chops for a high attention environment.
The negative: A constant reminder of a mediocre Boone’s penchant for bonehead decisions.
boonehead
Meh, you’d be blaming Boone anyway for bringin Hill in to give up back-to-back singles to Ohtani and Betts….
That’s a lot of dots. Are you visualizing the procedure before taking the leap from toupee to hair transplant surgery?
If you looked at Ohtani, Betts and Freeman’s career stats against Hill as opposed to Cortes, you wudda brought in Cortes too. Hindsight is 20/20….
Now this time let him pitch to Freeman.
Boone really likes that Cortes vs. Freeman matchup. I wish we brought back Hill and not Boone! Freaking clown.
@Lark
Keep in mind the rule regarding relief pitchers having to face 3 batters when they come in. He preferred Cortez to come in and get the left outand then gave 2 righties.
They were looking at the Dodgers top-3 stats against Cortes vs Hill in their careers. Ohtani, Betts and Freeman completely owned Hill in the past while Cortes had shut them down. It is what it is….
Catch-22 for Boone, man. Hill gives up alotta singles, and the top-3 of the Dodgers’ lineup have no problem hitting singles. Yank fans wudda been cryin either way. But living in alternate realities always softens the blow….
If this guy could pitch for 35 years he’d help his team win one more game.
It’s surprising the NYY don’t have three or five guys in the minors who could do about the same job for MLB minimum, plus maybe even strike out a few dudes. Call me crazy.
When you only have so many options, brining those guys up before they are ready can be complicated. Not only did we get Tim Hill, but we bought some options on our AAA and AA arms.
Is Stroman ever going to get traded so we can attempt to upgrade 3rd base or 2nd base?
We might have to wait for a team to have an injury to their rotation. We are also going to have to eat most of his salary anyway, so that isn’t really the path to an infield upgrade.
Dodgers were known to be bidding for Hill as well. Their offer was $100 in Lowes gift cards and $10mm deferred, starting the next time Halley’s Comet appears.
Now time for Verdugo’s 16 years/$840M deal. Let’s get it done, Yanks!
In all seriousness-I have noticed that Stroman has dropped anything Yankees from his social. He seems to know they’re trying to trade him/have no faith in him and he’s mentally moved on from them.
Better late than never. Now all they need is an infielder. Not wishing him ill but DJ is dead weight at this point. Sadly he’ll be rostered for months before his late summer release…
@Jersey. DJL should be priority number one to unload, then Stroman
Mlb: No one will take DJL. Stroman is worth 10-12 million so we can pay him down a bit or do a Hal move and include a useful prospect to get a trade done. We owe 30 mil to DJL so they’re gonna hope for a dead cat bounce or dump him around August (assuming he’s not hurt).
If Hal only listened to me I have a way of dropping the payroll almost 40m.
First off trade Stroman contract but be willing to eat money on the contract. As long as you move the contract you move the cap hit!
Send him to any pitching needy team with 5m for international money.
Then send Will Warren, Clayton Beeter, Jorbit Vivas and DJL contract with 10m plus Grisham 5m contract to Chicago WS for international money.
This frees up 38 plus million.
Now give DJL roster spot to Peraza and Grisham spot to Everson Pereira.
Younger more athletic team and roster flexibility.
Dump the farm of possible MLB-ready players to shed payroll? What happens when injuries occur and there is no one left to fill in or available to use for a trade? Use Spencer Jones or Chase Hampton to get a spot starter or utility player?
If they pay part of Stroman’s contract, the part they pay still counts against their luxury tax number.
Ok so than add a prospect to any Stroman deal
Send Stroman with Jorbit Vivas to a team like Oakland.
Than send DJ with Warren, Better, and another prospect to a team rebuilding like the white Sox.
Trading Grisham 5m should not be difficult at all.
Forget Arenado if you want to move 40m to get under that cap threshold. Use Peraza and Cabrera as a third base platoon and wait until the deadline to reassess team needs.
yes! welcome back gym-teacher-on-meth
That’s an insulting response. Maybe be less of a tool and more constructive.
It’s about time.
I feel bad for Hill. When the carriage turns back in to a pumpkin, Yank fans will have the pitchforks out….
Bonehead Boone should have pitched Hill against Freeman in the World Series instead of Cortes. Maybe we could have won that game.
If you look at Ohtani, Betts and Freeman’s career stats against Hill, you’d understand that Hill was gunna lose that game too….