The Pirates ended up getting that coveted extra starter Tuesday, as they are in agreement with veteran lefty Rich Hill for a one-year, $8 million deal, per source.
The deal is pending a physical.
Hill is coming off an 8-7 campaign where he recorded a 4.27 ERA over 124 1/3 innings and 26 starts for the Red Sox. He did play in one of the best hitting divisions in the league, and his advanced stats were a little more flattering (4.08 expected ERA, 3.92 FIP), thanks to decent strikeout (7.9 strikeouts per nine innings) and batted ball metrics (a better than average 88.2 mph average exit velocity allowed).
He relies primarily on his curveball and four-seamer, though he had much better results with the breaking ball. Last year, hitters had a .231 batting average and .379 slugging percentage against his curveball, while they hit .318 with a .547 slugging clip against the fastball.
He also periodically mixes in a cutter, slider and changeup.
Hill, who will turn 43 in March, will be entering his 19th major-league season and is set to be the oldest player in baseball now that Albert Pujols has retired.
Over his 18 year career, Hill has an 82-59 record with a 3.85 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 16.6 WAR over 350 games pitched, 221 of which were starts. His career caught a second wind in late 2015 after a successful September call-up with the Red Sox, and he has bounced around the league posting mostly above-average results ever since, though in usually limited innings. He's thrown at least 140 innings just twice in his career, back in 2007 and in 2021, as injuries tend to limit him.
Hill made two trips to the injured list this past season, including for a left knee sprain. Blisters have been a recurring problem for him during his career as well.
One of Hill's career highlights came at PNC Park back in 2017 when he was pitching for the Dodgers. After pitching nine no-hit innings, Hill was tasked to pitch the 10th of a scoreless game, where Josh Harrison hit a walk-off home run to win it for the Pirates.
Random Pirates Quarantine Clip #3:
— Pirates of the Allegheny (@OfTheAllegheny) March 23, 2020
Josh Harrison breaks up Rich Hill’s no-hitter with a walkoff homerun in the 10th inning: pic.twitter.com/w6zGLj7h9b
Hill is the second starter the Pirates have added this winter, the first being Vince Velasquez, who signed a one-year, $3.15 million deal earlier this month. Adding a pair of starting pitchers had long been a goal for the Pirates this offseason, and Ben Cherington hinted at it still being a possibility recently.
"That market’s been strong, but we continue to stay engaged with some free agents and trade opportunities," Cherington said last week. "Both of those can be hard to speculate, in terms of how likely it is to line up, but we would still like to add another starting pitcher to our group."
Hill and Velasquez will join a rotation that should include Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras and JT Brubaker, as well as a collection of prospects who should make the leap to the majors at some point (Luiz Ortiz, Mike Burrows and Quinn Priester) and potentially other pitchers who started last year (Johan Oviedo, Zach Thompson and Bryse Wilson).
