Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Rich Hill Chronicles

Of all people from when I started collecting in 2007 to still be active in the MLB, I never would have guessed Rich Hill would be one of them. I mean, there's not a ton of people left who were around in 2007. Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Adam Wainwright, Nelson Cruz, Zack Greinke. And then, uh...and then Rich Hill.

Y'know, the guy who got injured in 2008, struggled with Baltimore in 2009, and we all sorta figured would never fully recover. 

Now, let's play that game for a second. Rich Hill, Cubs prospect who becomes a young fireballer for them in 2006 and 2007, making up for the lack of Mark Prior, and then gets injured and has a tough time coming back. 2009, Topps does make a card of him with the O's, he doesn't do well. 

Prior to the 2010 season he's signed to a minor league deal with the Cardinals. A rare sight for Hill for this post in that it is an NL team. Hill is grouped with the starters, and competing against Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse, Jeff Suppan, Brad Penny and eventually Jaime Garcia proves to be an uphill battle. Hill does not make camp with the team, and is cut prior to the season. I've covered a lot of careers in this series, and that can usually mean the end of the line as far as MLB service is concerned.

Wellll...not in this case...

I think one of the defining factors in Hill's continued success into the 2010s is that he's very much a Boston resident. We don't have a ton of MLBers from the Northeast that really wear their region on their sleeves anymore. You can argue we have Todd Frazier, the Jersey Shore native, or New York natives like Marcus Stroman or Andrew Velasquez, but Hill is very much a Bostoner, and I think that's what drew the Sox to bring him on. Y'know, local boy, lives locally, let's bring him on. So they did. Hill was used in bit relief roles, gave up no earned runs, 5 hits, and notched a win. The Sox kept him on going forward.

Hill's 2011 season was slightly more productive, but he still only had 9 appearances. Here he struck out 10, gave up 3 hits and still zero earned runs. The Sox kept bringing him back year after year, including 2012, which I've already done a custom of.

The Cleveland Indians beat Boston to the punch for 2013, and signed Hill knowing they'd be in need of bullpen help. 2013 was Hill's fullest year as a reliever, making 63 appearances and facing the most batters he'd had since starting in Baltimore. Granted, he left the year with a 6.28 ERA and only 53 Ks, but it told teams he could be a reliable relief piece again.

Prior to the 2014 season he was actually signed to another minor league deal by the Red Sox, as they figured it'd be easy enough to bring him back. This time he would not make camp, and would be waived over to the Angels, where he'd appear in two games and finish with an infinite ERA. Eventually he made his way to a very unfamiliar setting for a lifelong Boston resident:

Yes, Rich Hill, the man famous for getting in a fight in the parking lot of Gillette Stadium, had to suit up for the New York Yankees in 2014. I have no idea how he went through with it. He did a pretty decent job in the Bronx, finishing the season with a 1.69 ERA [very fitting for a man nicknamed Dick Mountain], and striking out 9 in 14 appearances.

Hill actually attended camp in 2015 with the Nationals, but, again due to the breadth of both their rotation and their bullpen, he didn't end up making the team. He stayed on as a minor leaguer for a bit but was cut midway through the year. And then, as the 2015 season rolled to a close...Boston once again came calling.

The Red Sox, thanks to injuries to Clay Buchholz and too many unfamiliar arms like Henry Owens, Steven Wright and late-career Justin Masterson failing to keep runs down, were low on starters. As usual, Rich Hill was local and stayed in shape with a few games playing for the Long Island Ducks, so they signed him and had him come up through Worcester, where he notched a 2.78 ERA in 5 starts. Once he made it back to Fenway, he started 4 games in September, and turned the heads of the entirety of the league, posting a 1.55 ERA, 36 strikeouts and a 2-1 record. The man that everyone thought was cooked was officially back.

Hill would use this incredible end to the season to sign with Oakland for 2016, make his was to LA via a trade, and become a very steady low-rotation arm for Minnesota, Tampa, the Mets, and, yes, the Boston Red Sox, who he started 26 games for last year at the ripe old age of 42.

Rich Hill is currently in camp with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and thanks to the dilution of that organization, he is a favorite to make a rotation spot this year. I hope he keeps pitching for as long as he wants to, a guy like him is really good for baseball.