Milwaukee Brewers Reportedly Showing “Significant Interest” in Rich Hill

After an incredibly slow start to the MLB offseason, the Milwaukee Brewers’ name has been linked to several different players over the last week or so. They’ve been rumored to have interest in Marcus Semien, who has since signed with Toronto, Eddie Rosario, who has signed with Cleveland, as well as Justin Turner.

As of yesterday, they were linked to Kolten Wong, only to sign him a short while later. And the newest rumor to surface is from WEEI’s Rob Bradford, as he reported that the Milwaukee Brewers are one of three teams showing “significant interest” in pitcher Rich Hill. The Rays and Mets are the other two.

The front-end of the Brewers rotation is going to be led by Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes. In the three and four spots will be Josh Lindblom and Adrian Houser — you pick the order — but there are some unknowns surrounding that fifth and final spot, which certainly makes Hill an intriguing free agent fit.

The soon to be 41-year-old Hill has been in the big leagues since 2005 when he came up with the Chicago Cubs. More recently, he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2017 to 2019. During that span, Hill made 62 starts and recorded a 3.30 ERA and a 3.89 FIP.

In 2020, Hill spent the shortened season with the Minnesota Twins. In 38.2 innings, he posted a 3.03 ERA and a 3.99 FIP. However, his strikeouts per nine took a dip while his walks per nine took a big jump. With that said, take those numbers as you will as 2020 wasn’t exactly the best year to get a gauge on a player.

When on the mound, Hill has been very effective during his career. He primarily throws only two pitches, a fastball, and a curveball, and they both come with very high spin rates, according to Baseball Savant. This has resulted in a hard-hit rate that is in the 88th percentile and an exit velocity that was in the 77th percentile in 2020.

The south-paw also has an excellent strikeout rate during his career of 25.3 percent; however, he is also prone to giving up a few walks with a walk rate of 9.5 percent.

While Hill has been a very effective pitcher when available, it’s worth noting that he has battled injuries. In fact, since his career began back in 2005, he has pitched in over 100 innings in a season only four times.

Last season we saw the Milwaukee Brewers and GM David Stearns bring in Brett Anderson to help solidify the back-end of the rotation, and he too had battled injuries during his career. But he was able to pitch in 47 innings during a shortened season and recorded a 4.21 ERA. Maybe the Brewers decide to make a similar move this season with Rich Hill.