Ex-Red Sox Pitcher Reportedly Signs With Pirates To Continue Storied Career

Boston has one less option in the free agency pool

Scott Neville | Dec 27, 2022

Ex-Red Sox Pitcher Reportedly Signs With Pirates To Continue Storied Career /

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Up until Tuesday, three-fifths of the Boston Red Sox's 2022 Opening Day rotation sat in free agency.

Now the Red Sox reportedly will have one less option to re-sign while the club attempts to reconfigure its roster.

"Left-hander Rich Hill and the Pittsburgh Pirates are in agreement on a one-year, $8 million contract, ESPN's Jeff Passan tweeted Tuesday. "Hill, who turns 43 in March, is entering his 19th big league season after making 26 starts and throwing 124.1 innings for Boston this year."

Hill went 8-7 with a serviceable 4.27 ERA, 109-to-37 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 1.30 WHIP last season.

After the southpaw's third stint in Boston, he's spent more time with his hometown Red Sox than any other of the 11 teams he's played for (he spent four seasons with both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs).

Despite rumors of Hill wanting to stay close to home and contemplating either retiring or waiting until the Major League Baseball trade deadline to sign -- it appears as if Hill is ready to make another 162-game run on the 12th team of his career.

He'll serve as a much-need veteran for a young Pirates team that could use his leadership.

As for the Red Sox, a reunion never made much sense. Boston needs an impact pitcher. Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Wacha fit said description much better than Hill.

Hill would have served as a depth option, an area the Red Sox do not need to improve on.

They already feature Tanner Houck, Josh Winckowski, Kutter Crawford and Connor Seabold as depth options with Bryan Mata, Connor Murphy and Brandon Walter expected to elevate into reliable starters in the near future.

It's nice to see Hill continue his career but it's probably for the best that he didn't attempt to do so with the Red Sox.

More MLB: Red Sox Insider Believes Boston's Most Durable Starter Is On Trade Block

Published Dec 27, 2022

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu