Rich Hill has a reason to watch his phone closely.
At the ripe old baseball age of 45, the Kansas City Royals put a call into Hill in 2025. Even with 386 MLB games on his pitching resume for 13 clubs (7 clubs signed Hill after the 2019 season), the American League West club inquired if the Boston native still had bullets left in his seemingly ageless left-throwing arm.
In need of pitching relief in mid-season, the Royals signed Hill. After tossing 42 innings for their Triple-A affiliate Omaha Storm Chasers, and compiling a 4–4 record, the Royals sent for Hill to do what he has become the best at doing among MLB pitchers—plugging holes during emergency staffing periods.
Called up on July 22, 2025, starting at Chicago’s Wrigley Field against the Cubs, the club that drafted him out of college in 2002, Hill gave the Royals organization the needed time for regular hurlers to return to the roster. Two starts, and one week later on July 29, Kansas City designated Hill for assignment and released him.
Suiting up for both the Storm Chasers and the Royals brought the number of teams Hill has played for to 37, counting minors and majors. With spring training camps now less than one week before breaking from Florida and Arizona en route for the start of the 2026 MLB regular season, this is the time Hill could begin checking his messages a bit more often.
Injuries often happen during the most inopportune stretch of a club’s schedule. That is when clubs break the glass that reads, in case of an emergency, call Rich Hill. For a start or two, or three, Hill’s phone number is the one general managers have on speed dial.
So far, there is no indication that Father Time has caught up with the veteran pitcher of 21 MLB seasons. Being a lefty surely plays into Hill receiving multiple chances at his age. Since 2010, nearly three quarters of MLB pitchers have been right-handed. Supply and demand, even for players such as Hill needed in a limited role, dictates who gets a second, third, or fourth chance to prove they belong in the major leagues.
On Jan. 20, well before 2026 spring training camps opened in February, while appearing on Boston sports radio WEEI’s “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast with Rob Bradford, Hill spoke about his immediate future with baseball.
“I’m looking for open possibilities to stay in the game of baseball and be a contributory factor,” Hill told Bradford. “I enjoy the work aspect of whatever it might be that’s next. I think that’s ... why athletes get hired in other positions and outside of sports is because they are highly driven people that want to succeed. And that’s something that I’m looking forward to.”
After pitching at the University of Michigan for three years, Hill’s MLB pitching odyssey began with the Cubs for four seasons (2005–2008). He then traveled to Baltimore for the 2009 season, followed in 2010–2012 by his hometown Boston Red Sox, then a year with the Cleveland Indians in 2013.
When 2014 came around, Hill split the season between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and in the spring of 2015, Hill was back with Boston for a second stint. The 2016 season again saw Hill play for two different teams again in the same season—the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers. In the following three MLB campaigns (2017–2019), Hill once again wore the Dodgers colors. A Minnesota Twin in 2020, a Tampa Bay Ray and New York Met in 2021, and a Red Sox for a third time in the 2022 season, Hill kept answering general managers’ calls.
In 2023, Hill began the season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and finished it as a San Diego Padre. The 2024 season came with Boston (fourth tenure with the club) for four games. Finally, in 2025, came the two games with the Royals.
250 starts, a 90–76 record, 1,418 innings worked, ringing up 1,432 strikeouts, it’s understandable to question what else Hill may have to accomplish.
Among other pitchers known for their longevity on the mound, Justin Verlander, 43, of the Detroit Tigers, is chasing 300 wins. 2026 will be Verlander’s 21st MLB season. Max Scherzer of the Toronto Blue Jays is entering his 19th MLB season and will turn 42 in July. When Jamie Moyer pitched for the Colorado Rockies in 2012, his 25th MLB campaign, he was 49 years old.
So there is hope that Hill hasn’t thrown his last MLB pitch. He and former pitcher Edwin Jackson share the record for playing for the most MLB clubs (14). After age 39, Hill appeared for seven different clubs.
Always the optimist, when first joining the Storm Chasers last season, Hill spoke with KETV’s Matt Sottile on July 14, 2025, in Omaha, Nebraska, about his reasons for returning general managers’ calls.
“The main goal is to get back to the postseason and possibly help a team achieve a World Series,” he told KETV. “If I didn’t think that I could go out there and compete and either didn’t have the love or the ability, one of those two things, I wouldn’t be here.”
Given his track record, there’s little reason to believe that Hill couldn’t be coaxed out of a “temporary retirement” in 2026 to secure one more strikeout, one more victory, or one more ovation from fans who appreciate his longevity and love of the game.
