Pitcher Rich Hill, 42, ‘agrees one-year, $8m contract with the Pirates’ to become the OLDEST player in MLB next season (…and he’s got one of the best nicknames in the game, too!)
- The three-time Red Sox player joins his 12th MLB team in the space of 19 years
- Hill was once given the nickname ‘D*** Mountain’ by an ex-Boston teammate
- In 2011, Brock Holt thought it would be funny to just call him ‘D***’ & ‘Mountain’
- He later revealed that he was simply trying to find antonyms for ‘Rich’ and ‘Hill’
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Left-handed pitcher Rich Hill has agreed to a one-year, $8 million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates and has now become the oldest player to feature in MLB next season.
Joining his 12th big league team in 19 years, Hill turns 43 in March and was playing for the Boston Red Sox last season, for whom he started 26 games and threw 124-and-a-third innings. He was averaging a 4.27 ERA and had become somewhat of a five-inning maestro.
Hill’s signing would add much needed experience to a young Red Sox bullpen, which includes right-handers Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, Luis Ortiz and Johan Oviedo.
Left-hander Rich Hill, 42, is set to join the Pittsburgh Pirates, his 12th MLB team in 19 seasons
Hill is often called ‘D*** Mountain’ after an ex-teammate looked for antonyms of his two names
Right-handed prospects Quinn Priester and Mike Burrows are also expected to be part of the team’s pitching roster next year after finishing last season at AAA level.
Hill previously adopted the nickname ‘D*** Mountain’ during his first of three stints in Boston in 2011, after former utility player Brock Holt thought it would be funny to just call him ‘D***’ and ‘Mountain’ for Rich and Hill. Not long afterwards, it simply turned into ‘D*** Mountain.’
The 42-year-old claims that he still gets regularly called ‘D*** Mountain’ leaguewide.
Hill is two months younger than ex-St. Louis Cardinals first baseman and designated hitter Albert Pujols. Last year, he was the second-oldest player in the league behind the now-retired two-World Series champion.
Hill is MLB’s oldest professional player now that St. Louis Cardinal Albert Pujols, 42, has retired
Drafted as a fourth-round pick by the Chicago Cubs in 2002, Hill has gone on to play for the Baltimore Iroiles, the Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees before joining the independent Long Island Ducks in 2015.
He then returned to Boston for a second state before going to Oakland in 2016. The 42-year-old was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he spent four seasons.
His MLB career continued after he signed with the Minnesota Twins in 2020 before featuring for the Tampa Bay Rays last year and being traded to the New York Mets. Hill then rebounded in Boston for a third stint last season.
Over the course of a 19-year career, Hill holds an ERA average of 3.85 and an overall 82-59 record. In 1,259 innings, he has struck out 1,294 batters, walked 482 and allowed 151 home runs.
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