Rich Hill, Nelson Cruz Defy Father Time, Find New Homes For 2023

Baseball’s oldest active players have found a lifeline that will extend their careers.

Pitcher Rich Hill, the oldest man in the majors at 43, has hooked on with the Pittsburgh Pirates, while Nelson Cruz, a few months younger, has signed with the San Diego Padres.

Maybe life really does begin at 40. Or maybe the lure of another seven-figure salary is too good to ignore.

Pittsburgh gave Hill an eight-year, $8 million salary, pending a physical, while Cruz accepted a cool $1 million from San Diego. Both have been vagabonds – especially in recent years.

Hill, a 6’5″ southpaw who launched his career with the 2005 Chicago Cubs, has pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Mets, and especially the Boston Red Sox, who signed him seven times.

Injuries and illness have interfered with his availability, however, and he even drifted back to the Long Island Ducks, an independent team, between major-league stints.

Used mainly as a starter, he’s never won more than a dozen games in a season and hasn’t done that since 2017. But he owns a decent 3.85 career earned run average and is considered both a reliable back-of-the-rotation arm and extra pitching coach – especially for a Pirates staff oozing with young arms.

In 2022, the veteran lefty went 8-7 in 26 starts for Boston, which reportedly sought to keep him. But neither the Sox nor the Rangers, two of the clubs seeking to sign him, could match Pittsburgh’s offer.

The Red Sox paid the pitcher $5 million last year, according to Baseball-Reference.com, but that was far below the peak salary of $18,666,666 that he received from the Dodgers at age 39 in 2019.

Hill and fellow signee Vince Velasquez are slated to join a rotation also likely to include holdovers Mitch Keller, JT Brubaker, and Roansy Contreras. That alignment is subject to change.

Pittsburgh, a perennial cellar-dweller in the National League Central, has added a half-dozen established players whose contracts expire this fall. In addition to Hill, they are pitchers Velasquez and Jarlin Garcia, catcher Austin Hedges, and first basemen Carlos Santana and Ji-Man Choi, who could also spent time as a designated hitter.

Adding the veterans pushes the Pittsburgh payroll to $70MM, up from $56 million last year, according to Roster Resource. The only Pirate under contract for 2024 is third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, although many other incumbent players remain under team control before becoming eligible for free agency. Hayes, who will earn $10 million this year, is the only Pittsburgh player who will earn more than Hill in 2023.

The Pirates went 62-100 last year, sharing the NL Central cellar with the Cincinnati Reds, and have not reached the playoffs since 2015 or the World Series since 1979.

Manager Derek Shelton, starting his fourth season, hopes the veteran additions help close the 31-game gap to the top of a division widely regarded as the weakest in the National League.

On the other hand, the National League could have a Wild Wild West after the San Diego Padres spent the winter spending – adding Xander Bogaerts, Matt Carpenter, Seth Lugo, Nick Martinez, and Robert Suarez, among others, before raiding the Old Age Home for Nelson Cruz.

Like Hill, Cruz is an 18-year veteran who began his big-league career in 2005 and is quite well-traveled. He has played for the Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, and Washington Nationals, where he hit .234 with 10 homers and 64 runs batted in last year.

Those numbers represented a sharp decline for the 6’2″ Dominican, a one-time outfielder now restricted to full-time duty as a designated hitter. A seven-time All-Star, Cruz has led his league in home runs and runs batted in and produced three 40-homer seasons.

But he’s topped 20 homers only once since 2019 and is obviously a shadow of his former self. In fact, he could form a right-left DH platoon with Carpenter, signed by San Diego several weeks earlier.

He’ll join a potent Padres pecking order that also includes former teammates Manny Machado and Juan Soto, the newly-signed Bogaerts, and the returning Fernando Tatis, Jr., who missed all of last year after suffering a fractured wrist and incurring a suspension for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs. That suspension ends April 20.

Cruz is expected to be a calming influence in a young and hungry clubhouse. Although the Padres advanced to the NL Championship Series last year before the Philadelphia Phillies turned them away to take the pennant, San Diego is considered a strong contender to dethrone the Dodgers in the 2023 NL West race.

Cruz adds valuable postseason experience. A one-time Most Valuable Player in the American League Championship Series and the author of 18 post-season homers, he once played in consecutive Fall Classics with the Rangers. He also won the 2021 Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the player who best exemplifies character, community involvement, and philanthropy.

Because of his reputation for good character and knowledge of the game, Cruz won’t be able to spend all of spring training with San Diego; he’s been named general manager of the Dominican team in the World Baseball Classic, which begins in March, and will also play for that team.

The Padres have not reached the World Series since 1998 and have never won it. But they’re banking on a big payroll to produce better results than last year, when they went 89-73 and finished 22 games behind the Dodgers before reaching the playoffs as one of three NL wild-card winners.

Roster Resource puts San Diego’s payroll at a club-record $250 million, up from their previous high of $211, paid last year. The Padres will thus be paying the luxury tax for the third year in a row.