NEW YORK — Tim Hill was sitting in his Chicago apartment in June 2024, waiting for his phone to ring. He had just been designated for assignment by the Chicago White Sox, the team that would go on to lose 121 games that season, the most in MLB history. He did not know what came next.
“That was a week where I questioned some things,” Hill told NJ.com. “There’s a lot of uncertainty as far as what’s next, so that was pretty stressful.”
Six days later, the New York Yankees called. And what has followed is one of the more quietly compelling stories in the sport.
A journey that started long before the big leagues
Tim Hill was born on Feb. 10, 1990, in Mission Hills, California, and grew up in the Los Angeles area. He was not a highly recruited prospect. He went undrafted out of high school and spent his freshman college year at Palomar College, a junior college in San Marcos, Calif., before transferring to Bacone College in Muskogee, Okla.
At Bacone, Hill developed into a legitimate prospect. His senior year, he went 10-2 with a 1.89 ERA. The Kansas City Royals drafted him in the 32nd round of the 2014 draft. It was a late-round flier on a quirky left-handed sinkerball pitcher with a sidearm delivery that generated unusual angles.
Then, before he could prove anything, everything stopped. In 2015, Hill missed the entire season while undergoing treatment for Stage 3 colon cancer. He was a minor leaguer with no major league service time. He was fighting for his life.
He beat it. He came back in 2016 and pitched. He worked his way through the Royals system. In 2018, he made his MLB debut on Opening Day, at age 28, four years after being drafted and three years after surviving cancer. The journey had taken a decade.
Good years, a bad year, and the White Sox bottom
Hill spent two seasons with Kansas City before joining the San Diego Padres, where he put together his best stretch of work. From 2020 through 2022 he was a reliable presence in a quality bullpen, posting solid numbers with a fastball that sat in the upper 80s but moved unlike anything hitters expected from that arm slot.
His final year in San Diego did not go as well. The 2023 season produced numbers that did not reflect how he was pitching, and the White Sox signed him for 2024 only to see the results worsen. Hill posted a 5.87 ERA in 27 outings before Chicago designated him in June.
He cleared waivers. He was released. Then the Yankees picked up the phone.
The three words that explain why the Yankees wanted him
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the organization had been watching Hill for years, even when he was in San Diego.
“I know our guys always liked him, even going back to when he was in San Diego,” Boone told NJ.com. “We thought there was a little more meat on the bone, too.”
Those eight words captured the Yankees approach to Hill’s acquisition. They saw a left-handed reliever with a genuinely difficult delivery, a track record of success against both left-handed and right-handed hitters, and a body of work that suggested recent results were not the full picture.
Hill admitted the transition to New York was not without nerves.
“When I got to New York, it was like, ‘All right, cool, I’m here,'” he said. “But at that point, you’ve got to assume that you’re the lowest man on the totem pole. So any roster move, it can be you. Just being in that role was kind of stressful in the beginning.”
A 2.05 ERA, a World Series, and a vested option
Working with Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, Hill quickly became one of the best relievers on the staff. He posted a 2.05 ERA over 44 innings in 35 appearances during the second half of 2024. It was the best stretch of his career. The Yankees went on to reach the 2024 World Series, losing to the Dodgers. Hill pitched in Game 2 at Dodger Stadium, his hometown stadium, with his mother in the stands. He threw 1 and one-third scoreless innings.
The Yankees rewarded him with a one-year deal worth $2.85 million that included a club option for 2026. He pitched well again in 2025. The team’s first roster move of the following offseason was vesting that $3 million option. The once-released White Sox castoff was now a signed and valued part of a World Series-caliber roster.
Still dealing in 2026
Three appearances into the 2026 Yankees season, Hill has not allowed a run. He worked 3 and one-third scoreless innings, faced 10 batters and retired nine of them, including three on strikeouts and one on a double-play groundball. He is part of a Yankees bullpen group, alongside Camilo Doval, Jake Bird and Brent Headrick, that collectively has been one of the best relief units in baseball through the first week of the season.
The Yankees bullpen allowed just one run over its first 17 innings before a brief stumble against Seattle. Hill was a key part of that stretch. His funky, deceptive delivery gives Aaron Boone a weapon no other Yankees reliever provides. He keeps the ball down, limits hard contact and uses his arm angle to make even high-velocity hitters uncomfortable.
He beat cancer. He bounced through four organizations. He was cast aside by the worst team in MLB history. Now he is a trusted piece of a Yankees bullpen chasing a championship.
“He’s a gamer, he’s a dog, he is fearless,” a Yankees teammate said, via NJ.com.
Not bad for a 35-year-old who was drafted in the 32nd round and had to fight to stay alive before he ever reached the big leagues.
Do you agree? What do you think?
