The Yankees needed Tim Hill to be steady on Saturday. Instead, the eighth inning turned into the kind of mess New York can’t afford anymore.
Trailing the Blue Jays 2-1, Aaron Boone went to Hill to try to keep the game within reach. That plan fell apart fast.
Hill got only two outs, loaded the bases with no outs after two singles and a hit-by-pitch, and watched Toronto stretch the lead when Charles McAdoo delivered an RBI single and Nathan Lukes followed with an RBI groundout. By the time Yerry De los Santos finally ended the frame, the Yankees were staring at a 4-1 deficit.
They went down in order in the ninth and dropped another series to an AL East opponent.
For a bullpen that once leaned on Hill as a dependable left-handed weapon, the latest outing only sharpened the concern: he’s no longer giving the Yankees the same kind of relief they got in 2024 and 2025.
That’s a tough turn, because Hill was a major find after the Yankees signed him as a free agent in June 2024. He posted a 2.05 ERA across 35 regular-season appearances the rest of that year and gave up just two runs in 10 postseason outings. The club brought him back the next offseason on a one-year, $2.85 million deal with a $3 million club option for 2026, and he rewarded them again by appearing in 70 games and putting up a 3.09 ERA before New York exercised the option.
This season has looked very different. After the Blue Jays tagged him on Saturday, Hill’s ERA climbed to 4.63 in 55 games, and his FIP has jumped to 5.78 from 4.30 in 2025.
August has been especially rough: five runs and two home runs in just six innings. His 2026 fWAR sits at minus-0.8.
The drop-off shows up in the way hitters are approaching him. Last season, batters chased 34.5% of Hill’s pitches outside the strike zone, a rate that ranked in the 96th percentile on Baseball Savant.
This year, that number has fallen to 28.6%, which sits in the 30th percentile. For a pitcher who makes his living by coaxing weak contact rather than piling up strikeouts, that matters.
When hitters stop expanding the zone, Hill has to come back over the plate - and his stuff is getting hit hard, with a 43.7% hard-hit rate.
The Yankees also don’t have much room to patch the problem. They didn’t add a bullpen arm before the August 3 trade deadline, so the relief burden has shifted even more onto Brent Headrick, who has already made 63 appearances. If Headrick fades, New York will have only its own deadline inactivity to blame.
In Other News...
Yankees Suddenly Owe Anthony Volpe Answers After This Latest Pivot
Anthony Volpe went from being the Yankees starting shortstop and a central figure in last years World Series run to a very different stage of his career path, one that now has him in Triple-A Scranton and learning a new position. The move marks a clear acknowledgement from the organization that his development has hit a turning point, and it has turned a once straightforward role into a much more complicated question for the franchise.
For the Yankees, the bigger picture is what comes next and how they envision Volpe fitting into it. A shift like this suggests they are thinking beyond the immediate season, with the possibility of Volpe elsewhere on the infield as part of a longer-term alignment that could also involve George Lombard Jr. Those are the kinds of decisions that reshape a roster, and they leave Volpe with plenty to prove before any future plans become reality. [Read more 🡒]
DJ LeMahieu Is Giving Yankees Fans A New Reason To Smile
DJ LeMahieu spent the summer in a different dugout, taking on his first season as manager of the Royal Oak Leprechauns in the Northwoods League and helping a collegiate roster find its footing when it mattered most. The path was anything but smooth, with the team squeezing into the playoffs in the final week of the regular season before riding that late surge into a Great Lakes Division title.
Royal Oak kept going from there, toppling the St. Cloud Rox in the championship game and finishing with a trophy in LeMahieus debut season at the helm. For Yankees fans used to seeing him in a different role, it is a small but real reminder that the veteran still has a feel for guiding a team through pressure, even if the setting and uniforms are a little different. [Read more 🡒]
Aaron Boone Weighs Yankees Lineup Shakeup As Slumping Bats Mount
Aaron Boone is clearly at the point where the Yankees recent offensive drift has him revisiting the board more than usual. After a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, the manager said he has been spending extra time on lineup construction as New York tries to find a better rhythm at the plate, and the conversation has naturally turned to a few regulars who have been scuffling.
Heliot Ramos, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice have all been part of the broader issue, and Boones willingness to keep weighing alternatives suggests the Yankees are not treating the current order as fixed. Nothing has been finalized yet, but with the bats still searching for traction, the next lineup card could look different than the one that has been carrying this stretch of frustration. [Read more 🡒]