The Yankees have plenty to sort out in their bullpen this offseason, but one familiar name shouldn’t be high on the list.
Tim Hill is on the market again, and according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post, the Yankees are interested in bringing him back. Heyman also reported that the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Guardians are “in the mix.”
The Yankees already have bigger priorities than a reunion with Hill. David Bednar, who received the qualifying offer, and breakout setup man Paul Blackburn are both free agents, and those are the arms New York should be focused on keeping. The club needs to reshape the 2025 and 2026 rosters, not simply rerun the old one.
Hill’s track record with the Yankees gives them a reason to think twice. He posted a 2.0 bWAR from 2024-25, but last season was a rough one: a 4.60 ERA, 5.93 FIP and 0.0 bWAR across 67 appearances and 58.2 innings. That slump was enough to leave him off the Yankees’ postseason roster in both rounds.
The lefty still handled left-handed hitters well, holding them to a .213/.265/.346 line. The problem was everything else.
Right-handers tagged him for a .293 average and seven home runs, and his stuff backed up in 2026. His deceptive delivery and arm angle just weren’t fooling hitters the way they had before.
The strikeout numbers tell the story, too. Hill had only a 10.4% strikeout rate and didn’t miss enough bats or get enough chases.
He also sat in the 12th percentile for hard hit rate at 43.4%, according to Baseball Savant. His sinker, his best pitch, averaged 88.3 mph, while his four-seamer sat at 89.2 mph.
For a Yankees bullpen that needs more velocity, that’s not much to work with.
Hill did still do one thing at an elite level: he kept the ball on the ground. His 68.9% ground ball rate last season ranked in the 100th percentile in baseball. But that was about the only steady positive in a season that pushed him out of the Yankees’ late-season plans.
Now entering his age-37 season, Hill looks like the kind of reliever New York can replace more cheaply, either on the open market or from within. The Yankees need more high-leverage arms, and Hill wasn’t one of them last season.
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