White Sox Sign Tim Hill To One-Year Dea

The White Sox announced Thursday afternoon that the club has signed lefty reliever to a one-year, $1.8MM contract, as first reported by Jeff Pa san of ESPN ( ). A client of Paragon Sports International, Hill became a free agent when he was non-tendered by the Padres. That ended a four-year run in San Diego. The Padres had acquired the sidewinder from the Royals just before the 2020 season, sending outfielder to Kansas City. As one would expect for a lefty pitching from a low arm angle, he worked largely as a situational bullpen option. The Padres leveraged him heavily Tomás Nido Jersey against same-handed hitters, against whom he runs huge ground-ball tallies. Hill posted decent results from 2020-22, combining for a 3.72 ERA over 125 2/3 innings. Things went off the rails last season. He was tagged for a personal-high 5.48 earned runs per nine over 48 appearances. Thats in part a reflection of a career-high .349 average on balls in play, but Hills strikeout rate has plummeted over the past two seasons. After punching out nearly a quarter of opponents early in his career, he has fanned just under 13% of batters faced in each of the last two years. That combined with a spike in hard contact last season for the worst results of his career. San Diego let him go in lieu of a $2.4MM salary projection for his final year of arbitration. It didnt turn out too much worse for Hill in the end, as his salary with the White Sox is only $600K below the arbitration forecast. With over five years of major league service, the 33-year-old (34 in February) can no longer be sent to the minors. Hell open the year in Pedro Grifols bullpen. Hill offers a different look from hard-throwing , who projects as Chicagos top southpaw. Despite fastball velocity that sits around 90 MPH, Hill has kept left-handed batters to a modest .228/.313/.328 slash over the past four seasons. Lefty batters have put the ball on the ground on nearly 65% of their batted balls over that stretch. Righties have predictably given him far more trouble, running a .298/.361/.475 batting line during Hills time in San Diego. Chicago already has a full 40-man roster. Once they finalize their contract with Hill and a for catcher , theyll need to create a pair of vacancies. The low-cost signings bring their 2024 payroll projection to roughly $149MM, as calculated by . Image courtesy of USA Today Sports. Gavin Hollowell Jersey