Guardians Rumors: Cleveland among teams ‘in the mix’ for former Yankees reliever

On Tuesday afternoon, Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told The Athletic’s Zack Mesiel that Cleveland is preparing to raise its payroll this season. And the early indications make it seem like that’s going to be the case. 

On Wednesday night, MLB insider Jon Heyman reported the Guardians were among the teams interested in left-handed reliever Tim Hill, who just finished off a successful 2 1/2 year run at the back of the Yankees’ bullpen. He may not be Tarik Skubal, but something is better than nothing. 

The Guardians have some interest in free agent reliever Tim Hill

Although Hill’s 2026 stats weren’t that impressive (4.60 ERA in 58 2/3 innings), he’s just a year removed from posting a 3.09 ERA in the back of the Yankees ‘pen, and 1 1/2 years removed from being a key cog in their bullpen on their quest to the World Series. 

It’s easy to see why the Guardians would be interested in Hill considering he racks up ground balls at an unprecedented rate (MLB-leading 68.2% ground ball rate in 2026) while also limiting free passes (5.4%). The biggest “problem" with his arsenal is he gets almost no swing and miss, which can lead to some homer problems since he needs to pound the zone to be effective. 

The best stretch of Hill’s career came midway through the 2024 season when the Yankees acquired him off waivers from the White Sox. He ended up recording a 2.05 ERA in 44 innings with New York that year before allowing one earned run in 8 1/3 innings on their run to the World Series. 

Even if Hill never reaches those heights again, he’s still a dangerous weapon against lefties, as southpaws still hit just .211 last year despite his overall struggles. That would make him a dangerous weapon in Cleveland’s bullpen alongside Erik Sabrowski and (potentially) Tim Herrin. While Herrin’s projected $1.3 million salary is far less than Hill would garner, he had some pretty significant struggles of his own in 2026 and seemed to fall out of Stephen Vogt’s trust tree as the season went on. 

HIll pitched on a one-year, $3 million contract last year after signing a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Yankees in 2025, so he'd likely garner a contract somewhere around that number of 2027.

The Guardians already made one lefty addition to their pitching depth with Antoine Kelly, but adding Hill would change their big league calculus. 

There’s still a lot of time left before now and the start of the 2027 season (whenever it happens), but it seems like Antonetti and Co. are ready to dive into free agency in a way we haven’t seen in a while.

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