Royals called Rich Hill, making MLB's history and Lefty their oldest active player

Dick Mountain is back, and he’s older than ever. The Kansas City Royals plan to call up 45-year-old pitcher Rich Hill from the minors for a start against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, marking the left-hander’s 21st season in the majors.

The Royals will be the 14th different team that Hill has played for in his career, tying him with Edwin Jackson for the most of any player in MLB history. He also automatically becomes the oldest player in Royals’ history, MLB’s oldest active player, the oldest to appear in an MLB game since Ichiro Suzuki in 2019, and MLB’s oldest starting pitcher since the days of Jamie Moyer, who retired after the 2012 season at 49 years old.

In a nifty coincidence, the Cubs, Hill’s opponent on Tuesday, were the first of his teams: both the Reds (1999) and Angels (2001) drafted him prior to Chicago selecting him in the fourth round of the 2002 MLB Draft, and he would debut with them as a 25-year-old in 2005. Hill then pitched for the Orioles, Red Sox, Cleveland, Angels, Yankees, Red Sox again, Athletics, Dodgers, Twins, Rays, Mets, Red Sox a third time, Pirates, Padres, and, in 2024, the Red Sox yet again.

Hill has been at Triple-A Omaha after joining the Royals on May 14 as a free agent. While he is 4-4 with a 5.36 ERA in nine starts at Omaha, the International League’s ERA is 4.69, or, 0.6 runs higher than that of MLB this year, and Omaha’s home stadium, Werner Park, is hitter-friendly owing to its short dimensions down the lines.

Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro confirmed the club’s plans to promote Hill after Monday night’s 12-4 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Hill made 11 postseason starts during his four years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, including two World Series starts in 2017 and another in 2018. He went 11-5 during the latter regular season.

Hill is 90-74 with a 4.01 ERA and 107 ERA+ in 368 career MLB games. He has pitched 1,409 innings and has struck out 1,428. Tuesday’s start will make him one of just 122 players in MLB history to appear in at least 21 seasons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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