Rich Hill is fondly remembered as one of the A’s best buy-low free agent signings of the past few years. In 2015, the 35 year-old fought his way from independent ball to the Major Leagues where he made four dominant starts for the Boston Red Sox. He turned this into a one year, $6 million contract with Oakland where he would make 14 more great starts before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline.
Hill’s age and injuries took a couple miles per hour off of his fastball, and he was forced to reinvent himself.