News Guardians Team Notes

Rich Hill Not Planning To Play In 2026

Left-hander Rich Hill doesn’t want to use the word but it seems to be leaning towards retirement. Appearing on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, Hill was asked by host Rob Bradford if he was retiring and said “I don’t have any plans on playing next year.” The situation is somewhat analogous to that of Joe Kelly, who announced on the same podcast last month that he didn’t want to use the word “retire” but wasn’t planning on playing anymore.

“I’m looking for open possibilities to stay in the game of baseball and be a contributory factor,” Hill continued. “I enjoy the work aspect of whatever it might be that’s next. I think that’s one thing that… why athletes get hired in other positions and other… outside of sports is because they are highly-driven people that want to succeed. And that’s something that I’m looking forward to.”

It’s not shocking that Hill is slowly wafting into the next stage of his career. Though he did pitch in the 2025 season, he was easily the oldest player in the league. He was 45 years old when he suited up for the Royals and will turn 46 in March. Though he has continued pitching to an age when most other players have called it quits long ago, he did so with some unconventional approaches. He waited until midseason to sign in 2024 in a deliberate attempt to be more fresh for a stretch run.

If this is indeed the end, it will wrap up one of the more unique arcs of a player in recent history. Hill was drafted by the Cubs way back in 2002 and made his major league debut in 2005. He didn’t find immediate success but had a really good season in 2007, posting a 3.92 earned run average over 32 starts.

But from there, he went into a really challenging period of his career. He struggled with results and health for many years, leading him to be bounced between the majors and minors and between various different organizations. From 2008 to 2014, he tossed a total of 153 innings split between the Cubs, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, the Angels and Yankees. He posted a 5.41 ERA over that stretch.

2015 would turn out to be an incredible comeback season. He started the year on a minor league deal with the Nationals. He opted out of that contract in June and signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. He made just two starts for that club but struck out 21 opponents in 11 innings. That was enough to get him back into affiliated baseball via a minor league deal with the Red Sox.

Boston called him up in September and he made four starts as the season was winding down. In those, he logged 29 innings with a 1.55 ERA. He had a mammoth 34% strikeout rate, a tiny 4.7% walk rate and a strong 48.4% ground ball rate. That was a tiny sample size but the Athletics made a bet on it, signing Hill to a one-year, $6MM deal for 2016. That wager paid off handsomely, with Hill giving the A’s 14 starts with a 2.25 ERA.

At that year’s deadline, he was traded to the Dodgers alongside Josh Reddick, with the A’s getting Frankie Montas, Grant Holmes, and Jharel Cotton in return. Hill gave the Dodgers six starts with an ERA of 1.83 and then three postseason starts with a 3.46 ERA.

The Dodgers were happy enough with that showing to bring Hill back via a three-year, $48MM contract. That was a pretty staggering deal for a 37-year-old who was not too far removed from being in indy ball but it worked out well. He logged 327 innings over those three seasons with a 3.30 ERA, plus 37 postseason innings with a 2.43 ERA.

After that deal ran its course, Hill went into his 40s and mercenary mode. He signed a series of one-year deal with the Twins, Rays, Red Sox and Pirates. In 2023, he seemed to wear down as the season went along, not surprising for a 43-year-old. His 4.76 ERA with Pittsburgh was still respectable but he collapsed after a deadline deal to the Padres, posting an 8.23 ERA after the swap.

As mentioned, he then tried to think outside the box to continue as an effective big league pitcher. He planned to intentionally sign at midseason in 2024 in order to spend more time with his family and also save his bullets for the second half and postseason. He stayed unsigned until inking a minor league deal with the Red Sox in August. He did get called up but only for four relief appearances before being released. In 2025, he signed a minor league deal with the Royals in May. He got called up in July but was designated for assignment after just two starts.

Given the unusual shape of his career and his willingness to buck conventions, it’s possible he’ll change his mind and find his way back to the mound. But if Hill doesn’t make it back to the majors, he will finish with 1,418 innings tossed over 388 games for 14 different clubs. In that time, he posted a 4.02 ERA but will likely be best remembered for the 2015-2021 run which saw him post a 3.15 ERA in his late 30s and early 40s. Baseball Reference pegs his career earnings over $75MM, most of that coming to Hill in his late-career surge. We at MLB Trade Rumors salute him on a fine career, which may or may not be done, and wish him the best on whatever is next.

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/01/rich-hill-not-planning-to-play-in-2026.html
 
Guardians Close To Extension With Jose Ramirez

Jose Ramirez appears to be nearing another extension with the Guardians that will keep the third baseman in Cleveland through his age-39 season in 2032. Z101 Digital’s Hector Gomez was the first to report about the agreement and described it as complete, while Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes that the Guards and Ramirez’s reps at Republik Sports are still “working on” the new arrangement.

Ramirez still has three seasons and $69MM remaining on the seven-year, $141MM extension he signed with Cleveland in April 2022. Gomez writes that this new extension will pay $106MM more to Ramirez over the 2029-32 seasons, but there will be some restructuring of Ramirez’s salary. As per Heyman, the Guardians will defer $70MM of the $175MM they will owe the seven-time All-Star over the next seven seasons.

More to come…
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/01/guardians-close-to-extension-with-jose-ramirez.html
 
Where Can The Guardians Spend The Money Saved On The Ramírez Deal?

The Guardians hammered out their third extension with José Ramírez over the weekend. While the team still hasn't announced the contract as of Wednesday evening, it reportedly runs through his age-39 season. It more or less confirms that Ramírez will be a one-team superstar, but the biggest impact in the short term is that it involved a restructure to give the team some spending room.

Ramírez will reportedly be paid $25MM annually over the next seven seasons. $10MM of each season's salary is deferred until 2036. He'd been slated for a non-deferred $21MM salary this season. They saved $6MM against the 2026 payroll and $8MM and $10MM, respectively, over the following two years.

Any mention of the Guardians spending money is going to be met with sarcasm and skepticism. That's warranted given their usual spending habits, but this year's payroll would be extreme even by their standards. There'll almost certainly be a notable acquisition or two before Opening Day.

Cleveland has 12 players, including their arbitration class, signed for the upcoming season. Their salaries break down as follows:


They'll also pay the Blue Jays $2.75MM as a condition of the Myles Straw trade. It's a total of $66.5MM in commitments, and even that dramatically overstates how much they'll actually spend. Ramírez is being paid $15MM this year, dropping their short-term obligations to $56.5MM.

There's also a strong chance they don't wind up paying anything to Clase. His criminal trial for alleged game-fixing won't begin until May, but it's possible MLB imposes its own discipline before the start of the season. It'd be a shock if the star reliever played another MLB game and Cleveland brass will obviously hope for the league to level a suspension that gets them off the hook for next year's salary.

If that happens, they'll be down to $50.5MM in guaranteed commitments. Filling out the roster with players on near league minimum salaries would push them into the $63-65MM range. According to The Associated Press, the Marlins were the only team with a season-opening payroll below $74.9MM last year. Cleveland ranked 25th in MLB with a $102.5MM mark.

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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026...pend-the-money-saved-on-the-ramirez-deal.html
 
Is Anyone Even Trying To Win The AL Central?

Yet another offseason of hyperaggressive spending and mind-boggling CBT payrolls from the Dodgers and Mets (and, this winter, the Blue Jays) has led to increased talk of competitive balance ahead of the impending conclusion of the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement. Owners are again expected to push for a salary cap -- though that's a perpetual goal and would absolutely have been the case regardless of how the usual suspects spent in free agency this winter -- and they'll have plenty of fan support in that regard.

Fans, particularly those of small market teams, feel a clear sense of defeatism, knowing their clubs will rarely (or in some cases never) be players for the top names in free agency. The Dodgers were close enough to losing in the World Series that it's not fair to say they can freely buy themselves a championship -- the Mets spent more in 2025 and missed the postseason entirely -- but it's fair to say they're spending enough to give themselves something like a 95% chance of making the postseason and entering as the favorite.

The other side of the cap argument, of course, is that it would assuredly usher in the implementation of a salary floor -- a level at which teams must spend on payroll or else be subject to some degree of penalization. There's already a weak "floor" in place for revenue-sharing clubs, but it seems to lack any semblance of teeth. The A's felt compelled to spend enough to push their CBT payroll up to $105MM last year -- roughly 1.5 times the amount they receive annually from revenue-sharing -- but that was seemingly because they're the only club to have been actually stripped of revenue-sharing status in the past. The Marlins were supposedly in the same boat this winter, and they've thumbed their nose at the idea of spending, as evidenced by a CBT payroll in the $80MM range.

I can see the arguments for a cap/floor system. I'm skeptical that it would actually force the game's lowest-payroll clubs to spend in meaningful ways, but that's another topic -- and one that we'll surely debate ad nauseum in the year to come as CBA talks intensify.

But whether it's a salary floor, firm penalties for not spending revenue-sharing funds in tangible ways, or greater access to draft/international resources for non-playoff clubs who remain competitive, something has to give. Right now, there's at least one entire division content to sit on its hands as the five respective front offices seemingly embody that same level of defeatism felt by their small- and mid-market fan bases.

If the Dodgers are a budding dynasty, it's unequivocally fair to say that's in part because of their limitless spending capacity. But it's also because there are teams seemingly content to throw their hands up and ask, "why even bother?" At a certain point, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy -- and I'd argue that at least with regard to the AL Central, we've reached that point. Let's look at each AL Central club's offseason to date.

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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/01/is-anyone-even-trying-to-win-the-al-central.html
 
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