Miami Marlins make another intriguing claim

As the Trade Deadline has came and went, the Miami Marlins are not yet done making moves. Taking fliers on waivered players is a no-risk move and might even hold some long-term potential. The trades stole the show, but let's not ignore Peter Bendix continuing to make moves and speed up the team's return to playoff contention.

The Miami Marlins claimed Derek Hill from the San Francisco Giants.

28 Year old RF Derek Hill is the newest member of the Miami Marlins! The RF has been claimed from the San Francisco Giants. over the Weekend. Hill is actually the 21'st pick of the 2014 draft and spent 2020-2022 with the Detroit Tigers. He batted .240/.291/.339 in 95 games and 233 AB. That was a very disappointing production from a first rounder, so Detroit gave up, cut their losses and Hill moved on to his next destination: the Washington Nationals for the 2023 season.

Moving on to Washington, Hill batted a very disappointing .170/.220/.191, with 0 home runs and an RBI in 13 games and 47 AB. Derek Hill split the 2024 season between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. He batted .255/.293/.455 with 0 home runs and 2 RBI, in 21 games and 55 AB. The interesting thing about Hill is that he made some improvements since moving over from Texas to San Francisco.

He lowered his strikeout rate from 31.1% to 23.1%. He also improved his walk rate from 4.4% to 7.7%. Those are promising tough perhaps not particularly impressive numbers. It clearly looks like Peter Bendix sees something in him and I'm very curious to see what it is. As I said earlier, there's no risk with making a move like. Worst case scenario he disappoints and he's gone, and the best case scenario is that he does a good job and may unlock some of that potential that we once had. Perhaps he's another late-bloomer.

What are my expectations from this? Nothing particularly interesting. My expectations for him are pretty low, but I'm open too and optimistic that there could be some sort of hidden gem over here.