NEW YORK – Michael Hill is taking over from Chris Young, who stayed just one season in the role of Joe Torre’s replacement as Major League Baseball’s disciplinarian.
Hill was hired Monday by MLB as a senior vice president of on-field operations along with former major leaguer Raúl Ibañez. Hill will oversee umpires and on-field discipline, and Ibañez will be involved in rules, equipment and on-field technology while contributing to scouting and amateur baseball initiatives.
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Former pitcher Joe Martinez was hired as senior director of on-field strategy, former outfielder outfielder Rajai Davis as senior director of on-field operations and former Houston manager Bo Porter as a consultant on coaching development.
Hill and Ibañez will report to executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword, and Martinez will report to vice president of baseball economics Reed MacPhail.
The 49-year-old Hill spent 19 seasons with the Marlins, the last six as president of baseball operations, when CEO Derek Jeter announced in October that Miami was allowing Hill’s contract to expire without a new deal. He was captain of the baseball team at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1993.
Appeals of on-field discipline decisions will continue to be heard by John McHale Jr., a special assistant to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Young, a pitcher who retired after the 2017 season, joined MLB in May 2018 as vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy, and he was promoted last February to senior vice president when Torre shifted to a role as special assistant to the commissioner. Young left in December to become general manager of the Texas Rangers, his hometown team.
Ibañez, 48, hit .272 with 305 homers and 1,207 RBIs in 19 major league seasons with Seattle (1996-2000, 2004-08, 2013), Kansas City (2001-03, 2014), Philadelphia (2009-11), the New York Yankees (2012) and the Los Angeles Angeles (2014). He was a 2009 All-Star and was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in February 2016 as a special assistant.
Martinez, who turns 38 on Feb. 26, will coordinate the management of experimental rule and equipment changes, support the competition committee and be a liaison to on-field personnel. He pitched at Boston College and was 4-3 with a 5.82 ERA in four seasons with San Francisco (2009-10), Pittsburgh (2010), Arizona (2012) and Cleveland (2013). He spent five years in mergers and acquisitions group at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Davis, 40, joins former players Nick Hundley and Gregor Blanco as a senior director of on-field operations and will work on playing rule changes, amateur baseball and the mentorship of minority players as they progress through amateur and minor league levels. He batted .262 with 62 homers, 387 RBIs and 415 stolen bases in 14 seasons with Oakland (2008-2010, 2017), Toronto (2011-13), Detroit (2014-15) and Cleveland (2016, 2018).
Porter, 48, will assist MLB’s baseball operations department in identifying candidates for amateur and professional coaching jobs, focusing on underrepresented groups. He spent the past two seasons broadcasting Washington Nationals games for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.
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