Padres fans will cheer Rich Hill slamming Anthony Rendon’s foolish comments

Rich Hill's career in San Diego was rather brief, but you can now add the Padres to the list of teams that the left-hander has pitched for during his major league career. In fact, the San Diego Padres are the 13th different organization Hill has been a part of over his 19 years in the big leagues. The veteran is trying to make it 20, as he hopes to pitch during the 2024 season.

Hill will be 44 years old before Opening Day this year, but the southpaw is still hoping to lace 'em up once again. A free agent at this time, Hill is taking a patient approach to the offseason, and may wait until the season begins before attempting to find a new team.

But during a recent interview, Hill was asked if he'd heard Anthony Rendon's comments while on the Jack Vita Show. Rendon spoke about the need for Major League Baseball to shorten the season. Hill's response is what every baseball fan wanted to hear. While the Los Angeles Angels third baseman thinks a 162-game season is too long, Hill wants to play all year long.

Former Padres pitcher Rich Hill buries Anthony Rendon's comments on baseball

Of course, there's a bit of humor in what Rich Hill was saying, but he later elaborated by saying, "I want to continue to play. I don't get it. If you enjoy it and you love something and you're passionate about it, it's not about the, of course you want to have good outcomes, but it's more than that. It's the competitiveness."

In a day and age where there's so much conversation about innings limits in baseball, load management in the NBA, and reduced practice time in football, it's refreshing to hear those comments from Hill.

What Hill is saying comes from an understanding of what the veteran has learned during his career; one day, no matter how good you are, the game is going to be taken away from you. As is so often referenced, Father Time is undefeated. Hill is doing his best to remain relevant for as long as he can.

At age 43, Hill threw more innings in 2024 than Jack Flaherty, Nathan Eovaldi, and Marcus Stroman. To still be able to go out every fifth day and perform at his best is a testament to Hill's tenacity and determination.

Anthony Rendon's comments don't align with baseball fans

As for Anthony Rendon, even if you agree with his comments, he's certainly not the one to be making such statements. Since Rendon signed his seven-year, $245 million contract with the Angels, he's appeared in 200 of a possible 546 games. That's less than 37%.

If the MLB Players Association feels the same way as Rendon, they'd better find a better spokesman than him if these concerns are raised during the next round of labor negotiations. His argument against playing 162 games comes across poorly.