Jaden Hill became a bullpen fixture in the second half of the 2025 season

Welcome to the 2025 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2025. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

Last season, Jaden Hill made just nine appearances out of the Colorado Rockies bullpen when he made his major league debut. In that short cup of coffee, he gave up seven runs (six earned) across 10 2/3 innings with six strikeouts.

The sample size was small, but Hill flashed some of the potential the Rockies saw in him when they drafted him out of Louisiana State University in 2021 while he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. After converting from starter to reliever prior to the 2024 campaign, his four-seam fastball averaged a velocity of 96.8 MPH and he mixed in his breaking pitches to decent effect.

It seemed like Hill had a strong case to earn a bullpen role entering 2025. However, he was optioned to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes after a somewhat bumpy spring training. In nine Cactus League appearances, he gave up six earned runs on six hits—including a home run—walked four batters and hit two. He also tallied 11 strikeouts.

Hill got off to a strong start with the Isotopes. He gave up just one earned run on four hits and two walks through his first six appearances and 7 2/3 innings while striking out 15 batters. He did have one rough outing—giving up four runs while failing to record an out—in his seventh appearance but the Rockies had seen enough to call him up to the big league roster with Luis Peralta struggling.

He performed well in three big league appearances, tallying five strikeouts and two walks while giving up just one earned run. However, Hill was optioned back to Triple-A Albuquerque when the Rockies needed do some roster shuffling with their pitching staff.

Hill continued his strong work over his next five appearances in Triple-A. He pitched another eight innings, gave up just one earned run on two hits, and struck out 12 batters without issuing a walk. Unfortunately, a lingering hamstring injury in mid-May shut Hill down for the next two months.

The Rockies sent Hill on a three-game rehab assignment with the Arizona Complex League Rockies in mid-July before returning him to the Isotopes. He made just two more appearances before the Rockies called him back up to the big league bullpen.

Hill didn’t give the Rockies a reason to option him back to Triple-A for the rest of the season. He shined out of the bullpen—working mostly in the middle innings—and became a fixture for the remainder of the season. In 25 appearances he posted a 3.38 ERA with a 3.62 FIP and struck out 26 batters while giving up only two walks.

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Hill’s four-seam fastball remained his best pitch. It averaged a velocity of 96.7 MPH and opposing batters hit just .160 against it while whiffing 21.7% of the time. Where he showed the most improvement was in his breaking pitches, especially his slider. Hill added the slider to his arsenal prior to his conversion to the bullpen before the 2024 season. Opposing batters went from hitting .333 and slugging .833 against it in 2024 to hitting and slugging .192 against it in 2025. He also increased the pitch’s whiff rate from 25% to 45.1% and recorded nine strikeouts.

His changeup was also improved, though it was still a pitch that could get punished. Opposing batters went from hitting .500 to .267 against it, but still slugged over .400 with a home run and two doubles. However, he also recorded nine strikeouts with the pitch.

After building a strong foundation for himself in 2025, Jaden Hill will very likely have a spot in the bullpen reserved for his age 26 season among other young members of the Rockies’ burgeoning relief corps like Victor Vodnik and Seth Halvorsen.

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