Rob Hill (left) works with Brusdar Graterol (right) at Spring Training. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

By Rowan Kavner

Just six years after starting his own search for answers following a forgettable freshman season on the mound at Skagit Valley College in Washington, and only two years after his college career ended, Rob Hill is doing all he can to maximize the production of established Dodger pitchers.

His speedy ascent from injured junior college pitcher to Driveline Baseball instructor to Dodgers pitching coordinator of technical development sounds just as unbelievable to him as it would to anyone else.

“It’s pretty cool,” Hill said, seconds before correcting his own understatement. “It’s freaking nuts, man. I’m 24.”

Hill didn’t expect this to be part of his story. He thought about quitting baseball entirely after that freshman year, at which point the 6-foot-1-inch right-hander was throwing 81–83 mph. Summer ball that year didn’t help, either.

“Eventually, I kept getting worse, just kept spraying balls and wasn’t throwing hard and was having a terrible experience,” Hill said.

It was then that Hill said his father, through the advice of a coworker, convinced him to visit Driveline Baseball in Washington. Hill called it a last-ditch effort. At the time, in summer 2014, Driveline wasn’t yet the renowned and booming laboratory of data-driven baseball performance training that founder Kyle Boddy and his team have helped it become.

But a blog post detailing how a pitcher went from throwing in the 70s to touching 90 mph at Driveline helped convince Hill there could be some legitimacy to it. A month after starting his training, Hill said he was sitting 86–88 mph, touching 89, dotting the zone and recapturing his confidence. He said what he learned was rudimentary compared to how advanced Driveline has become since, but it served its purpose.

“A lot of it I think was psycho-emotional as well, gaining confidence again and putting away demons, and also the physical aspect of actually training in a more optimal way than I had before,” Hill said.

Hill returned to junior college for his sophomore year and earned the Friday spot dedicated to teams’ top starters. He held his velocity until sustaining a back injury, which prevented him from his normal Driveline routines. But he kept trying to pitch, which led to a shoulder injury that “required” surgery — or so he thought. He said he was told he had a labrum tear, but when doctors went in to perform the procedure there was no such damage.

“Literally nothing there,” Hill said. “So, they just gave me a shoulder clean-up, cleaned up some of my labrum, but it wasn’t torn. It was fraying a little bit but nothing torn. I was pissed.”

Hill missed 16 months of competition.

He decided to return to Driveline and rehab there, skipping a semester of school after signing to Westmont College in Santa Barbara. By then, Driveline had turned into a haven for college players looking for a last chance. Hill returned to the mound a year after his surgery — throwing 88 mph.

“It was the best day of my life,” Hill said. “Went back to Westmont for my true junior year campaign, figured some more stuff out, fall goes really well. Season comes around, I’m 88–90 (mph), touch 90 my first game.”

Obstacles still loomed. His senior year, he dealt physically with injuries and a car accident and emotionally with a breakup. His path to teaching began. He started working full-time at Driveline in June 2018. He has since helped build Driveline’s pitch design certification, but his preference isn’t to sit behind a desk. His passion is teaching, and he’s worked hands-on with some of the Major Leagues’ elite throwers.

But he didn’t feel right teaching pros without being able to do the drills himself. After his senior year, he said he took six months off to process everything that took place ­at the end of his college career. He dedicated himself to getting in shape and understanding his pitching motion. He dropped 50 pounds.

“I went from like 240 to 190 and started throwing again, repatterned my entire delivery, completely changed the way I thought about throwing and how it needed to work for my specific deficiencies and efficiencies,” Hill said.

A few months ago, he threw a bullpen session. He said he was sitting 95 mph.

It’s with that knowledge that Hill has gone about helping pro pitchers. He impressed Trevor Bauer enough that when Bauer convinced his old Reds teammate Alex Wood to visit Driveline this offseason, it was Hill he suggested Wood to work with.

“I told him if I was going to do it, I want to work with the best person there,” said Wood, who would soon find himself in a group text with Bauer and Hill. Wood proceeded to work out at Driveline four times this offseason, three or four days each session.

After averaging 89.9 mph on his fastball the last two years (according to Statcast), Hill said Wood was already touching 90 mph this winter. While that may not seem like a sizable jump, that’s not typical at a time of year when pitchers are just beginning their throwing programs and require time to build up velocity. Wood called it the most fun offseason of his career.

“You think you know something, and then you experience something else and you realize you don’t know a whole lot,” Wood said. “So, meeting Rob, it’s been a huge blessing for me. I’ve learned so much from him. The way he can relate advanced things to people that aren’t of that type of knowledge and understanding is pretty cool. I had a blast.”

A steady cycle of Dodgers would follow.

Hill’s training this offseason included time with Clayton Kershaw, using motion capture and working on drills and pitch design. Weeks later, Kenley Jansen visited. Similarly, Hill said he worked with Jansen on mechanical drills and pitch design, spending time on his cutter and different PlyoCare (weighted ball) drills and trying to avoid bad patterns that could potentially compromise the hamstring that bothered Jansen last spring.

For Jansen, it was all about gathering as much information as possible. He said he saw the science of where he was, where he’s at now and how to potentially move in a better direction.

“Listen, man, I don’t care how many years I have (been) in this league, there’s always room for improvement, room to keep your ears open and listen,” Jansen said. “That’s what I liked from him, just getting information and seeing what’s better and what’s not.”

Rob Hill (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

Hill said he appreciated how every Dodger pitcher who visited seemed genuinely interested and open to learning. It was during Jansen’s visit when Hill considered how much he’d love to work for the Dodgers.

He began chatting with Dodgers director of player performance Brandon McDaniel and vice president and assistant general manager Brandon Gomes. He liked the way they cared about their players and went about problem-solving. That was attractive to Hill, who said it can be difficult to be creative in a place and a sport where data rules.

“It’s like objectivity or nothing,” Hill said. “I personally like to bridge subjectivity and creativity in with the objective data to find a more natural, true path to improvement. I don’t really like the cold-cut stuff as much because people don’t like it, so it’s hard to convince them to do it. I like to take a more personal approach.”

Now, he’ll get to do that on a daily basis, alongside the pitchers he assisted this offseason, on a path he never expected.

“I wasn’t really waiting for my chance,” Hill said. “I’m just focused on, ‘I’m going to get this guy as good as he possibly can be, I’m going to get this guy as good as he possibly can be,’ and just optimize everybody. And what happens, happens.”