Winter Meetings interview with Friedman, Hill, Roberts

ANDREW FRIEDMAN: We’re excited to be here to announce that we have re-signed Rich Hill to a three-year contract. Last year we actually came pretty close to signing Rich, last offseason and obviously traded for him last season. Whenever we’re going through that process, we spend a tremendous amount of time digging into a guy’s makeup, what type of competitor they are, what type of teammate and everything we got back on Rich was off the charts. But I think being around him for the three months we were, it exceeded even what our expectations were. So that, in part, is what gave us the confidence to bet on him. What he’s persevered through in his career, the type of person he is, the type of competitor fit us really well as we looked forward and was a huge priority for us as we headed into winter. Again, we’re excited to be here. We will turn it over to you guys in a minute for questions, but I’m excited to give Rich back his hat and jersey and open it up to you guys. Thank you.RICH HILL: Well, I just want to say thank you first to the Dodgers organization for being extremely supportive and to Andrew, to Farhan, to Stan, to Dave, and, you know, the entire organization. It’s been amazing. When we get traded over here last season, being right into a contention race and having the opportunity to be around great players such as Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager, and just the list goes on with the guys in that locker room last year and looking forward to continuing that next year. I would like to thank my family who is here today, my wife Caitlin, our sons Brice and Brooks. This is great day for us, something that we always knew could be a possibility. And with the continuance of hard work and perseverance through a lot of challenges, we’re here and we’re looking forward to a great three years with the Dodgers. I would also like to thank Sam, Seth, Keith, Peter and everyone at ACES for making this possible and having this all come together. They’ve been incredible for myself and our family and something that we’re very grateful for. Thank you.Q. Rich, I imagine some of the emotion is clearly related to the path it took to get to this moment. How close were you ever to packing it in?RICH HILL: I don’t think I was every close to packing it in. But, yeah, there is a lot of emotion up here and I kept telling myself I wouldn’t do this. I think it’s something that has been an incredible journey to get to this point, but never did I ever think that I would “pack it in.” I never thought I was done. I always knew with the ability that I had and the desire that was always there was something that never left. So being able to stay healthy was one of the main things and never quit. That’s the biggest thing is persevering through those times of failure. But you fail. When you fail, you learn. I don’t think you really know what failure is — or I didn’t know what failure was until I got older and understood that that was experience. That’s something that life teaches you and baseball teaches you. But for me, baseball has taught us how to deal with things off the field that are far greater than what you can deal with on the field.Q. Rich, welcome back. When we spoke, you said it was your desire to be a Dodger this season. Why was this team a good fit for you and your family?RICH HILL: It’s just the fan base that’s there in LA and the passion that they have. The intensity to win, that’s something that we wanted and something that we wanted to come back to. We want to be a part of that, we want to bring a championship to …

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