Amid a whirlwind of White Sox activity at the non-tender deadline back in November, Derek Hill was an unusual candidate to remain in place.
Hill was one of three arbitration-eligible players whose futures the White Sox had to weigh, alongside Mike Tauchman and Steven Wilson. Despite being by far the least tenured of the three -- Hill showed up as a waiver claim for the last week of the season -- he was the only one to stay put. The White Sox traded Wilson and non-tendered Tauchman, and also released Tim Elko (albeit temporarily) and Cam Booser (with extreme prejudice) for good measure. Meanwhile, the White Sox and Hill agreed to one-year, $900,000 contract, which seemed to represent an oasis of player stability.
But an oasis can be a mirage, especially when it was revealed that Hill signed a split contract. He'll make $900,000 on a prorated basis as long as he's in the majors, and $450,000 for the time he spends in the minors, and while that all sounds rather negligible on a standard MLB payroll, that distinction might make his immediate future the haziest of a very murky White Sox outfield.
Split contracts are by no means new -- a quick search of the Chicago Tribune's archives pulls up one for Vance Law in the 1980s -- but they've either become a far more frequent mechanism in recent years, or the structure is just more familiar or relevant to decision-making, and thus more widely reported.
For instance, MLB Trade Rumors' post covering players that avoided arbitration at the non-tender deadline in November includes at least six split contracts. We have to qualify that statement because five split contracts are referenced, and Hill's isn't one of them, as the White Sox didn't include that detail in their press release. But when you search the MLBTR archives for split contracts, the references start drying up once you start advancing beyond the last few seasons.
Meanwhile, a search for White Sox split contracts turns up only one other result in the last 20 years, and it wasn't much of one: Kevin Pillar's revised contract before Opening Day in 2024, which paid him $1 million in the majors and $180,000 in the minors. Both were a pittance to the $3 million minor league deal he'd originally signed, and it was mostly besides the point, as Pillar was approaching 10 years of service time and was free to choose his own adventure when the White Sox were done with him.
Before Pillar, Pablo Ozuna signed the only other White Sox split contract I can surface. That happened after the 2005 season, which I can only recall from rearching his SABR biography, and it wasn't actually referred to as a split contract; contemporary reports merely spelled out the terms. Even then, attempting to replicate those terms in search queries also failed to generate any other results.
The absence of announced or reported split contracts doesn't mean the White Sox haven't been doing them all the while, but the recent preponderance of documented occurrences makes it easier to see what happens to the players who sign them. In the end, it's primarily a device to increase the odds of an out-of-options player going unclaimed on waivers.
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Since Pillar's case doesn't apply to Hill, let's instead take a look at Eric Haase, because the deal he signed after the 2023 season is the archetype of the split contract that benefits everybody.
That December, the Brewers signed him Haase to a one-year split contract that paid him $1 million plus incentives at the major league level, and some unreported amount for his time in the minors. Two months later, shortly after spring training started, Milwaukee signed Gary Sánchez, who then became the front-runner to back up William Contreras. The hierarchy held up through Cactus League play. At the end of the spring, the Brewers broke camp with Contreras and Sánchez. Since Haase was out of options, he was designated for assignment.
But Haase cleared waivers, and while he'd accrued enough service time to opt out from an assignment to the minor leagues, he wouldn't have been able to take his contract terms with him. So he reported to Triple-A Nashville and bided his time living in a decent city and making more than the average Triple-A player. When Sánchez suffered a calf injury and went to the IL that June, the Brewers selected Haase. He resumed earning the major league checks he'd agreed to, and played well enough to both stay on the roster for the rest of the season, and parlay it into a guaranteed one-year deal the following winter.
Both sides came away winners. The Brewers got everything they hoped for, retaining their desired catching depth and finishing the season with the league's best production behind the plate. Maybe Haase shortchanged himself a little in terms of MLB plate appearances, but while we don't know exactly what he made on the minor league portion of his deal, he probably came away earning the major league minimum for the organization of his choosing, which beats trying to scrape together that amount on the waiver wire for a 31-year-old coming off a difficult season.
Haase even played well enough to survive the non-tender deadline with a one-year, $1.35 million contract for 2025. He was then designated for assignment in July, and while he could have rejected it as a player who had been outrighted twice, he hadn't yet accrued enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining the terms of his contract, so jumping to another organization would've been starting over. Usually another day is another dollar, but for guys who are out of options and arbitration-eligible, time and money are often at odds.
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Going back to Hill, who just turned 30 at the end of December, it's pretty clear to understand what the White Sox want from him. He's essentially the store-brand version of Michael A. Taylor, whom the White Sox signed and rostered for the entire 2025 season. In both cases, we're talking about right-handed hitters and true center fielders who bring speed and defense to the table. The difference is that Taylor was a fine glove-first starting option in center in his prime and offered veteran gravitas in the twilight of his career, whereas Hill hasn't stuck anywhere because his .229/.277/.347 line drags him back to replacement level. That makes him better suited as a fifth outfielder, and with the White Sox, it's a battle counting to two.
Still, if Hill had options remaining, or if he were signed to a minor league contract, he'd slot neatly into the organization's depth chart. The Charlotte outfield is an open question, and Hill checks off some of the same boxes as Luis Robert Jr. for short-term coverage in the event of injury or trade.
That's effectively the situation the White Sox are trying to create for themselves with the split contract, because when a player like Hill is DFA'd, teams have to decide for themselves whether they want to inherit the terms. $900,000 at the major league level isn't the issue, because that's barely above the league minimum, but while $450,000 at the minor league level sounds like even smaller beans, that money covers the salaries of four or five Triple-A players making the standard wage, and that's where value starts to enter the equation.
The split contract doesn't guarantee that Hill will remain with the White Sox, with Keegan Thompson serving as a recent example. Thompson signed a split contract with the Reds in November, only to get DFA'd by Cincinnati in late December and claimed by the Rockies on Wednesday. For a local example, Matt Thaiss avoided arbitration on a split deal with the Cubs -- $1 million in the majors, $400,000 in the minors. But then they acquired Carson Kelly, so they traded Thaiss to the White Sox for cash, and later the Sox traded him to the Rays for Dru Baker.
But oftentimes when a decent depth player goes unclaimed, be it Haase, Kyle Garlick or old friend Dylan Covey, the split contract is cited as a potential reason (Thaiss eventually cleared waivers with the Rays and went to Triple-A Durham). The White Sox haven't yet tested the efficacy of Hill's deal because they only recently filled their 40-man roster, but his status merits watching as Chris Getz continues to add players over the next two months. He's far from the least qualified player on the 40-man, but since he lacks options and standing, he's among the most vulnerable for removal, and the split contract reflects the difficulty in carrying him on it for the long haul.
That's the pessimistic angle, anyway. The more flattering assessment is that the White Sox do like what he brings to the table, and figure he might have his uses over the course of the regular season. In that sense, the split contract is ironically named, because it's ultimately intended to keep the two parties together.
