WATCH: Derek Hill commits HIGHWAY ROBBERY on Juan Soto, is now the front runner for MLB Catch of the Year

Derek Hill was acquired from the Chicago White Sox two weeks ago for two prospects that nobody had heard of because the Phillies ran out of outfielders and needed a warm body who could play defense and hit left-handed pitching.

In the 14 days since that trade the man has hit two ninth-inning homers on consecutive nights in Washington, scored the go-ahead run on Friday in New York, and made the defensive play of the season by robbing Juan Soto of a two-run homer in the first inning at Citi Field with a 99-foot sprint and a leap that had his left arm extended high above the wall to snare a ball that was already gone off the bat.

The Phillies traded for Hill expecting a fourth outfielder who could provide defensive flexibility and some production against lefties. They got a guy who is singlehandedly winning games on a nightly basis with his glove, his legs, and a bat that keeps showing up in moments where the Phillies need it most.

Derek Hill – Juan Soto ROBBERY

Soto hit a 0-2 fastball from Wheeler that traveled 397 feet to right-center and was gone off the bat, the kind of no-doubt swing from a guy with a $765 million contract that makes outfielders watch the ball sail over the wall and start walking back to their position.

Derek Hill didn’t watch anything because he turned and ran 99 feet on a dead sprint toward the wall, leaped at the last possible moment, and extended his left arm above the fence to snare the ball out of the air before it could land in the seats for a two-run homer that would have given the Mets a 2-0 lead with Wheeler still trying to find his rhythm in the first inning.

🚨 DEREK HILL HIGHWAY ROBBERY 🚨 pic.twitter.com/0tQ2zeyn8A

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 26, 2026

Wheeler was standing on the mound smiling because he knew the moment Soto made contact that the ball was gone and all he could do was watch Hill sprint toward the wall and hope for a miracle.

Zack Wheeler was in love

“It is the best one I’ve seen in person,” Wheeler said after the game, catching himself mid-sentence because he started to say “one of the best” before realizing that no, this was the best, period. “Right off the bat, I knew he got it. I looked back and he’s on a dead sprint toward the wall. I’m like, he’s about to get this thing. And sure enough, he did. That won the game right there.”

Wheeler hugged Hill when he got back to the dugout because when your center fielder robs a two-run homer off the best hitter in the opposing lineup on a pitch you left over the middle of the plate, a high five doesn’t cut it.

Derek Hill said he blacked out during the catch and it was pure instinct with Marsh giving him comms about where the wall was as he sprinted toward it, and that doing it against Soto specifically made it “cooler” because you’re robbing a $765 million man of a home run at his own stadium on a night where the game ended up being decided by one run.

Hill Scored the Go-Ahead Run Too Because Apparently the Catch Wasn’t Enough

As if robbing Soto wasn’t enough for one night, Hill led off the seventh inning with an infield hit and eventually scored the go-ahead run on a two-out base hit from Trea Turner, who has now had four straight two-hit games and is slashing .378 over his last nine games after spending the first three months of the season stuck below .220 wondering if the batting title from last year was a distant memory.

Rewind: Bryce Harper RBI

Thought we'd get on the board early today pic.twitter.com/N9PnPPDfYV

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 26, 2026

Trea Turner’s turnaround has been one of the best developments of the last two weeks and the RBI single that drove in Hill with the go-ahead run was the latest evidence that the .304 hitter from 2025 is starting to resurface at exactly the right time.

TREA SHIESTY

Turn and burn pic.twitter.com/P8Ikyh1wlJ

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 27, 2026

Hill’s three-day stretch from Wednesday through Friday might be the best three-game run by any Phillie not named Harper or Schwarber this entire season because he hit two ninth-inning go-ahead homers in back-to-back wins in Washington and then made the defensive play of the year and scored the go-ahead run in a 2-1 win at Citi Field.

That’s three consecutive games where Derek Hill was directly responsible for the Phillies winning and the man was playing for the Chicago White Sox two weeks ago hitting .213 in anonymity while the Phillies didn’t even know they needed him yet.

Wheeler Improves to 8-1 With a 2.03 ERA

Zack Wheeler threw seven innings of one-run ball with four hits, one walk, five strikeouts, and two pickoffs to improve to 8-1 on the season with a 2.03 ERA, and the Phillies are now 10-2 in his 12 starts since returning from the injured list on April 25.

The man is pitching at a level that would have him leading the Cy Young conversation in most seasons and the only reason he’s not the frontrunner right now is because Sanchez and Misiorowski are also having historically great years in the same league at the same time.

Wheeler’s one mistake on the night was the 0-2 fastball to Soto in the first inning that Hill saved with the catch of the season, and the fact that Wheeler’s lone blemish in seven innings of one-run ball was erased by his center fielder’s glove rather than showing up in the box score tells you how dominant he was on a night where the Phillies’ offense gave him just two runs to work with and he made it stand up with the help of Kerkering and Duran closing out the eighth and ninth with scoreless work.

The Mets Fired Their Manager Before the Game and the Phillies Know That Feeling

The Mets fired Carlos Mendoza before Friday’s game, which served as a reminder that the Phillies made a similar move two months ago when they replaced Thomson with Mattingly at 9-19.

The difference between the two situations is that the Phillies’ managerial change worked immediately and spectacularly because Mattingly has gone 37-17 since taking over to move the team firmly into the playoff picture at a season-high 10 games over .500 at 46-36 with a run differential that has climbed from minus-54 to plus-4 for the first time since the opening week of the season.

Mattingly said the progression has been about setting incremental goals with the first target being .500, then five over, then 10 over, and now the next step is 15 over. “It’s been good to get there fairly quickly and put ourselves back in it, put ourselves in a good position. Now it’s a matter of staying consistent at our pace.”

The Phillies have won six of their last seven and are playing the best baseball in the National League heading into the second half of the season with a roster that keeps finding new contributors like Hill to fill the gaps left by injuries.

Hill Said He Won’t Even Watch the Replay LOL

When asked if he’d watch the replay of the Soto robbery, Hill said “I don’t really like to look at stuff like that, just turn the page because tomorrow is coming and they have a good team over there,” which is the most Derek Hill answer imaginable from a guy who has been on the roster for two weeks and is already talking like a 10-year veteran who treats every game as its own entity regardless of what happened the night before.

The man hit two go-ahead ninth-inning homers in consecutive games, made the catch of the year, scored the go-ahead run at Citi Field, and his response is to not watch the highlights and start preparing for Saturday.

That mentality is exactly why Mattingly identified Hill as a guy who could help this team because the production has been spectacular but the professionalism and the readiness and the refusal to get caught up in any individual moment is what makes a bench player valuable on a team trying to make the playoffs.

Derek Hill stays ready, shows up when his name is called, and then moves on to the next game without dwelling on what he just did, which is the kind of quiet competitiveness that winning teams are built on.

The Phillies are 46-36 and 10 games over .500 for the first time all season with the best pitching staff in baseball, a lineup that is finally producing consistently, and a center fielder they acquired for nothing who keeps making plays that win games in ways that nobody predicted when the trade was made.

Derek Hill. Two weeks on the roster. Three game-winning contributions in three days. The catch of the season at Citi Field against the highest-paid player in baseball. And he won’t even watch the replay.

Join The Chase