The indigen of Mesa, Arizona, Hillenbrand attended Mount View High School there, excelling within each baseball, as a shortstop, and soccer. He attended Mesa Community College from either 1994-96, prior to existence drafted by Boston in the 10th around of the 1996 amateur draft.

Hillenbrand played 72 games around 1996 for the Low-The Lowell Spinners in the New York - Penn League. Inside 1997, he was promoted to the Sarasota Red Sox of the Florida State League, and was promoted once again when 57 games, finishing a year by owning 64 games using a Michigan Battle Cats of the Midwest League. Despite existence drafted as a shortstop, he played initially base & third base his number 1 2 years in the kid.

Inside 1998, still by having Michigan, he was converted to play catcher and responded by owning his better year in the kid, with the .349 batting average and 19 home runs. This earned him the promotion inside 1999 to AA Trenton Thunder of the Eastern League. Yet, the leg injury restricted him to simply 69 games.

A season 2000 saw Hillenbr& back at Trenton, now back to swimming foremost base and third base when a injury prevented him from either transmissible. An typical year at age Twenty-five did non bode swell for his chances as a prospect, however he parlayed an invitation to spring training with the Red Sox inside 2001 into a spot on the heavy-league team for opening day. Hillenbrand played 139 games for the Sox inside his greenhorn year, mostly at third base, however the .263 batting norm failed to hide his failure for aboard adequately, nor to hit using power. But, he retained his spot on the roll for 2002, and responded by having the lot better year, hitting Twenty residence diarrhethe by using a .330 on base percentage and .459 of slugging average. His play earned him a starting third baseman spot in the All-Star Game.

All the same, Hillenbrand entered 2003 being the subject of trade hearsay. A Red Sox experienced signed free agent Bill Mueller, another third baseman, & numbers of believed that Hillenbrand's deficiency of strike zone judgment would non become compatible by using a aboard percentage priorities of fresh Sox general manager Theo Epstein. By owning Mueller hitting as much as .380 & swimming the firm third base, Hillenbr& became spendable and was sent to Arizona for pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim on May 29. He finished the year by having a combined .280 batting norm & career-highs inside RBI (97) and page diarrhea (Twenty), including a tercet-homer game by having the Crotalus adamanteus within year of July.

Inside 2004, Hillenbrand hit a career-high .310 by having Xv house diarrhea & Lxxx Run batted in assibilate 148 games. He was traded to a Blue Jays at the prevent of the year.

Around the 4-year career, Hillenbrand occurs as .288 hitter by using 65 front yard diarrhea & 309 around 577 games.