Blue Jays Sign All-Star Jeff Hoffman to Three-Year Deal

The Toronto Blue Jays have continued to add to their struggling bullpen with the addition of 2024 All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman. The contract is for three seasons at a total of $33M, making it the highest free agent reliever deal in Blue Jays history.

The connection between Hoffman and the Jays goes back much further than this offseason, as Toronto drafted him 9th overall in the 2014 MLB Draft. He was flipped to Colorado in 2015 in exchange for Troy Tulowitzki as the Jays made their playoff push resulting in consecutive ALCS appearances.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Just Baseball Show (@justbaseballshow)

After losing closer Jordan Romano, first to injury and then to the Phillies in free agency, Toronto spent the majority of the 2024 season experimenting with their closer role. Hoffman has pitched at least 50 innings in each of the last two seasons in Philadelphia with an ERA under 2.50 in both campaigns, so hopefully he can add some consistency for the Blue Jays’ back-end.

His dominance out of the bullpen goes further than merely limiting runs; Hoffman ranks among the league’s best arms in many important statistics including ranking in the 96th percentile of all MLB arms in whiff percentage, chase rate, and strikeout percentage. It’s clear to see that he’d be a valuable addition to any bullpen.

Hoffman’s pitch arsenal contains, in order of usage; a slider, four-seam fastball, splitter, and sinker. According to Baseball Savant, all four of these pitches had a positive Run Value in 2024. He averages around 97 miles per hour on his fastballs and throws the sixth-fastest splitter in all of MLB at approximately 91 mph.

Not only does he throw hard, however, he’s also very good at commanding these pitches in the strike zone, notching only a 6% walk rate in 2024. Hoffman is one of the best bullpen arms in the game right now and his $11M/year price tag is certainly worth the upside of what he’s shown he can do at this level.

Toronto’s Bullpen Struggles

In 2024, the Blue Jays’ bullpen ranked second-last in the league in ERA, unsurprisingly ahead Hoffman’s former team, the Colorado Rockies. They even finished worse than the record-setting 121-loss Chicago White Sox, which is definitely saying something about how much improvement was needed there.

No relievers in Toronto’s bullpen this season pitched as many innings as Hoffman did, and the Jays’ inability to have a consistent pen was one of their many struggles. Hoffman’s 188 ERA+ surpasses all but one reliever in Toronto’s bullpen.

Hoffman’s role on this team will likely be to close games, but seeing as though he played the setup role quite often in Philadelphia he may do the same if Toronto wants to let Yimi Garcia or Chad Green close games.

It is probable that a combination of Garcia and Hoffman will serve as the 1-2 punch to end tight games for Toronto and will hopefully serve to take their pen from one of the league’s worst to one of the best.

Aside from what Hoffman actually brings to Toronto’s bullpen, the notion of Blue Jays’ ownership to finally go out and acquire a top-of-the-line player indicates at least to some extent that they want to compete now. However, the lack of offensive additions is nothing short of a letdown in light of the reliever deals that Toronto has notched this offseason.

Things might get a bit more optimistic in terms of competing in 2025 if Toronto can snag a big bat like Anthony Santander or perhaps Alex Bregman, but the signing of Jeff Hoffman is a good indication if anything.

Despite the fact that their bullpen was one of the league’s worst in 2024, Toronto’s lineup was far from consistent as the year progressed in terms of both production and lineup construction. Hoffman and Garcia can lock down tight games for the Jays better than most relievers, but they need a lead to protect in the first place.