He expects to have the ball handed to him for the seventh, eighth, or ninth inning as any true high-leverage reliever craves.
But even though Jeff Hoffman is being paid to be the Blue Jays’ new closer for 2025, he doesn’t expect to merely be gifted the position.
Instead, the former first-round draft pick of a team he never pitched for in the major leagues intends to prove that he’s the man for the critical assignment.
“I think that’s definitely something that needs to be earned,” Hoffman said shortly after he signed his three-year, $33-million US deal to return to the team that selected him ninth overall in the 2014 draft.
“I don’t think that’s something that should be handed out for fun. That’s a big, important job and definitely something that I want to be able to pitch myself into.”
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As a window into what drives Hoffman, that mindset would appear to be a good indicator of what awaits.
Early in spring training, the 32-year-old is forging his way to the marquee perch in the bullpen, the implied assignment to replace and upgrade fan favourite Jordan Romano who was let go after a troublesome 2024.
As much as it will be interesting to see how Hoffman — who spent the previous two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, earning 10 saves last year — fares in the role, the comparisons with the popular Canadian closer he’s replacing will be inevitable. That Romano is now toiling for the Phillies adds another twist.
Not that Hoffman will be daunted by the challenge and not that general manager Ross Atkins blinked in making what he felt certain will be an upgrade.
“I’m absolutely looking forward to it,” Hoffman said of earning and thriving as the Jays’ new bullpen ace. “It was something I was kind of itching for that opportunity in previous seasons and to have that opportunity is definitely a driving force in my mentality. I feel like that’s what I’m kind of meant to be.
“I feel that’s the part of the game where I come in and I find comfort in the chaos.”
What did the Jays see in Hoffman that made it easier to walk away from Romano, who is looking to rebound from an injury-riddled season in his successor’s former home?
Plenty, it would appear. Though he has yet to be a pure closer during his career, Hoffman’s arsenal is widely viewed as being loaded with elite stuff and many observers believe he’s on the verge of being a dominant closer. That form was on display during his all star 2024 campaign that saw him pitch to a 2.17 ERA with 89 strikeouts over 66.1 innings.
The filthy mix that created those numbers should set him up as the lead man for a retooled Jays bullpen that had an ERA of 4.82 last year, the second worst in the majors. Now it’s time for the right-hander to prove it.
Hoffman flashed some of that potential in his Grapefruit League debut on Friday when he needed only nine pitches for a 1-2-3 debut inning at TD Ballpark.
It was a long road back from the days when he worked off the same mound while pitching in the minors for the Dunedin Blue Jays. Dealt to Colorado in the swap that brought Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto in 2015, Hoffman never fully cut it as a starter but has seen a profitable rebirth as a reliever.
“I think the short burst of one inning and three hitters kind of fits me,” Hoffman said. “From an energy standpoint, I’m definitely a guy that feels the stadium and feels the way the crowd is interacting with the game and stuff like that.
“I think that was a big reason why I was so good in Philadelphia. I think the fan base matches up with that. It’s something that rubs me the right way, knowing that I come into the game and that game is in our hands and you’re the one who gets to decide how it ends.”
The righty says that part of his emergence as a reliever has to do with simplifying his approach from a guy who worried about every moving part in his delivery to one who relies on instinct and plays to his strengths.
“I think that something I’ve done more recently in my career has been to kind of drop the whole mechanical conversation,” said Hoffman, who hopes to get six Grapefruit League appearances in as his tune up for the March 27 season opener. “I’m truly out there moving the way that my body wants to move and there are not really any mechanical cues or thoughts going through my head. That’s been a way that I’ve been able to simplify and just focus on competing.
“It’s been a life-changing and career-changing choice that I made to drop all that stuff and just be me.”
AROUND THE BASES
Start No. 2 of the Grapefruit League season for Jays starter Max Scherzer featured some efficient mastery from the right-hander who needed just 47 pitches in his 3.2 innings, while striking out four in the Jays’ 5-4 win over the Phillies. The lone blemish in the TD Ballpark outing was a solo homer to the Phillies’ Kody Clemens … The Jays offence showed some more pop with Daulton Varsho getting a first at-bat homer for the second time in as many outings, plus a monster shot in the third from shortstop Bo Bichette.