<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Cleanup man Sal Stewart climbs further and Mets rookie Carson Benge debuts.<\/p>\n Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire HittersJeremiah Jackson – 2B\/3B\/OF, BAL (52% rostered)<\/p>\n (FULL-TIME JOB, POTENTIAL LATE BREAKOUT)<\/p>\n With Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg hurt and Coby Mayo struggling, Jackson has emerged into a full-time role in Baltimore and could hold onto it even when Holliday is back from his wrist injury. On the season, Jackson is hitting .321\/.328\/.571 with four home runs and 14 RBI. He has yet to steal a base this season, but he stole 11 in 85 minor league games last year and has multiple 20-stolen-base seasons in the minors, so there is double-digit speed upside here if Baltimore ever decides to run. Jackson is not going to walk, and he is going to swing and miss, but he has started swinging more often, which gives him more chances to make meaningful contact. He\u2019s also pulling the ball more this season, which has led to an early 11.6% barrel rate. This is more about an approach change than anything. Jackson isn\u2019t going to knock the cover off the ball, and he\u2019s not going to take a walk, so the Orioles have gotten his bat speed up slightly and have him being more aggressive and looking to get the ball out front more often. That has led him to maximize his contact more often. If he keeps his starting role, there is a world where he is a 15\/10 guy with a .250-.260 average while hitting in the middle of a strong lineup. Given his multi-position eligibility, that\u2019s a valuable piece on your roster. <\/p>\n Sunday update: Jackson\u2019s roster rate ballooned from 38% on Friday morning to 52% by Sunday likely due to this huge home run he hit on Friday night.<\/p>\n It capped of a six-run eighth inning that the Orioles entered trailing 4-0. In his last six games entering play on Sunday, he has four home runs and 11 RBI. Also, Jackson Holliday had a slight setback on his rehab stint<\/a> while he recovers from a broken hamate bone this spring, giving Jackson even more runway as Baltimore\u2019s starting second baseman. Regardless, he is way too hot for them to even consider taking him out of the lineup.<\/p>\n Angel Mart\u00ednez – 2B\/OF, CLE (38% rostered)<\/p>\n (FULL-TIME JOB, SPEED, POWER POTENTIAL?)<\/p>\n Entering this season, Mart\u00ednez had a paltry 77 wRC+ over the 182 games he\u2019d played in his career and didn\u2019t seem like much of a hitter despite decent contact rates. Suddenly, he\u2019s discovered much more power. Seven of the eight hardest hit balls of his career<\/a> have all come in the 20 games he\u2019s played so far. Also, his bat speed is up over two miles per hour from the right-side. The Guardians have rewarded that growing power by hitting him either second or first against every left-handed pitcher they\u2019ve faced. Most of his plate appearances will still come from the left-side though and it\u2019s still a bit of a waiting game to see if he can maintain consistency there. Especially given his free-swinging nature. Regardless, right now he\u2019s playing every day, is eligible at the very weak second base, stealing bases, and finding some power relative to his expectations. A 15 homer, 20 stolen base season with a passable batting average is well within reach.<\/p>\n Xander Bogaerts – SS, SD (36% rostered)<\/p>\n (EVERY DAY JOB, COUNTING STAT UPSIDE, POWER BOOST?<\/p>\n Look, Bogey gets forgotten about because he\u2019s 33 and people treat him like he\u2019s boring, but he\u2019s doing some interesting things this season. He\u2019s changed his swing a bit, making it a bit steeper, which hasn\u2019t led to more fly balls, but is just allowing him to create more backspin and hit the ball a bit harder. Pair that with a more opposite field approach where he is letting the ball travel deeper, and we\u2019re seeing a few more barrels and more hard contact. He\u2019s also been far more aggressive in the zone, raising his zone swing rate by almost 8%. Considering he has always made an elite level of contact, being more aggressive has led to more meaningful contact early in the season. Could this be a 15\/15 or a 15\/20 season from Bogey while batting .270 again? That\u2019s boring but valuable production. <\/p>\n Josh Bell – 1B, MIN (35% rostered)<\/p>\n (STARTING JOB, COUNTING STAT UPSIDE)<\/p>\n Bell was on here last week and has jumped from 27% rostered to 38% rostered. He has slowed down a little bit over the last week, but he appeared in Eric\u2019s preseason article on Process+ leaders<\/a>. He and Andrew Vaughn were the only two hitters on the list who scored over 100 (better than league average) in all of Decision Value, Contact Value, and Power Value. The decision part shouldn\u2019t surprise you for Bell since he has a career 11.2% walk rate and sub-26% chase rate. Bell also has a career 10% SwStr% and has been above an 85% zone contact rate every year since 2022, so he has at least league-average contact ability, if not slightly better. All of that is pretty appealing. Plus, Minnesota has been super pull-happy as a team, and Bell is now among the top 15 hitters in baseball in Pull Air rate, which means he\u2019s likely to hit for more power than we\u2019ve seen from him in the past. That\u2019s a profile that works in most league types. We also think more people need to be rostering Jake Burger – 1B, TEX (23% rostered). He was featured in Eric\u2019s article on hitters who have changed their swing this season. <\/a>He has five home runs already and is playing every day in the middle of Texas\u2019 lineup. If you need power, he\u2019s a great bet. <\/p>\n Colt Keith – 1B\/2B\/3B, DET (27% rostered)<\/p>\n (STRONG-SIDE PLATOON, BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE)<\/p>\n Keith is another player Eric covered in his article last week on hitters who have changed their stance or approach<\/a>. The 24-year-old has had the second-biggest jump in bat speed, up 2.8 mph from 70.7 mph to 73.5 mph. Keith has also made some changes to his batting stance, closing his stance off by eight degrees. He has also improved his Ideal Angle Attack Rate significantly, which might be why Keith has seen his line drive rate improve by almost 3%, and his hard-hit rate is up from 43.7% to 56.5%. He sits versus lefties and can also be removed mid-game when a lefty comes in, which is a bummer, but this is a former top prospect who is playing nearly every day and hitting the ball well. That\u2019s worth buying into. <\/p>\n Sunday update: The Tigers faced their first three left-handed pitchers of the season this week and Keith sat against all three. It seemed like he could\u2019ve gotten in the lineup against lefty Ranger Su\u00e1rez on Friday after Zack McKinstry was placed on the IL, but Detroit called up infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee – 2B\/3B, DET (1% rostered) who drew the start at third base. Keith is in a sharp platoon, which hurts his value in standard leagues despite a strong start to the season.<\/p>\n Mickey Moniak – OF, COL (23% rostered)<\/p>\n (REGULAR PLAYING TIME, POWER UPSIDE)<\/p>\n Moniak was a hitter Eric covered in a few offseason articles<\/a>. Last year, he posted his best season yet, and not just in surface-level stats. His bat speed increased, his barrel rate jumped to nearly 14%, his hard-hit rate was a career-high 45%, and he made more contact than he ever had before. He has plenty of power and hits in arguably the best offensive environment in the game. Maybe he\u2019s more of a .250-.260 hitter, given his league average overall contact, but he\u2019s going to make that contact count. That\u2019s especially true this year since he\u2019s swinging more often than he ever has before, which gives him more chances to make impactful contact. The Rockies have four games at home next week, and will face five righties overall, so that\u2019s good news for Moniak and Troy Johnston – OF, COL (4% rostered) and T.J. Rumfield – 1B, COL (13% rostered).<\/p>\n Ryan Jeffers – C, MIN (19% rostered)<\/p>\n (PLAYING TIME INCREASE, POWER UPSIDE)<\/p>\n Jeffers may be our favorite catcher waiver add of the week. He appeared in Eric\u2019s article this week on hitters to buy <\/a>because he has a 50% hard-hit rate with better-than-league-average contact rates and swinging strike rates. That\u2019s a combination we love. Jeffers has been a bit underrated in recent years, but he is no longer splitting time as much as he has in the past, and he\u2019s crushing the ball right now. Another catcher we like is Gary Sanchez – C, MIL (4% rostered), who should be the near every day designated hitter in Milwaukee with Christian Yelich out, so that\u2019s going to give him about a month of playing time. He has great power potential in that linep and would be an elite two-catcher league option who can even be considered in one-catcher formats. Another option would be Dillon Dingler – C, DET (33% rostered).<\/p>\n Moises Ballesteros – C, CHC (15% rostered)<\/p>\n (PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE)<\/p>\n Now, this is a bit tricky because Ballesteros is only catcher-eligible in formats like Yahoo with lower games played thresholds. That being said, he is the Cubs\u2019 DH against all right-handed pitchers, and his quality of contact is off the charts, with a 60% hard-hit rate and 17% barrel rate in the early going. We had thought there might be a chance that Matt Shaw pushed Ballesteros to the bench, but that doesn\u2019t seem likely now. If you have a UTIL spot that you can use for just a good, pure hitter, and especially if you\u2019re in a daily moves league where you can shift Ballesteros to the bench against lefties, he\u2019s worth a look. <\/p>\n Jose Fernandez – SS, ARI (14% rostered)<\/p>\n (PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE<\/p>\n People were so ready to move on from Fernandez after he didn\u2019t match the production of his two-homer debut, but we have to have more patience than that. An injury to Carlos Santana has opened more at-bats for Fernandez, and he is now an everyday player in Arizona. He hasn\u2019t hit a home run since his debut, but the tools you were enamored with – his elite bat speed and sprint speed – still exist. The 22-year-old was not a top prospect in Arizona\u2019s system, but he made big strides in Double-A last year to cut his strikeout rate. He chases too much out of the zone, and there is no long track record of minor league success, so there may be some bumps along the way. However, he has plus raw tools and a clear job, so this is worth a gamble in most formats. <\/p>\n Garett Mitchell – OF, MIL (13% rostered)<\/p>\n (STARTING JOB, POWER\/SPEED UPSIDE)<\/p>\n We\u2019re just going to keep Mitchell on here until more people add him. He\u2019s a former first-round pick and an intriguing prospect who has never played more than 69 games in a big league season due to injuries. He\u2019s healthy now and has gone 11-for-41 (.268) with three doubles, 13 RBI, and three steals to start the season. Mitchell has an 9.5% career barrel rate and the 11th-fastest bat speed in the big leagues, so he\u2019s not swinging a wet noodle. He also has the speed to swipe 20+ bases if he gets a full season of playing time. We doubt he\u2019ll get a full season of playing time, but he\u2019s healthy now, so it could be worth taking a gamble and riding the production as long as he\u2019s on the field. However, Mitchell will sit against left-handed pitching, so that needs to be part of your calculus. It\u2019s early, but he\u2019s top 25 in baseball in both barrels per batted ball event and exit velocity on fly balls and line drives, so I think there is some real power growth about to happen here. <\/p>\n Spencer Steer – 1B\/OF, CIN (13% rostered)<\/p>\n (REGULAR PLAYING TIME, POTENTIAL BOUNCEBACK)<\/p>\n Spencer Steer got off to a slow start to the season, like most Reds hitters, but over the last two weeks, he\u2019s gone 11-for-43 (.256) with three home runs and four RBI. His bat speed is back up around 2024 levels, and he\u2019s made a slight swing change to steepen his bat path and the angle of his barrel at contact. So far, that\u2019s helped produce a 17% barrel rate and an 8% increase in fly ball rate. He\u2019s also chasing far more outside of the zone and making contact on a lot of those pitches, which is not ideal because it\u2019s hard to do damage on pitches outside of the zone. The narrative for adding Steer is that he\u2019s a multi-position player with an everyday role in a great hitter\u2019s park who seems to be making a swing change geared towards more power production. Maybe it works.<\/p>\n Dominic Smith – 1B, ATL (11% rostered)<\/p>\n (REGULAR PLAYING TIME, HOT STREAK)<\/p>\n Will this stick for Dom Smith? We have no idea, but he\u2019s hitting .381\/.400\/.643 with three home runs and 15 RBI in 15 games, so we can\u2019t ignore this. He flattened his swing and made his bat head a little less steep at the point of contact, which has led to a drop in his launch angle this season. However, there\u2019s an argument that it has also allowed him to create more backspin because his barrel rate has nearly doubled, his average exit velocity is up almost four mph, and his hard-hit rate is up 5%. He is also playing in a hitter-friendly park where he doesn\u2019t need to pull the ball to get it out of the park. He will sit versus lefties, and this hot streak may end at any point, but there is nobody pushing him out of this job, so you should run with it while the hot streak is going. <\/p>\n Sam Antonacci – 2B\/3B, CWS (9% rostered)<\/p>\n (PROSPECT PEDIGREE, OBP LEAGUE RISER)<\/p>\n The White Sox actually called up Antonacci to make his major league debut, and he has gone 1-for-7 in his first two starts. He\u2019s been a prospect riser over the past year and made a name for himself with Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. In the minors, he exhibited an extremely patient approach with one of the lowest swing rates in the minors in a small sample at Triple-A. He has a plus hit tool that allows him to make contact on the few pitches he does decide to swing at, but he has never been a huge power hitter. There have been some signs of modest growth there, but you\u2019re not getting power out of him, and the counting stats should be modest on a pretty mediocre team. He\u2019s likely to run a high on-base percentage and is a fun deep league option given what we hope to be regular playing time with multi-position eligibility and massive stolen base upside. <\/p>\n Sunday update: Antonacci started four games in a row to start his MLB career before heading to the bench on Sunday against a left-handed pitcher. Interestingly, three of his starts have come in left field, so Antonacci is on pace to add another position to his multi-position eligibility. Early data tells us he\u2019s swinging a bit more than expected as a very, very patient hitter at Triple-A this season and is making tons of contact in the zone. He has a fun profile as a deep league play.<\/p>\n Edouard Julien – 1B\/2B, COL (3% rostered)<\/p>\n (OBP LEAGUE BOOST, BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE)<\/p>\n Julien appeared in Eric\u2019s offseason column on post-hype hitters<\/a>, where Eric wrote: \u201cIf the Rockies did it for Mickey Moniak, can they do it for Eduoard Julien? For his career, Julien has a nearly 32% strikeout rate but just a 10% swinging strike rate? How does that happen? Well, he also has a 20% called strike rate. His nearly 25% early called strike rate is well above the league average of 21%, and he has gotten himself into two-strike counts nearly 32% of the time in his career; that\u2019s 15th-percentile in baseball. Can a move to a more hitter-friendly environment help him unlock an approach change? Julien has a 12% barrel rate and 42% hard-hit rate during his career, so we know he can make quality contact. He doesn\u2019t pull the ball often and is below league average in Pull Air%, so it would be unlikely that he ever becomes a major home run threat, but his batted ball profile should enable him to post a strong batting average in Coors Field.\u201d So far, Julien is actually swinging LESS OFTEN and taking the same amount of called strikes. However, he is pulling the ball 11% more often. Far too much of that is on the ground, but he could be a batting average option as the leadoff hitter in Colorado when they\u2019re at home. Another option in deeper formats would be Nick Yorke – 2B\/3B, PIT (1% rostered), who has emerged into an everyday role in Pittsburgh and has a 50% hard-hit rate with a 97% zone contact rate and 6% swinging strike rate. If you\u2019re going to make that level of contact and also post hard-hit rates around 50%, that will put you on the deep-league radar. <\/p>\n Carlos Cortes – OF, ATH (1% rostered)<\/p>\n (PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, MODEST POWER\/SPEED COMBO)<\/p>\n Cortes is an interesting name to appear on here because he has stepped into Brent Rooker\u2019s spot in the Athletics\u2019 lineup. We don\u2019t have a huge MLB sample size for Cortes, but he was good in Triple-A last year, and his quality of contact has been great this season. He also seems to have a really good sense of the strike zone and makes a ton of contact in the zone. If you pair that with his great home park, it\u2019s hard not to get a little excited about this for deeper formats. <\/p>\n MJ Melendez – OF, NYM (0% rostered)<\/p>\n (PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE)<\/p>\n With the Mets reeling and short on options at both DH and corner outfield, Melendez has started four games in a row since being recalled from Triple-A. He\u2019s rewarded their faith going 4-for-10 with two doubles. He\u2019s also struck out four times. It\u2019s important to remember that swing-and-miss issues have plagued him over the last few seasons and pushed the Royals to non-tender him after last season. Still, legit raw power and an everyday role could be valuable in the deepest of leagues.<\/p>\n George Valera – OF, CLE (0% rostered)<\/p>\n (PROSPECT PEDIGREE, COMING OFF THE IL)<\/p>\n The 25-year-old former top prospect was supposed to be a regular starter in the outfield for Cleveland before he got hurt in spring training. He started three straight games against right-handed pitching since coming off the IL, so it seems like he has returned right into the starting lineup. Last year, he hit .318\/.388\/.550 in 44 minor league games with seven home runs. He hasn\u2019t provided much stolen base value in the minors, so this could be just a batting average and modest counting stat play for deeper formats. Leody Taveras – OF, BAL (0% rostered) has also been starting against right-handed pitching and has gone 12-for-32 (.375) on the season with five runs scored and eight RBI. We\u2019ve seen him provide stolen base value in the past, so perhaps that can emerge as well. Right now, this is just AL-only and daily move 15-team leagues. <\/p>\n Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire PitchersRobert Suarez – RP, ATL (57% rostered)<\/p>\n Briefly breaking our 40% rule with Suarez because he got the save on Saturday night for the Braves after Raisel Iglesias was surprisingly unavailable after should discomfort from allegedly sleeping on it wrong<\/a>. This could wind up in the pantheon of weird baseball injuries if it were to turn into something more. Also, the way the closer carousel is churning right now this is huge news regardless because Suarez would instantly become a near-top-tier closer should he get this job all to himself. Also of note, Suarez has brought a cutter into his repertoire so far this season. He\u2019s barely used that pitch since 2022 and this one is moving differently than the one he threw sparingly over the past few years. It\u2019s sat around 96 mph so far with solid lift and a bit of bite. Most importantly, it\u2019s taken some pressure off his fastball and he currently has a 30.3% strikeout rate. 3.0% walk rate, and 1.04 ERA through 8 2\/3 innings pitched. Again, if anything is truly wrong with Iglesias, Suarez will instantly become one of the most valuable closers in fantasy baseball.<\/p>\n Reid Detmers – SP, LAA (49% rostered)<\/p>\n Detmers carved up the Yankees this week with 17 whiffs and nine strikeouts in seven innings of work. A big part of that is that he \u201cfound\u201d his changeup grip. He has been using the changeup again earlier in the season, but it was functioning more as a splitter. Before this start, he claimed he found a grip that worked better for him, and the pitch was great with an 87.5% strike rate and six whiffs. If Detmers can continue to have success with that changeup, it\u2019s going to be huge for him this season. But that remains an if. <\/p>\n Noah Schultz – SP, CWS (38% rostered)<\/p>\n The White Sox called up Schultz to make his major league debut on Tuesday against the Rays. It was a mixed debut that showcased high velo and a nice cutter to righties, but also some command issues and inconsistent breaking balls. Pair that with his limited minor league innings totals and the White Sox saying they have a clear pitch count plan for him, and it\u2019s hard to get overly excited for this season. Eric recorded a video with more detailed thoughts on his performance and fantasy upside<\/a>. <\/p>\n Landen Roupp – SP, SF (33% rostered)<\/p>\n Last week we had Roupp here and said that we hadn\u2019t given up on Roupp yet. Then he went out and threw six shutout innings in Cincinnati with six strikeouts and just one hit allowed. There weren\u2019t a ton of whiffs here, but he got plenty of strikes on his curveball, which he has gotten more drop on this season and leaned into using more against lefties. The command still wasn\u2019t pristine here, and we have some concerns about his ability to consistently hit spots, but his pitch mix is deep, and he sequences well, and that\u2019s going to help him in most formats. <\/p>\n Jakob Junis – RP, TEX (32% rostered)<\/p>\n Junis was a huge waiver wire pick-up last week, but as Eric mentioned in the video he recorded about him that week<\/a>, Junis is a command pitcher who leads with his slider and doesn\u2019t miss many bats. That\u2019s not a profile we expect to lead to a consistent closer, but he is part of the committee right now if you want to take a chance. Cole Winn – RP, TEX (3% rostered) might be our preferred option in Texas in the longer-term. Winn posted a 1.51 ERA in 41.2 innings last season for Texas. The issue for Winn is that he doesn\u2019t have elite stuff or strikeout rates, which could hurt his chances of earning a late-inning gig. However, if you\u2019re in really deep formats, he could be worth a gamble. <\/p>\n Steven Matz – SP\/RP, TB (31% rostered)<\/p>\n The Rays are leaning into Matz\u2019s changeup more. He\u2019s using it 31% of the time this year and almost exclusively to righties. The pitch has slightly less drop this season, but a bit more arm-side run at a slower velocity, which has helped. He\u2019s also doing a much better job of commanding it low and away to righties, which has led to a huge jump in SwStr%. However, it should be noted that most of those swinging strikes have come early in the count, and the changeup has not led to many strikeouts against righties. He has also turned his slider into more of a whiff pitch, cutting about 5 mph but adding over six inches of drop and seven inches of horizontal run. It\u2019s more of a sweeper now than a traditional slider, and that\u2019s OK for us. The SwStr% against lefties is at 25%, but he threw just nine TOTAL sliders to lefties last year, and he\u2019s now using it 18.2% of the time to them. That\u2019s gonna add more strikeout upside. Matz should probably be held in 12-team formats, even if you need to bench him against the toughest offenses. <\/p>\n Bryan Baker – RP, TB (29% rostered)<\/p>\n I\u2019m not quite sure why Baker\u2019s roster rate hasn\u2019t gotten higher after he stepped into the closer\u2019s role in Tampa Bay. It hasn\u2019t been without some hiccups, but he has some of the best Stuff+ grades in the Rays\u2019 bullpen, thanks to a strong slider and changeup, and is clearly the primary guy in the Rays\u2019 bullpen right now. You can feel free to stash Edwin Uceta – RP, TB (19% rostered), who has looked good in his rehab assignment so far, but we would be rolling with Baker until we see a clear changing of the guard. He should have been added the way Junis was.<\/p>\n Sunday update: Baker came in to pitch the eighth inning for the Rays on Saturday night to face the heart of the Pirates\u2019 order. He coughed up the tying run in a game that the Rays wound up still winning, it just took them 13 innings to do so. Perhaps his grip on this job could weaken with his second blown save in his last four appearances, but it likely won\u2019t be Uceta who complicates things as he just had a setback during his rehab assignment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Spencer Arrighetti – SP, HOU (28% rostered)<\/p>\n Hunter Brown is likely to be out for at least a month, and very likely more, and Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai are also dealing with injuries, so Arrighetti is getting a shot in the rotation. He makes us a little nervous because he ended last season with an elbow injury and started this year delayed because of injury as well. However, you\u2019re not using a draft pick on him now, so you can put a modest waiver bid on him and see if he can remain healthy long enough to be useful for your team. His curveball was great in his first start against the Rockies, but that pitch has always been a bit inconsistent for him. When it\u2019s on, he\u2019s electric. When it\u2019s off, he doesn\u2019t have enough. <\/p>\n Mick Abel – SP, MIN (25% rostered)<\/p>\n We mentioned last week that you can\u2019t completely abandon pitchers you believed in after just two starts. Yes, if you see a high-upside waiver-wire arm, feel free to make a move, but we shouldn\u2019t have been cutting Abel just because of one relief appearance and one start in a blizzard. He now has back-to-back starts without allowing a run and has struck out 16 in those 13 innings. His fastball has been sitting 95 mph and located really well at the top of the zone. Against the Red Sox, his changeup carved up lefties. I wish he were more consistent with his breaking balls, but he has a true six-pitch mix and can keep hitters off-balance. This is a buy in all formats. <\/p>\n Brad Keller – RP, PHI (14% rostered)<\/p>\n Phillies\u2019 lock-down closer Jhoan Duran has been placed on the injured list with an oblique strain<\/a> and we have clear word from Todd Zolecki of MLB.com that Keller will be their preferred option at closer for the time being.<\/p>\n The word \u201cbulk\u201d may hold weight here as Orion Kerkering (2% rostered) and Jos\u00e9 Alvarado (3% rostered) could logically get in the mix for saves as well. Alvarado has the most ninth inning experience of the trio and misses the most bats. He could be a sneaky add, but we have to go with this firm of an indication that Keller is about to become the de-facto closer in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Louis Varland, RP, TOR (14% rostered)<\/p>\n The Blue Jays promise they still have faith in Jeff Hoffman despite his 7.71 ERA, three blown saves, and two losses already this season. Saturday could\u2019ve been his worst appearance so far. He entered a tie game in the eighth inning to face the Diamondbacks\u2019 eight and nine hitters. The first three reached base before Corbin Carroll hit a go-ahead grand slam. Four runs home before an out was recorded and still, John Schneider has faith in his closer.<\/p>\n John Schneider:<\/p>\n \u201cI know there may be people who don\u2019t want to hear this, but I\u2019ve got a lot of trust and confidence in Jeff Hoffman.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s a situation to close out a game, I\u2019ll take Jeff Hoffman.\u201d #BlueJays<\/a><\/p>\n![\"MLB:](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776673265_630_.jpeg\")
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