{"id":682213,"date":"2026-04-24T23:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/682213\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:03:20","slug":"blue-jays-remove-jeff-hoffman-from-closer-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/682213\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays remove Jeff Hoffman from closer role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Blue Jays are switching up their closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With Jeff Hoffman struggling as Toronto\u2019s bullpen anchor, general manager Ross Atkins announced Friday that the team would be going to a closer-by-committee approach for the time being.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the short term, we are going to share that [closing] responsibility,\u201d Atkins said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/blue-jays-remove-jeff-hoffman-as-closer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s still going to be getting very important outs for us, and I very much believe in him as a weapon for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39191222\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/jeff-hoffman-23-toronto-blue-126142482.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Hoffman exits the game against the Los Angeles Angels.\" class=\"wp-image-39191222\"  \/>Jeff Hoffman of the Toronto Blue Jays exits the game against the Los Angeles Angels during the ninth inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 21, 2026 in Anaheim, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman, who served as the Blue Jays\u2019 closer in 2025, saving 33 games during the regular season, is not off to a great start in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 12 appearances out of the \u2018pen, Hoffman has a 7.59 ERA and three blown saves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In his last outing during Tuesday\u2019s game against the Angels, Hoffman hit two batters and yielded two hits while only getting one out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Atkins suggested that Hoffman will still play a big role in the Blue Jays\u2019 relief unit.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39191234\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/crop-39191230.jpg\" alt=\"Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jeff Hoffman (23) throws against the Los Angeles Angels during the ninth inning at Angel Stadium.\" class=\"wp-image-39191234\"  \/>Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jeff Hoffman (23) throws against the Los Angeles Angels during the ninth inning at Angel Stadium. Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way I think about Jeff and his situation is, I immediately think that we need to be better as an organization in the deployment of his arsenal and how we\u2019re helping him, putting him in situations [to] be successful, because of how good he has been and still is,\u201d Atkins added.<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman signed with Toronto in free agency prior to the 2025 season after a career year with the Phillies in 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/10\/sports\/blue-jays-sign-jeff-hoffman-to-three-year-33-million-deal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inking a three-year, $33 million deal<\/a> with the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t exactly lights out during his first year with the Blue Jays, though, which may explain the quick change-up at closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman posted a 4.37 ERA while giving up 15 home runs in just 67 innings last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was much better during the Blue Jays\u2019 AL pennant-winning playoff run, saving two games with a 1.46 ERA across 10 outings. However, he gave up a game-tying home run to the Dodgers\u2019 Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series to blow the save before Toronto lost in extras.<\/p>\n<p>Relievers Louis Varland, Braydon Fisher, Tyler Rogers and Mason Fluharty are all potential options to pick up saves for the Blue Jays going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays are switching up their closer.\u00a0 With Jeff Hoffman struggling as Toronto\u2019s bullpen anchor, general manager&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4,3352,185,70],"class_list":["post-682213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-baseball","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mlb","tag-pitchers","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116462184880995394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}