Article: O's Back Off. Jays Bring Back Hoff. Man!

[Seth Stohs]

On Friday night, news broke online that the Blue Jays signed veteran reliever Jeff Hoffman to a three-year, $33 million contract with incentives. 

The Jays added a big arm to their bullpen on Friday night. It was announced that the team signed Jeff Hoffman, bringing him back to the organization that drafted him a decade ago. Of course, he was part of the package that the Blue Jays sent to the Rockies in exchange for Troy Tulowitzki. 

Hoffman, who received a signing bonus of $3,080,800 from Toronto as the ninth-overall pick from East Carolina in the 2014 draft, will received a signing bonus of $5 million in 2024 with this contract. He will also earn a salary of $6 million. Then the next two seasons, he will receive a salary of $11 million each year.

In addition to the three years and $33 million that he is guaranteed, Hoffman will have the opportunity to make another $6 million in incentives. In each of the three seasons, he will gain a $500,000 bonus when he reaches 60, 70, 80 and 90 games pitched. It should be noted that in his last two seasons, easily the best seasons of his career, he pitched in 54 and 68 games respectively. 

While the Blue Jays haven't committed to Hoffman as their closer, he certainly should be given an opportunity to compete for the position. 

If healthy, Hoffman, who turned 32 this week, has a chance to earn a lot of money and the Jays will have a quality, reliable shutdown reliever. But that doesn't mean there isn't risk. That is especially true after the reports that Hoffman had agreed to a three-year, $40 million contract recently with the Baltimore Orioles. However, the Orioles reportedly didn't like something going on in his shoulder and backed off the deal. 

He has not been on the Injured List since a two-month stay during the 2021 season, so clearly the Jays aren't as concerned about Hoffman's medical record or the physical they put him through. 

Over the past two seasons with the Phillies, Hoffman was terrific. In 2023, he went 5-2 with a 2.41 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. In 52 1/3 innings, he gave up just 29 hits, walked 19, and had 69 strikeouts (11.9 K/9). In 2024, he was named to his first All Star team. He went 3-3 with a 2.17 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP. In 66 1/3 innings, he gave up 48 hits, walked just 16 and had 89 strikeouts (12.1 K/9). 

In parts of five seasons with the Rockies, mostly as a starter, it won't surprise you that he was really hurt by the long ball. In those five partial seasons, he accumulated -1.5 bWAR. He went to the Reds for 2021 and 2022, and, after a short stint as a starter, he made the transition to the bullpen and it went alright. Over those two seasons, he accumulated 1.5 bWAR. He has been worth 3.9 bWAR over the past two seasons. Will that trend continue through his early 30s? The Jays are betting on it. 

Hoffman always threw fairly hard. His average fastball velocity as a starter, early in his career was 93-94 mph. In 2023, that jumped up to a 97.1 mph average and it was 96.6 mph in 2024. It's interesting because he also went from throwing 50-65% fastballs to between 30-40% fastballs. 

Taking the place of the fastballs were sliders. In 2021 and 2022 with the Reds, he threw the slider less than 25% of the time. He has thrown it 47.7% (2023) and 40.8% (2024). And his slider velocity increased from about 81-82 mph to 87-88 mph. 

Hoffman will join veterans Chad Green, Yimi Garcia, and Erik Swanson in the back of the Blue Jays bullpen. The team let go of Dillon Tate this offseason, and Jordan Romano left after his injury-lost 2024 season to join the Phillies on a one-year deal. The Jays acquired Nick Sandlin from Cleveland in the trade that also brought Andres Gimenez to Ontario. Zach Pop and Tommy Nance both got outs as well. Brendon Little was the lefty out of the 'pen much of the season.

In other words, the Jays could afford to keep adding to their bullpen. After publicly acknowledging their big-dollar attempt to bring in Juan Soto, could the team coax lefty Tanner Scott to come north too? 

While other names may not be as exciting, there remains plenty of quality relief arms looking for a team to sign them. Like Scott, Hunter Strickland, Jalen Beeks and Phil Maton reached 70 games pitched. Current or former closers available include Kyle Finnegan, Hector Neris, Kirby Yates, Adam Ottavino, Craig Kimbrel, and Kenley Jansen. Jose LeClerc, Scott Barlow, Ryne Stanek, Andrew Chafin, and John Brebbia. And there are always veterans looking to keep a career going (Drew Smyly, Shelby Miller, Matt Moore), and former top prospects that may or may not have a future out of the bullpen (Josh Winder, Riley Pint). I don't know what category to put James Karinchak in. And, if you have World Series aspirations, you need a Will Smith on your roster! 

To make room for Hoffman on the roster, reliever Brett de Geus was designated for assignment. He made just two appearances for the Jays in 2024 (and gave up four runs over 2 1/3 innings). During the 2024 season, he also pitched in the big leagues for the Marlins and Mariners. The 13 games pitched were his first MLB games since 2021 when he pitched a combined 47 games between the Rangers and the Diamondbacks bullpens. 

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[Spanky99]

He's going to be the closer, is my only caveat to this article, well done.

[SuperBlackhawk]

I'd like to know more about his shoulder. 

[Bone R]

I'm a tad concerned about the shoulder. Especially since there's also concern with Yimi's elbow. If everything works out, our bullpen is solid. But could also get ugly with the potential injury risk 

[Bone R]

Considering Romano got $8.5M with Philly, giving Hofmann $11M is a no-brainer. Huge upgrade, even with the slight injury risk. 

[Jays24]

So the Jays are giving a 5M signing bonus with a 6M salary for 2025, does this impact how the Jays payroll is calculated in regards to the CBT?  

[Spanky99]

lol

[Terminator]

Leave it to Ross to actually finish in 2nd place on his first big FA signing of the year lol

[leaffie]

It was discussed on mlb radio today that he also had a contract with the Braves

that they  backed out of after the physical.

 

[Orgfiller]

On 1/11/2025 at 12:29 PM, Jays24 said:

So the Jays are giving a 5M signing bonus with a 6M salary for 2025, does this impact how the Jays payroll is calculated in regards to the CBT?  

Not at all. The signing bonus is added to the total value of the deal for AAV purposes. e.g. a straight 2/20 contract with $10M salary per season is treated the same by tax calculations as a 2/20 deal with a $5M bonus, $5M salary in the first year and a $10M salary the second. The Jays themselves might care about the difference for their yearly budget calculations, but the CBT does not.