Article: The Prodigal Kloff Returns: Blue Jays Sign Adam Kloffenstein to Minor League Deal

[Simon Li]

After a trade to the Cardinals and a shoulder injury, former Blue Jays third-round pick Adam Kloffenstein rejoins the team on a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training.

Adam Kloffenstein was the Blue Jays' third-round pick in 2018, coming as part of a package deal with high school teammate  Jordan Groshans, whom the Jays selected in the first round. Kloffenstein received a $2.45-million signing bonus, a sign that the Jays really believed in his potential, and he'll get another chance to reach it. On Tuesday, Ari Alexander reported that Kloffenstein will return to the Blue Jays on a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. Although Groshans and Kloffenstein have not found nearly the success that they'd hoped for, both have signed minor league deals in the past few days, still looking to make their way back to the majors.

Both Groshans and Kloffenstein were once highly-ranked prospects in the Toronto farm system, and both were traded before their prospect sheen could wear off. Groshans netted Zach Pop and popcorn menace Anthony Bass, while Kloffenstein was traded with fellow right-hander Sem Robberse for the enigmatic Jordan Hicks. Groshans bounced from organization to organization, with stints with Miami, the team formerly located in Oakland, the Yankees, and finally landing with the Royals organization.

Despite running a 4.74 ERA and 5.51 FIP in triple-A Memphis in 2024, Kloffenstein has had much more recent success than Groshans. The Jays are looking to rediscover the magic that allowed him to go 5-0 with a 3.00 ERA over 17 starts with the double-A New Hampshire Fishercats in 2023. It doesn't hurt that the Cardinals are not known for their pitching development.

The big righty wields a deep arsenal, mixing and matching six pitches: a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, sweeper, curveball, and changeup. Kloffenstein's bread and butter is the sinker-slider combination. At 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, Kloffenstein was expected to grow into veloctiy, but although his four-seamer reached 94.4 mph in 2024, it averaged just 91.8 and was down to 88 before a shoulder injury ended his season in July. The sinker helps Kloffenstein induce a ton of ground balls; he put up 49.0% groundball rate, which was good for 86th percentile in Triple A. His sweeper on the other hand, was much better at generating chases and whiffs. With a solid 14.9 inches of horizontal break, it ran a 37.8% whiff rate, and when it did get hit, it had a minuscule 17.6% hard-hit rate. During his short stint in the big leagues, pitch models also rated his cutter fairly highly. Kloffstein has just one major league appearance under his belt: he pitched a perfect top of the eighth inning during the Rickwood Field game on June 20.

Despite the plethora of pitches and the large frame, it seems unlikely that Kloffenstein will be a decent back-end of the rotation starter, as he has fringy command at best, without any standout pitches to make up for a poor walk rate. Kloffenstein walked 11% of the batters he faced in Triple A last season while striking out fewer than 20%. However, Toronto's familiarity with Kloffenstein could be a boon. Maybe the team knows that could help him unlock his peak form. Hopefully, spending spring training alongside veterans with deep repertoires like Chris Bassitt, Kevin Gausman, and José Berríos could help Kloffenstein figure out how to wield his pitches more effectively as well.

Kloffenstein's return to the Jays doesn't guarantee that he'll find success, but he's still only 24, with two options remaining. He's a depth piece for a team that needs just that. He'll be competing with Jake Bloss, Adam Macko, and Eric Lauer to be one of the first guys up in case of a starting pitching injury.

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Nice luxury to have a well written article on such a small move like this but as Jays diehards it's much appreciated