Closer by Committee: The Blue Jays’ New Late-Inning Plan

[Owen Hill]

It’s official. On Friday afternoon, before the Blue Jays’ weekend tilt against the Cleveland Guardians, Ross Atkins spoke to the media, confirming what many fans were speculating or outright hoping for: Jeff Hoffman is out as the Toronto Blue Jays' closer.

The leash seemed to be short for Hoffman from the start of this year. He’s coming off of a 2025 that looked dominant at times but came with its fair share of frustrating blow-ups. Last year, he picked up 33 saves but gave up 15 homers and carried a 4.37 ERA across 68 innings. 

Hoffman followed that up-and-down 2025 regular season with 12.1 IP throughout the Jays’ World Series run, in which he gave up just two runs. Whether it’s fair or not, a lot of the conversation surrounding Hoffman and the closer role will forever be tied to the second of those runs. 

Based purely on the eye test, it’s hard to question the move. Hoffman has blown three of his six save opportunities this season, without including his most recent blow-up in Los Angeles when he had to be pulled in the bottom of the ninth after recording just one out, giving up a pair of hits and plunking two more. Fortunately for the Jays, Louis Varland came in and bailed Hoffman out, getting a double play ball on a first pitch changeup, securing the win and his own first big league save.

The 2026 numbers aren’t kind to Hoffman either. In 10.2 IP, his ERA sits at 7.59, his walk rate is in the double digits (10.5%) and his WHIP is above two (2.06). 

The Blue Jays’ 10-15 start hasn’t changed that their ultimate goal is to get back to the World Series and win it, and simply put, based on all of those factors, the Blue Jays no longer believe that Hoffman pitching in the ninth inning with minuscule leads is the best way for them to win enough baseball games to do that.

Going forward, the Blue Jays will be going “closer by committee.”

Atkins didn’t exactly outline what this means, but it sounds like the Jays will look at their opponent's lineup and who’s due to bat in the ninth inning, and aim to pick the reliever that they believe matches up best against them on the mound for that moment.

For example, if three of four batters due up are lefties, there’s a chance Mason Fluharty is asked to get the final three outs. Or maybe there’s a specific pocket picked out for Tyler Rogers, or even Braydon Fisher. 

Of course, “closer by committee” could also be code for “Louis Varland is the new closer.” For what it’s worth, I did hear from a source within the Jays organization that a closer entrance video and light show were being put together for Varland. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the video and light show will be used, and definitely doesn’t confirm that Varland is the new full-time closer. I still believe that if Toronto's opponent has its 2-3-4 hitters due up in the eighth, Varland is the best option to pitch that inning, and he will be the one to throw it.

Varland is off to a ridiculous start to this season, having yet to allow an earned run through his first 12 appearances and 13 innings. He’s struck out over 40% of the hitters he’s faced, and 58.3% of the balls put in play against him have been on the ground. He’s been next to untouchable, and is in second place, only behind the Padres’ Mason Miller, in reliever fWAR with 0.8. 

The Blue Jays are in good hands with any combination of Varland, Rogers, Fisher, and Fluharty protecting leads late in games, and the ousting of Hoffman gives more flexibility to John Schneider to pick his spots with each of them.

The final piece to this puzzle is what Hoffman’s role is going to be moving forward.

While the results have been undeniably terrible, and there are clear problems with his ability to locate, Hoffman has been one of the unluckiest relievers in baseball. His .609 batting average on balls in play is the highest among pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched. The difference between his opponents’ batting average (.327) and xBA (.220) is .107, the eighth highest mark among qualified arms on the Statcast leaderboard.

Hoffman hasn’t battled many issues with his stuff either. His average fastball velocity is actually slightly harder than it was in 2025, and he’s struck out 42.1% of the hitters he’s faced, second only to – you guessed it – Mason Miller. 

There are more granular tidbits like his slider having fallen from a 116 and 114 Stuff+ in 2023 and ‘24, respectively, to just 103 in ‘26, and the control issues tell me there may be some mindset and approach adjustments to be made. Still, there’s nothing that I’m seeing that makes me ready to “give up” on Hoffman.

The poor results had snowballed past the point of letting Hoffman work through things in the role he was in, but there are lots of positive things to point to if you want to believe that he can, and will, continue to be a big piece of the Jays’ bullpen. 

His next couple of appearances will likely come in some lower-leverage spots, maybe trying to keep the Jays in a game in which they're trailing instead of holding a lead, but don’t be surprised if Hoffman puts up a few straight zeros and is right back in the mix to be one of the closers on the committee. 

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