BREAKING: Blue Jays Trade Jeff Hoffman to Minnesota Twins

[Mike LeSage]

One-time closer Jeff Hoffman has been traded to the Minnesota Twins, as reported by Jeff Passan. The return for Toronto is reported to be Dasan Hill, John Klein and Dameury Pena. Last year's trade that sent Louis Varland to Toronto and Hoffman's loss of ninth-inning duties made him expendable.

Hoffman signed a three-year, $33 million deal with the Jays ahead of the 2025 season and became their de facto closer, racking up 33 regular season saves and another pair in the playoffs, including the Game 7 ALCS clincher. His accumulation of blown saves and 15 homers surrendered, along with the World Series Game 7 blown save, took a lot of the shine off of Hoffman (to put it mildly). 

The rise of Varland to ninth-inning duties (plus the addition of Tyler Rogers) pushed Hoffman into lower-leverage situations where he performed much better. His cost and diminished role (with improved results) made him an expendable piece. The Twins will be taking on the remainder of Hoffman's '26 salary, but the Jays have agreed to pay a portion of his '27 earnings.

The highlight of the package coming to Toronto is Hill. The lefty was ranked as the Twins' No. 7 prospect by MLB Pipeline. He is a 'hard thrower with serious upside,' according to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com.

Righty Klein is ranked No. 17 by MLB Pipeline, and for those following along with the live chat on DiamondCentric's YouTube channel, Pena is highly thought of as well. In keeping with the shades of last year's Varland trade, Klein is also a Minnesota native.

Our sister site Twins Daily's Prospect Rankings had Hill ranked No. 9, with Klein and Pena outside of the organization's top 20. From their scouting report on Hill:

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Dasan Hill is a 20-year-old left-hander who stands 6-5, has room to gain strength yet, and has already reached triple digits with his fastball. He also throws a curveball, change-up, and slider, all of which grade out as above average. Having four above-average pitches is a great profile as a starting pitcher prospect.

Certainly sounds like someone for fans of the Jays' minor league systems to salivate over while he builds himself into roster contention.

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