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Hoffman needs Christopher Lloyd and his crew coming down to games when he pitches:

Jays should be well rested with yesterday's off day. Hopefully the Jays can take Game 1 of the series!

Steve Phillips was on OverDrive and floated the idea that the Jays might DFA Hoffman, which I thought was wild. I really don’t see it coming down to that. Hoffman was starting to right the ship before that implosion on Saturday, and even if the Jays did move on, some team would definitely roll the dice on him. I like Hoffman, and I still think that if he figures things out and is used properly, he could be a real weapon out of the pen. You can’t ignore those strikeout rates. To me, it feels like a combination of bad luck and something psychological. He just doesn’t look comfortable in the ninth-inning role and honestly, he hasn’t really looked comfortable there dating back to last season. I’d probably feel more confident with Hoffman pitching in a one-run game in the seventh than protecting a four-run lead in the ninth, lol. He did tease us a bit with those two saves on May 21 and 23 when Varland was unavailable. But like Masterbather said, they probably need to employ a different strategy for the time being when it comes to the ninth - maybe using another arm like Fisher, who picked up the save the other day, whenever Varland has already been used or isn’t available. The problem with Hoffman is that when he implodes, he really implodes, and it gets ugly fast. It’s not usually just one or two earned runs - it’s more like four or five earned runs, two or three walks, and maybe a hit-by-pitch thrown in for good measure, haha.

The Pirates activated Mlodzinski from the restricted list Monday, Jason Mackey of MLB.com reports. Mlodzinski's stay on the restricted list lasted 24 hours after he expressed frustration following his removal from the Pirates' rotation with the activation of Jared Jones from the injured list this past weekend. Mlodzinski is now putting his feelings aside and said Monday that he's willing to do whatever he can to help the team, as he's now going to come out of the Pittsburgh bullpen. Wouldn't be a bad trade target if the Jays are looking for a SP.

Maybe it’s just me, but this season feels like it’s been full of weird scores, blown leads, and random comebacks.

Hoffman can still be an effective reliever if he’s used properly. We saw him turn things around in May when he was primarily pitching in the 7th and 8th innings before yesterday’s hiccup. That said, he shouldn’t be closing games anymore unless Varland is unavailable. I know Hoffman picked up saves on May 21 and May 23, but that was because Varland wasn’t available. At this point, I’d even trust Fisher ahead of Hoffman if you need someone to close out a game.

You just gotta hope they aren't burnt out by August/September or in the Postseason. Varland and Hoffman both former starters, so they're used to the innings. Rogers has a rubber arm and is good to pitch in 80-90 games. Fluharty will appear in a lot of games because he's a southpaw, but he won't have the same amount of innings as Varland/Hoffman and Rogers.

Ha-Seong Kim has now sat three games in a row, and honestly, it’s hard to argue with the decision. Through 12 games, he’s hitting .095/.191/.095 with a .287 OPS, 0 HR, 2 RBI, and 13 strikeouts. For a player AA and the Braves committed $20M to be their shortstop, that’s been a massive swing-and-miss so far. One of Anthopoulos’ worst signings in recent memory.

Hoffman is killing my fantasy teams FFS!

Need to keep Hoffman in a 7th/8th inning role, period.

Meh they should be fine for Sunday if Yesavage gives them 6 or so innings. Fisher opens for an inning and Miles likely gets them into the 6th inning. Not worried about tomorrow at all if guys like Varland, Hoffman and Rogers are used today.

Late inning pen arms will be available today which is nice! Fisher has been rock solid and glad to see him being trusted more in higher leverage spots. He pretty much can do anything which is awesome! Let's get above .500 today and go for the 4-game sweep tomorrow!

Rogers hasn't been good as of late, so hopefully the Jays bats could put up some crooked numbers against him.

This could be the turning point of the season right here coming up. 4 game series vs. the Orioles. Take 3 of 4 and the Jays are back to .500 would be huge! Lets go!

Dodgers going to have to score 10-15 runs each game so Lauer can get his W's haha.

Miss the Frank Catalanotto and Reed Johnson platoon the Jays had for those 4 years. Looks like Randal Grichuk is going to have a hot trading market this summer.

Otto and Xavier both off to fantastic starts this season. Likely NL All-Stars this summer.

Hoffman actually has been pitching very well as of late. Great to see the Jays having two possible closing options in Varland and Hoffman.

If Josh Towers was pitching, he would throw his 88mph heater in the ribcage of the next Marlins' batter at the plate.

Sosa 😂

He will be claimed in the LOD.

It’ll be expensive, but the Tigers may have hurt their leverage by waiting to trade him in-season instead of during the offseason. The earlier-season injury doesn’t exactly help their case either. That said, adding Skubal to this rotation would be absolutely epic.

Sure, that’s also an option. Maybe you can flip him for a high-K reliever. Worst case, he goes back to AAA and gives you depth in Buffalo, which really isn’t a bad thing. The bigger issue is rostering both Sanchez and Lukes, because that feels like a misuse of roster spots. If you could flip one of them for a right-handed bat, that would be ideal. Sanchez probably has more trade value than Lukes at this point. Trade for Esteury Ruiz from the Marlins. I’d love to see him in a platoon with either Sanchez or Lukes.

There was nothing wrong with the Sosa trade at the time. The Jays needed to roll the dice on someone, and they needed a healthy body. Sosa had shown some pop, as evidenced by the 22 home runs last season, so there was at least a chance they could unlock something. But as Laika said, the issue is really the playing time more than the trade itself. He’s appeared in 25 games, had 73 ABs with the Jays, and has produced a 30 wRC+ and -0.7 fWAR. At this point, he can’t be starting anymore, and he really needs to be the next one off the roster.

But if injuries start piling up again - Varsho, Barger, Lukes, etc. - the Jays could be scrambling for bats all over again. I wouldn’t trade Sanchez just yet, and honestly, I prefer Sanchez to Lukes anyway. Lukes isn’t the same player he was last season, and you can’t just expect him to repeat what he did. Even last year, his numbers weren’t anything crazy: 103 wRC+ and 1.8 fWAR. At some point, you have to move on from the 2025 World Series run and focus on the present. Right now, Sanchez > Lukes. As others have already said, what the Jays really need more than anything is a right-handed bat who can platoon with Sanchez and occasionally with Barger. As much as I hate to say it, I’d probably send Pinango down for now. You can’t really keep Lukes buried in AAA, and I wouldn’t trade Sanchez just for the sake of trading him - unless the Jays can eventually land a more significant LF upgrade with a legitimate impact bat.