May couldn’t have ended much worse for Blue Jays reliever Jeff Hoffman.

When he came into the ninth inning on May 30th, the Toronto Blue Jays held a 5-1 lead over the Baltimore Orioles. They were three outs away from being over .500 for the first time since April 3.

Hoffman struck out the first batter he faced. Then he hit Coby Mayo. Hoffman seemed to unravel after that. He gave up three runs before being replaced by Connor Seabold with the bases loaded and one out. Seabold couldn’t escape the jam. The Orioles walked off the Blue Jays 6-5, dropping them back under .500. The Blue Jays lost their next three games.

The Blue Jays didn’t reach .500 again until June 22nd. Like in May, the Blue Jays blew a ninth-inning lead with a chance to get over .500. They dropped six straight to fall out of a Wild Card spot.

While Hoffman’s disastrous outing in Baltimore temporarily killed the Blue Jays’ momentum, he has had a very strong run of form since then.

In over 12 appearances in June, Hoffman has a 0.75 ERA with 15 strikeouts. He’s given up two runs over that stretch, only one of which was earned. Hoffman came into the sixth inning against the Orioles on June 6th with one out and a runner on first. He gave up a home run to Pete Alonso, who was the first batter he faced. However, the Blue Jays were leading 6-1 at the time. He then struck out Mayo and got Leody Taveras to ground out. The Blue Jays won 6-4.

The only other time he gave up a run in June was on the 24th against the Houston Astros. And it was a costly one.

The Blue Jays and Astros were tied 1-1 in the eighth inning. Toronto had lost the day before to drop one game under .500. Hoffman gave up a hit to Joey Loperfido. It probably should have been a double, but Daulton Varsho couldn’t get to the ball in time, and Loperfido was safe at third. With one out and Loperfido at third, Hoffman bafflingly attempted a pickoff at third. The throw went wide, allowing Loperfido to score the go-ahead run. The Blue Jays went on to lose 3-1.

John Schneider said after the game that the pickoff attempt was a miscommunication with third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, who thought the throw would come from Alejandro Kirk. Still, it was another in a long list of costly errors the Blue Jays have made this season that have prevented them from building consistently.

Aside from questionable pickoff attempts, Hoffman was mostly faultless in June. On top of only giving up two runs, he only gave up six hits. He had a 32.6 percent strikeout rate and an 8.7 percent walk rate.

June was easily Hoffman’s best month of the season so far. In March and April, he gave up nine earned runs on 16 hits. His stats were similar in June when he gave up nine earned runs on 19 hits.

After a difficult start to the season, Hoffman was removed from the closer role. At the time, the Blue Jays said they were opting for a closer by committee. For the most part, the committee has been Louis Varland. It’s worked out great for the Blue Jays. Varland has been one of the best relievers in MLB this season. Varland has a 1.00 ERA in 40 games. So far, he’s 17 for 17 in saves.

The move has also worked out for Hoffman, who has been much more effective as a setup man for the Blue Jays. Hoffman has an 8.25 ERA in the ninth inning. Conversely, he has a 3.00 ERA in the sixth inning, a 1.59 ERA in the seventh, and a 3.72 ERA in the eighth. He has a 2.89 ERA in medium leverage compared to a 10.80 ERA in high leverage.

Luck has played a role in Hoffman’s struggles this season. He has the highest BABIP among qualified relievers (.425). This is well above his career average of .305. His BABIP has actually improved since May, when it was .516.

This is odd because Hoffman is more of a strikeout pitcher. He’s in the 98th percentile for chase rate and whiff rate. He also has the sixth-highest strikeout rate among qualified relievers (35.5%).

It’s also hard to know how much of an impact the World Series has had on Hoffman. A loss such as that one would be difficult to recover from for any of the Blue Jays, but especially so for Hoffman.

Despite that, along with his difficult start to the season, Hoffman remains an important part of the Blue Jays’ bullpen. He handled the move from the closer role professionally and has come through for the Blue Jays many times as a setup man.

Over the last month, Hoffman has shown much better form compared to earlier in the season. Except for a costly pickoff attempt, he’s been a reliable arm out of the bullpen in June. If he can maintain that form, that will give the Blue Jays a huge boost to the back end of their bullpen.

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