One aspect of the roster that came up time and time again by the Blue Jays’ brass when viewing the abject failures of 2024 was the bullpen. Both Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins mentioned several times this year how they didn’t have “complete bullpen implosion” on their bingo cards.

The bullpen is the most crucial part of the team that needs an overhaul this offseason. The transformation has already begun with Genesis Cabrera clearing waivers and heading into free agency as the first move of reshaping the Blue Jays bullpen.

Whether teams are looking for seasoned veterans, bounce-back candidates, or a ‘change of scenery’ type of relievers, there is no shortage of arms available. One reliever at the top end of the market is former Blue Jays farmhand Jeff Hoffman.

Let’s look back at how he performed this past season and whether he’s a good fit for the Blue Jays in 2025.

Most Blue Jays fans will remember Hoffman as one of the three prospects sent along with Jose Reyes as part of the Troy Tulowitzki deal at the 2015 trade deadline. Almost ten years later, Hoffman reinvented himself as a reliever in the last few seasons and drastically altered his career path.

Hoffman toiled as a starter within the Colorado Rockies organization for five seasons before they traded him to the Cincinnati Reds in the 2020 offseason. The Reds moved him to the bullpen following a mid-season shoulder injury, and he hasn’t looked back since.

The right-hander caught on with the Phillies in 2023 and has been one of the most underrated relievers in baseball for the past two seasons. He followed up his breakout 2023 campaign with even better numbers in 2024, even earning an All-Star Game nod.

Hoffman posted a career-high 89 strikeouts, a 33.6% strikeout rate, while also limiting walks and home runs. The Phillies seemed to unlock a little more juice in Hoffman’s arm, as his fastball increased a few ticks up to 96-97 miles per hour this past season.

Over the past two combined seasons, Hoffman ranks within the top 10 of reliever ERA, WHIP, FIP, opponent AVG, K-BB% and ERA-. Not just among free agent relievers, among all MLB relievers during the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined.

The postseason was rough for Hoffman, as he gave up six earned runs across three appearances in the NLDS against the Mets, but let’s not hold that against him as he had a tremendous regular season for the second consecutive year.

With his age 32 season on the horizon following the best season of his career, Hoffman is ready for a big payday in free agency this winter. The question is whether a team like the Blue Jays will shop at the top of the market for a reliever of Hoffman’s calibre.

Hell yes. While Tanner Scott is the belle of the ball when it comes to free-agent relievers, Hoffman isn’t far behind. Both Hoffman and Scott are projected to post a 0.9 fWAR next season, so these two relief pitchers are on par with each other.

Scott is a lefty and his strikeout numbers are slightly better, but bringing in a reliever of Hoffman’s calibre would give the Blue Jays a late-inning strikeout weapon they desperately need. And if 2025 ends up being the final year of Jordan Romano’s tenure in Toronto, the Blue Jays would have a closer in the waiting with Hoffman.

The thing with relievers is teams always have to be careful overextending themselves with a volatile subset of players. The Blue Jays have been down this road before with relievers like B.J. Ryan and most recently Shun Yamaguchi, but you have to fish in the big pond to land the big fish.

Hoffman won’t command a Josh Hader-type contract worth $95 million over 5 years. A closer comparable is Rafael Montero’s $34.5 million deal over 3 years with the Astros or Raisel Iglesias’ original $58 million contract with the Angels over 4 years.

Somewhere in the middle of those two aforementioned contracts, $43.5 million over 3 years to bring Hoffman to Toronto feels like a reasonable deal. Chad Green is already the highest-paid reliever on the team at $10 million, so why not chip in a few bucks more to give Hoffman a $14.5 million AAV?

With only a few high-calibre relievers on the market this winter, Hoffman won’t have any trouble landing a multi-year deal. And if the Blue Jays aim their sights on Scott and land on Hoffman instead, that’s a decent Plan B.

Since there’s so much unrest in the Blue Jays bullpen, the team needs the stability from a top tier reliever like Hoffman to stomp out late inning meltdowns.