The Toronto Blue Jays made headlines this past winter when they non-tendered Canadian Jordan Romano, sending the closer to free agency for the first time in his career. The Jays eventually pivoted to former Phillies closer Jeff Hoffman, which is where Romano ended up signing, and the initial deal was met with criticism from across the league.

After inking a three-year pact with the Jays worth $33 million, reports started trickling out that a handful of teams were concerned with Hoffman’s medicals and were looking to restructure their initial deals or pull out of their offers with the right-hander. The Braves reportedly never specified their reasons for concerns, while the Baltimore Orioles were concerned with his shoulder before walking away.

Looking back, the early outcome is favouring the Jays – and it’s not even close.

The New York native has been dominant out of the gate for manager John Schneider and the Blue Jays, with the hard-throwing reliever converting six saves on six opportunities and allowing just two earned runs through 15 1/3 innings.

“It’s a luxury to have a guy like him,” said manager John Schneider, speaking after last night’s comeback win. “On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of trust, it’s probably 300.”

The 6-foot-5 product leads the American League with 12 games finished and boasts a 1.17 ERA and a 1.25 FIP through the first month of the season. He owns a 0.587 WHIP with a 4.7 H/9 and has struck batters out at a 12.9 K/9 rate, racking up 22 punchouts.

Hoffman is a Statcast darling, ranking in the 80th percentile in almost every pitching category and sits in the 95th percentile in pitching run value, with his 4-seam fastball and slider ranking at +3. The fastball offering has produced a .126 wOBA with a 41.2 K% while his slider has been equally as filthy, with zero batters being able to put the ball in play with a 60.0% whiff rate on 55 pitches, working to a .008 xSLG and a .045 xwOBA. Last night, he collected his 500th career strikeout during his two innings of work against the Red Sox – the third time the right-hander has gone two innings this season for the Jays.

Opposing bats own a .154/.167/.269 slash line against the Jays closer with a .233 BABIP, authoring a low 86.3 MPH average exit velocity. Hoffman is seeing an uptick in his ground-ball rates and over a 10% decrease in his fly-ball rate compared to his career numbers, while generating weak contact night after night.

On top of the dominant outings, Hoffman has been pitching with a chip on his shoulder. This came to a head against the Orioles, where after locking down a save at Camden Yards a couple weeks back, he blew a kiss to the O’s dugout – a signal to the Orioles front office that they made the wrong decision after the raised medical concerns.

Looking ahead, the Blue Jays are finding a lot of benefits from their closer spot. While the results aren’t transferable, nor does one outcome mean it would have happened elsewhere, Jordan Romano has struggled to a 12.19 ERA with 14 earned runs allowed through 10 1/3 innings for the Phillies while converting just two of his four save opportunities.

Having those numbers in the Jays’ bullpen would have been a tough pill to swallow if Romano had stayed and replicated those values, especially because the offence has struggled to find success outside of a few games this season. The early returns from Hoffman have been a pleasant outcome for the club and fan base, and it seems like the Blue Jays made the right decision this past winter for their bullpen.