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Jeff Hoffman embracing refined approach to closer’s role in second season with Blue Jays
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Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Thomas Hall
Apr 10, 2026, 16:30 EDTUpdated: Apr 10, 2026, 16:10 EDT
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TORONTO — Jeff Hoffman hopes to be a better version of himself during his second season as the Blue Jays’ closer.
“There were too many outings last year where I walked away not happy,” said Hoffman while evaluating his first stint as a full-time closer prior to converting his second save of the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old hurler had never been any team’s go-to reliever in save situations before last season. Everything was a new experience for the former starter-turned high-leverage reliever in 2025, who owned just 12 career major league saves before signing a three-year, $33 million contract with the Blue Jays organization.
Previously, Hoffman was one of many trusted arms at the back end of the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen, alongside José Alvarado, Matt Strahm and Carlos Estévez — a quartet that combined for 32 saves during the 2024 campaign. So, like with anything new, adjusting from being just one of the guys to becoming the guy for Toronto’s bullpen came with some growing pains.
It was a dominant start to last season for Hoffman, who successfully converted all seven save opportunities over his first 14 appearances, while striking out a whopping 23 batters and walking only two across 16.1 innings over that span. He also carried a stellar 1.10 ERA and 1.48 FIP at the time, making a seamless transition to his increased role, replacing longtime Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano — who swapped places with Hoffman in Philadelphia for one season.
But the results became much tougher to predict from then on. Back-to-back disappointing outings on the road in Anaheim in early May, leading to six earned runs surrendered with only one strikeout recorded across two-thirds of an inning combined, sent Hoffman into a bit of a tailspin over the next few months. But he locked back in with four straight converted saves as the calendar flipped to July — three of which occurred during the club’s pivotal four-game sweep of the New York Yankees.
Despite that impressive stretch, Hoffman never truly regained that consistent, dominant form he possessed early on throughout the remainder of the regular season, which, as a result, led to his minus-0.4 fWAR rating on the year. That put him well off the two-win pitcher per fWAR he was with the Phillies in ’24.
Outside of being on the wrong end of Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas’ infamous game-tying home run in Game 7 of last year’s Fall Classic, Hoffman was brilliant once again at the back end of the Blue Jays’ bullpen in October, issuing 18 strikeouts and only four walks over 12.1 post-season innings.
Hoffman can’t take back the one mistake he made to Rojas over five months ago. That’s all well in the past now. Instead of dwelling on it, he’s turned that moment of heartbreak into newfound motivation as part of his preparation before each appearance.
“Kind of treating every night like it’s Game 7 of the World Series,” Hoffman said of the intensity that he plans to approach every game with this season. “Now knowing kind of what that feels like, it’s easier to replicate it and to get yourself in that mindspace.”
And so far, replicating that approach appears to be working extremely well.
Hoffman’s early-season 2026 results are a bit skewed because of the poor defensive support he’s received, causing his ERA (2.70) and FIP (1.50) to be separated by over a full run through seven appearances. As such, it’s largely overshadowed that he’s been punching out opposing batters close to a 50 per cent success rate thus far, striking out 15 of the 31 hitters he’s faced (48.4 per cent) while walking just two.
That puts him one shy of matching San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller, widely regarded as the best in the business, for the major league lead in strikeouts entering Friday’s series opener against the Minnesota Twins.
An element that appears to be assisting Hoffman’s increased swing-and-miss output is his arm angle, which has averaged 30.5 degrees this season — nearly seven degrees lower compared to last season and the lowest of his career since arm angle tracking began in 2020.
It’s something that several people have already brought up to Hoffman, though it hasn’t been a purposeful adjustment, as Toronto’s closer said. He doesn’t spend much time thinking about pitching mechanics and doesn’t feel he’s doing “anything different” with his delivery that he wasn’t before.
This has all come naturally, and intentional or not, he’s better for it.
“When my body’s feeling good, I just kind of let it do its thing,” Hoffman said. “Right now, I guess it’s a little bit lower,” he added about his arm angle.
“But everything is coming out good and I feel healthy, so I’m happy with it.”
Another difference we’ve seen early on from Hoffman this season is his splitter, which he’s not only using way more but also enjoying improved results with thus far. It’s gone from being his third-most used pitch to his most, throwing it a career-high 40.2 per cent of the time in ’26.
Since it’s been so reliable, inducing a swinging strike almost half the time, the veteran right-hander has felt comfortable going to it every time Blue Jays catchers have called for it on PitchCom.
“When a pitch is good, they keep pressing the button on it,” Hoffman said, chuckling.
Having said that, he still strongly believes in his other three pitches (four-seamer, slider, sinker) and expects his splitter’s usage to finish closer to last season’s 23.8 per cent clip when everything’s said and done this year, especially considering he’s faced more lefties (18) — whom his off-speed weapon profiles better against — than righties (13) out of the gate.
Even so, it’s a pitch that has much improved characteristics from a season ago now that Hoffman has slightly altered his grip. He’s changed how he positions his middle finger and now keeps it on a seam rather than off, which had previously been his preference. It also now spins on a one-seam axis rather than a two-seam, providing additional depth (also known as vertical break) as it cuts through the air at a different angle.
As a result, Hoffman’s splitter has added almost three inches of increased vertical movement, averaging 32.4 inches of drop versus 29.6 from last season. It still produces more horizontal break than vertical. But the idea is to have it move down and away from lefties, down and in to righties, instead of moving side-to-side like a traditional changeup.
Execution will be the most important aspect for Hoffman this season. That’s something manager John Schneider regularly says about all of his pitchers. But the team also plans to do a better job of making their closer’s job easier by putting him on a more consistent schedule rather than solely relying on the scoreboard, as they did most of the time in ’25.
Doing away with the 5-6 day layoffs, or longer, will be the ultimate goal. Whether it’s a save situation or not, Hoffman said he expects to be called upon every “four days or so” throughout this season to prevent any rust from setting in and allowing him to stay in a consistent “groove.”
It might not always be that simple, especially once the Blue Jays enter extended stretches without an off-day. It’ll likely be a bit of a balancing act to remain proactive while preserving both Hoffman and the team’s long-term success.
Considering this bullpen has “a lot of guys who can pitch in any role,” as Hoffman explained, the duo of Louis Varland and Tyler Rogers — who, alongside Hoffman, have combined for a 0.90 ERA with 29 strikeouts and seven walks over 20.0 total innings, worth 0.7 fWAR — should also help make his job much easier this season.
The same goes for Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty in their second major league seasons. Both have already logged meaningful innings in their young careers for this ‘pen, likely putting them among the options beyond Varland and Rogers that Schneider can trust on days when Hoffman is unavailable.
“Obviously, you need more than one guy who can close a game out. When you stack the bullpen with guys like that, then it raises the floor for any situation,” Hoffman said.
Toronto’s bullpen isn’t at full strength yet, with Yimi García still building up at the player development complex as he recovers from off-season elbow surgery and Brendon Little optioned to Triple-A Buffalo amid his early-season struggles. At the back end, at least, they’re in good hands until more reinforcements arrive.
That includes Hoffman, who’s still perfecting the closer’s job in just his second full season at the helm.

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