The Toronto Blue Jays are starting to heat up a little bit. It hasn’t been the start Toronto has wanted, sitting at 10-14, the Jays have won four of their last 10 games.
On Friday, the Blue Jays will start a new series against the Cleveland Guardians, but before the series takes place, General Manager Ross Atkins made a massive Jeff Hoffman announcement.
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Jeff Hoffman OUT as Primary Closer
GettyJeff Hoffman will no longer be the Blue Jays’ closer, according to GM Ross Atkins.
Per multiple sources and reports, Blue Jays’ closer Jeff Hoffman will no longer be used as the team’s primary closer, and they will now shift to a closer-by-committee situation.
Massive news before a big series with playoff contenders in the Guardians, but it’s the right move, as Hoffman has really struggled since blowing the Blue Jays shot at winning the 2025 World Series in game seven.
Jeff Hoffman Stats This Season/Who Will Close Games Now?
GettyJeff Hoffman has blown three saves so far in 2026.
Hoffman should have more success in less-leverage roles, but this batch of news will get a hard reaction because Toronto has poured a lot of money into its bullpen, and they inked Jeff Hoffman to a three-year, $33 million deal before 2025, and it hasn’t panned out as Atkins had hoped.
In 12 appearances and 10.2 innings this season, Jeff Hoffman holds an ERA of 7.59 with just three saves.
Surprise, Hoffman leads MLB with three blown saves, and has other moments where he just doesn’t look effective. Again, it’s mostly been walks and home runs. In the 10+ innings this season, Hoffman has walked six batters and given up two home runs.
CBSSports aggregated the recent news on their sports site:
“Manager John Schneider was noncommittal to Hoffman as Toronto’s closer earlier this week after nearly blowing his fourth save of the season, so it’s not a major surprise the club is making a change. It doesn’t appear to be a full demotion for the 33-year-old right-hander, who recorded 33 saves with a 4.37 ERA during the 2025 regular season, but it also wouldn’t be surprising for him to get some work in lower-leverage spots.”
As for who will fill in for Hoffman, the report says closer-by-committee, so it could be a matchup thing, but my inclination is Louis Varland will likely start getting a lot more ninth-inning appearances.
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