Blue Jays fans would welcome this Bob Nightenale suggestion that sends Jeff Hoffman to the NL East

One of the biggest trade chips the Toronto Blue Jays may hold is a guy most fans would be ok seeing dealt. Reliever Jeff Hoffman has a had tough time winning over the fans in 2026. After allowing a game tying home run to Miguel Rojas in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, it was going to take a really excellent season for Hoffman to get back into the good graces of the Blue Jays' faithful.

And while Hoffman has done plenty of good this season, he's also been at the centre of some of the worst losses of the Blue Jays' season. Early in the campaign it seemed like he couldn't shut down the game in the ninth no matter how hard he tried. After being removed from the closer's role, Hoffman started to settle into a groove as a seventh or eighth inning option - only to also allow some untimely earned runs in games that really seemed to matter in the long run.

Look, a guy isn't going to be perfect every time he's out there, but it also felt like the more the pressure was on him to lock things down, the more he did just the opposite. In high leverage situations, he allowed the opposition to hit .290 with an .801 OPS against him. In low leverage, those numbers dropped to .231 with a .670 OPS. In the seventh inning, he pitched to a 1.29 ERA in 16 outings. Those numbers went up to 4.36 in 12 eighth inning outings and 8.25 in 14 ninth inning outings.

It's clear that Hoffman isn't going to be shopped around to teams who need a closer, but USA Today's Bob Nightengale has suggested a familiar team would love to have Hoffman in a setup type role. That team is the Philadelphia Phillies, whom Hoffman played for in 2023 and 2024.

Nightengale says that the Phillies are, "in desperate need of a late-inning reliever, and would love to bring back Jeff Hoffman of the Toronto Blue Jays." Hoffman pitched to a 4.1 bWAR during his stint in Philadelphia with a 2.28 ERA and 158 strikeouts in 118.2 innings pitched.

Hoffman could be Toronto's best trade chip

The Blue Jays are going to have to get creative at the deadline. They don't have a crazy amount to work with and when you look at their impending free agents, headlined by Kevin Gausman, George Springer, Shane Bieber and Daulton Varsho.

Gausman would be their best asset, but hasn't pitched that well over the last month and a half. Bieber's stock is rising after his last two outings, but teams won't be falling over themselves to give up a top-ten prospect to get him at this rate. Springer and Varsho have fastly underperformed there's a market of much better hitters on other teams that could be available.

Hoffman also has another year left on his contract, which should add to his value, although that contract will pay him $11 million and if he doesn't come through for whatever team that has acquired him, that could feel like a hefty price to pay for an ineffective middle reliever. So maybe Toronto will have to pair him with a lower level prospect, or eat some salary in order to pry anything of value in return for him.

Regardless of how it plays out, it feels like Hoffmans days in Toronto may be numbered, and the Phillies feel like a logical landing spot.

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