Jeff Hoffman's hold on the Blue Jays closer's role has been relinquished...for now

Jeff Hoffman is no longer the full-time closer for the Toronto Blue Jays...for now, says Blue Jays' GM Ross Atkins. The front office leader of the 10-14 Blue Jays spoke to media ahead of Friday's game against the Cleveland Guardians and he told reporters that the closer's job is going to be done by committee for the next little while.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported that Atkins said, "In the short term, we are going to share that responsibility." But he added, "Jeff Hoffman is still going to be getting very important outs for us and very much believe in him as a weapon for us."

Blue Jays have few options on the current roster to truly replace Jeff Hoffman

It's been a rough start results wise for Hoffman. While his analytical numbers all point to someone who should be having success, he just hasn't been able to be consistent enough in that ninth inning role. In 10.2 innings, Hoffman has allowed 11 runs (nine earned). He's recorded just as many saves as he's blown (three each) and in his 12 appearances, Hoffman has given up 16 hits, six walks and two home runs.

However, Hoffman also has 24 strikeouts in those 10.2 innings, the third most among qualified relievers in MLB to this point behind only Chase Dollander of Colorado (32) and Mason Miller of San Diego (27) and both of them have pitched more innings than Hoffman, resulting in a 99th percentile K% (42.1%). When his pitches are working he's been fooling batters, but when it's not, he's been getting hit hard and allowing untimely hits in the process as well.

It's a stark change from what was being said earlier this week. Blue Jays manager John Schneider publicly backed Hoffman after a couple of rough outings, saying, "I know there may be people who don’t want to hear this, but I’ve got a lot of trust and confidence in Jeff Hoffman … If there’s a situation to close out a game, I’ll take Jeff Hoffman." Well Schneider might take him, but the front office thinks there are better ways to win games in the ninth inning now.

Jays Journal recently explored the options the Blue Jays currently have internally that could supplant Hoffman from that role and the most likely candidate is Louis Varland, but it was also suggested that by not pinning down a single guy in that role, it would actually give the Blue Jays added benefit to utilize guys to their best abilities. And that seems like the direction they are going in right now.

And while you have to applaud Atkins for putting the foot down and making this move before things really got out of hand, Atkins also admitted publicly that the team didn't really pursue alternative options for other closers in the offseason. Just after the World Series, Atkins said that "The great thing about Jeff is he’s not married to that (idea of being closer) … I think he would be open to anything that makes us better."

However, just before Opening Day, Atkins said he did not seek to add a closer in the offseason. "Absolutely not" were the words he told TSN Overdrive, contradicting his earlier sentiments.

Whether it was short sighted thinking, or just unsubstatiated optimism that led the Blue Jays down this path we'll never know. But what we do know is that the Blue Jays may have missed out on a relievers market that was pretty flush with upper end, back of the bullpen type talent. While there's certainly an argument to be made that the Blue Jays were right not to over pay for someone like Edwin Diaz or Robert Suarez if it would handcuff them in other areas, they could have found someone to at least compliment Hoffman to begin the season.

They didn't do that, and now they are trying to make up for it by adjusting on the fly. There's nothing wrong with making that adjustment early in the season though, and the Blue Jays are just keeping their fingers crossed that this is a move that will pay off in the long run.

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