Jeff Hoffman welcomes the criticism from Blue Jays fans

Things haven't been going as smoothly as Jeff Hoffman had envisioned in his first season back with the Toronto Blue Jays. Especially with his ongoing struggles to provide consistency and reliability out of the bullpen, Hoffman has suddenly drawn the ire of Blue Jays fans.

As a result, his on-and-off Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performances has generated much criticism from the Toronto faithful in recent weeks. However, Hoffman appears to welcome the stirred-up fanfare with open arms.

Jeff Hoffman welcomes the criticism from Blue Jays fans

In a recent interview with Sportsnet after a game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the former All-Star reliever revealed that he didn’t mind being booed by Jays fans due to their strong passion for winning.

“Everybody’s here is trying to win, everybody wants to win. That’s the Blue Jays fan so it’s understandable. That’s what happens when you are on a good team. People expect you to win every night … That’s good that they’re booing, I like that, “ Hoffman stated.

That’s good that the 32-year-old closer is not at all fazed by all the criticism. In order to be successful at the biggest stage of the game, one must be quite tolerant at anything negative thrown their way.

Nevertheless, Hoffman will still need to start providing much more stability and reassurance in the coming weeks to show that he can still be a big piece of the Jays’ back end of the bullpen heading into the playoffs. After all, he has struggled to a 5.02 ERA while giving up a whopping 32 earned runs including 14 home runs, the most he had given up since becoming a full-time reliever in recent years. More worrisome was the fact that Hoffman had blown three saves during the month of August while giving up eight runs on 10 hits in his last five appearances.

Consequently, Hoffman may still be the closer for now, but the Jays will need him to start turning things around soon. That is because their American League East lead has been whittled down to just 2 1/2 games now over the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Otherwise, Toronto may need to turn to other options before it’s too late. Nevertheless, with the way things have been going for the Jays lately, Hoffman might not end up being the only one getting all the criticism going forward.