Erie Otters retire Connor McDavid’s jersey ahead of Friday night’s game

Connor McDavid’s name will forever hang in the rafters in Erie.
Ten years after last playing for the Otters of the OHL, the team will be retiring McDavid’s jersey on Friday night.

TORONTO – The first time the Blue Jays had Jeff Hoffman, he helped them land Troy Tulowitzki on the way to their first AL East title since 1993. Another decade later, Hoffman’s back with the Blue Jays – only this time he’s the veteran hoping to help a struggling Blue Jays team find its footing.

Hoffman, the ninth overall selection in the 2014 draft, signed a three-year, $33 million deal with the Blue Jays Friday, and while some teams expressed interest in him as a starting pitcher, he’ll get the chance to close in Toronto when he makes his long-awaited Blue Jays debut.

Now granted, this move doesn’t resolve the bigger issues facing the Blue Jays. They haven’t extended Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or found a way to add any power to this lineup. Those are massive questions for their short- and long-term future. Even after adding Hoffman, this pitching staff could still use reinforcements, so there’s lots of work ahead if GM Ross Atkins is going to turn this last-place team into a contender. Plus there are the physical questions.

Even so, there’s a lot to like about this deal for Blue Jays. It doesn’t make everything better, but it improves on Toronto’s biggest weakness at a reasonable cost. Also notable – it represents by far the biggest commitment this Blue Jays front office has ever made to a reliever.

First, though, there’s Hoffman the pitcher. Now 32, he sits 97 m.p.h. with his fastball and strikes out a third of the hitters he faces. He throws four pitches, but leans most heavily on his slider and four-seamer, which he throws in equal measure to keep hitters guessing. An all-star in 2024, he saved 10 games on his way to 2.17 ERA.

When he’s on, he’s one of the game’s best relievers. Now to be fair, reliever performance is notoriously volatile, which is why the Blue Jays have historically stayed away from high-end bullpen help in free agency. The fact that the Orioles backed off a $40 million offer once they got to the physical stage with Hoffman, as first reported by Robert Murray of FanSided, is ominous.

There’s risk here, without a doubt. At the same time, a person familiar with the discussions says the Orioles made Hoffman a revised offer following that physical, so they still liked him enough to continue pursuing him below the $40 million threshold. But Baltimore ultimately pivoted to Andrew Kittredge and the Blue Jays, who had been pursuing other established relievers as recently as a couple days ago, focused on Hoffman.

Now, the Blue Jays and Phillies have essentially swapped top relievers as Hoffman joins the Blue Jays after Jordan Romano landed in Philadelphia on a one-year, $8.5 million deal after being non-tendered. While Hoffman requires a longer commitment, his AAV of $11 million is similar to that of Romano.

From a total value standpoint, the deal is comparable to the recent three-year contracts for pitchers Clay Holmes ($38 million), Robert Stephenson ($33 million) and Reynaldo Lopez ($30 million). In other words, the Blue Jays are paying him like a good setup reliever rather than an elite closer. If he does perform like an elite closer, the Blue Jays have upside here, so they’re clearly fine accepting the physical risk that comes with it.

Still, this represents the biggest total commitment the Blue Jays have made to any reliever in ten off-seasons under Atkins and president Mark Shapiro. The previous high for a free agent was Yimi Garcia’s $15 million deal signed last month while the biggest total guarantee for a reliever was the $21 million option they exercised on Chad Green last winter.

Now, they’ve spent $33 million on Hoffman in the hopes that he can augment one of MLB’s worst bullpens. As the 2024 season wore on and Blue Jays relievers pitched their way to a 4.82 ERA, manager John Schneider said he wanted pitchers who can dominate the strike zone.

Since then the Blue Jays have added three relievers to their bullpen in Hoffman, Garcia and Nick Sandlin.

“It’s giving up less homers, it’s walking less guys,” Schneider said late last season. “And in today’s game you’ve got to have some strikeouts. I think that’s where we didn’t live up to our expectations.”

While the Blue Jays liked the idea of adding a starting pitcher and bumping Yariel Rodriguez to the bullpen, Hoffman will not start (some teams liked the idea, but he’s said to prefer bullpen work). That means Rodriguez’s chances of starting seem higher, though people close to the Cuban right-hander say he’s content in either role.

All things considered, the Hoffman deal comes with risk, especially considering the physical questions. And make no mistake, the Blue Jays’ off-season work can’t end here. At the same time, Hoffman makes the Blue Jays a better team at a fair price. And if they make it to the playoffs over the term of his deal, he’s exactly the kind of pitcher who will be counted on to get the biggest outs of the season.