{"id":135242,"date":"2025-09-11T03:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135242\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T03:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:24:07","slug":"blue-jays-schneider-still-trusts-hoffman-after-latest-homer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135242\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays’ Schneider ‘still trusts’ Hoffman after latest homer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Hoffman’s up-and-down season continued on Wednesday night for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Entrusted with the ninth inning in a 2-2 game against the Houston Astros, Hoffman surrendered a solo shot with one out to catcher Yainer Diaz \u2014 a run that held up as the game-winner.<\/p>\n

It continued a troubling trend for the Blue Jays closer, as it was the 15th long ball he’s allowed this season, tied for the most given up by any reliever in MLB (Washington Nationals reliever Jackson Rutledge also gave up his 15th homer of the year on Wednesday).<\/p>\n

But John Schneider is keeping the faith, even after Hoffman took his seventh loss of the season.<\/p>\n

“I feel like a broken record,” Toronto’s manager said post-game. “It’s just one bad pitch… We’re trying to go in on Diaz all night, and it just kind of was middle-middle. The difference between when he’s really good and when he has a rough outing is just the damage right there.<\/p>\n

“He’s got good stuff. (I) still trust him. He’s been throwing the ball really well, and it was one bad pitch tonight.”<\/p>\n

When Hoffman signed the three-year, $33 million deal to return to the Blue Jays this off-season, he arrived as one of the stingiest relief arms in the majors. <\/p>\n

Between 2023 and 2024, Hoffman ranked sixth among qualified relievers in ERA (2.28) and had allowed just nine homers while serving as a setup man for the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n

“I think teams prepare differently for a quote-unquote closer,” Schneider explained about why opponents may have had an easier time barrelling Hoffman up in 2025. “What we’ve been looking at in particular is the pitch deployment and when you’re throwing what pitch in what counts.<\/p>\n

“He’s got three different weapons that are really good, and I think just trying to use them all appropriately is where the damage has come a little bit.”<\/p>\n

Wednesday was the first time Hoffman had surrendered any runs since a particularly rough stretch at the end of August. Over his previous five outings, the 32-year-old had struck out three, walked just one and allowed only three hits.<\/p>\n

There’s clearly a lot for Hoffman to work with, as he continues to rank among the relief leaders in strikeouts, but the elevated home-run rate has continued to be a dagger for the Blue Jays late in games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Hoffman’s up-and-down season continued on Wednesday night for the Toronto Blue Jays. Entrusted with the ninth inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-135242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}