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John Schneider has made it very clear he believes in his closer and will have his back
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Published Apr 21, 2026 • Last updated 10 minutes ago • 5 minute read
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Pitcher Jeff Hoffman #23 of the Toronto Blue Jays reacts after closing out the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 20, 2026 in Anaheim. Photo by Joe Scarnici /Getty Images North AmericaArticle content
If Sunday’s win in the series finale against Arizona was a get-well game for the Blue Jays ailing offence, Monday’s 5-2 win did the same for the Jays buillpen.
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The angst spent on social media over the past few days by fans venting about the trials of closer Jeff Hoffman could fill a room full of novels.
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To say it hasn’t been a great trip so far for Hoffman through the first six games of the road trip would be akin to suggesting Max Scherzer was a little upset with a team decision to take a bus from Phoenix to Anaheim when the team charter wasn’t able to take them (more about that later).
Hoffman is no stranger to riling up the fanbase. They were calling for his head a year ago and they’ve redoubled those efforts this past week, with Louis Varland the apparent people’s choice to take over the role.
Jays manager John Schneider isn’t about to let the public make his decisions for him, however.
Schneider has been a steady Hoffman advocate through the good and the bad and his faith paid off Monday night.
Hoffman was coming off two stinkers that cost the Jays dearly but with a three-run lead and a save situation in order, Schneider did exactly what he said he would do and went back to Hoffman in the ninth.
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A lead-off single to start things off to Jo Adell had the fanbase reaching for their various devices just ready to hammer out another “He can’t be the closer anymore” rant, but they were stopped in their tracks when Hoffman struck out the next three for his third save of the year.
Full credit to Schneider, and we would imagine pitching coach Pete Walker, for the decision to stay the course this early in the season with Hoffman. He has elite stuff and, most importantly, a track record dealing with both the good and the bad of a very volatile spot on a team’s roster.
Taking Varland out of that set-up role, in which he is looking extremely comfortable, and making him the closer creates the kind of trickle-down changes that could upset multiple positions in that bullpen.
Schneider knows his personnel better than any fan could and he has made it very clear he believes in Hoffman and will have his back.
Monday was a perfect opportunity to get him back in that role with some confidence. Hoffman faced the Angels’ 6-through-9 hitters meaning he avoided the top of the order. That will come soon enough, but this was a good first step. For a night at least, all was well again in that Jays’ bullpen.
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THE REACTION SAID IT ALL
It’s tough to complain too much about Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s start to the season. But from his teammates to the fanbase, many were clearly all waiting on something and it arrived Monday night in Anaheim.
It’s no secret Guerrero lost some protection in the lineup with the departure of Bo Bichette, meaning the opposition could pitch him a little more carefully without necessarily setting up potential big innings. Opposing pitchers can nibble a little more when Vladdy comes up with the bases empty or without a high average contact hitter like Bichette sitting in the on-deck circle.
But Guerrero sitting on just one homer through the first three weeks of the season had people wondering where the power had gone.
So Monday, when he cleared Mike Trout and the centre field wall with plenty to spare, plating the first two Jays’ runs of the game and giving them a lead, the exhale wasn’t just coming from the fanbase but from the dugout as well.
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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run in the third inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 20, 2026 in Anaheim, California. Photo by Joe Scarnici /Getty Images North America
As Guerrero donned the Jays home run jacket and ran the gauntlet of teammates waiting to congratulate him, there was a little extra levity from the group perhaps knowing that all was right again with Guerrero swatting baseballs into oblivion.
All that said, the .333 average he began the night with along with a .442 on base and a .930 OPS suggested Guerrero was contributing at a very high rate. He just wasn’t hitting the ball out of the park like so many of us expected.
Guerrero is officially in the early stages of a heater with six hits, four runs, a double, a homer and four RBIs in his past two games. But it’s that homer and the sight of Trout watching it fly well over his head that will help Jays fans sleep better in the coming days.
A SPECIFIC TALENT
Tyler Heineman is not the kind of player who is going to replace Alejandro Kirk’s offence over a long stretch, but Heineman has given Schneider a skill set of a different kind of which the Jays manager is taking full advantage.
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Heineman is becoming the king of the sacrifice bunt in the Jays lineup with Kirk on the injured list. He had two more textbook sacrifices on Monday advancing Myles Straw to second and nearly beating out the throw to first for a hit. Straw would score from second on a Nathan Lukes knock.
Two innings later his sacrifice bunt moved Straw again, this time from second to third and this time he scored on Lukes ground out to the pitcher.
On the first bunt he laid one down to the first base side making an attempted throw to second tougher. On the second he went down the third base line. Again, textbook approach and successful both times.
TRAVEL TROUBLE
It’s not often these days that you hear about a Major League team returning to its minor league roots and bussing between opponent’s ball parks but that was the case Sunday night for Toronto.
The Jays charter arrived in Phoenix with some issues and the team was given the option by vote whether they would wait around until Monday for a second plane to be sent down to the desert to get them or simply take the bus to Anaheim. According to the team broadcast, the team chose the bus by a narrow margin so instead of that one-hour flight between the two cities, the Jays had a five-hour bus journey.
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Not all were apparently happy including veteran starter Max Scherzer, who apparently lodged a kangaroo court complaint, hearing and level of seriousness of the complaint still to be determined, against his manager for even making the bus option available.
Based on the performance Monday night, it didn’t seem to do anyone any harm.
NEXT UP
No long bus ride required as the Jays remain in Anaheim for the second game of a three-game series. Patrick Corbin, signed in the wake of all those injuries to starters, makes his third start still looking for that first win in a Toronto uniform but coming off a tidy 52/3 inning effort of one-run ball against Milwaukee. He’ll face right-hander Jack Kochanowicz, who is 2-0 with a 3.47 ERA. First pitch goes at 9:38 p.m. EDT.
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