The Philadelphia Phillies enter Wednesday's series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals as winners of 10 of their last 14 games. Bryce Harper continues to struggle at the plate, but everything else has clicked into place. This team has a bulletproof rotation, an increasingly solid bullpen, and a veteran lineup with ample pop.
There's a lot to get excited about, especially with the natural assumption that Harper will eventually figure things out. Kyle Schwarber is tied for the MLB lead in home runs. Trea Turner has been an on-base machine. Ranger Suárez is back and then some, producing seven innings of shutout baseball in his second start of the campaign.
Even Jordan Romano is starting to turn things around with five straight scoreless appearances under his belt. As for Romano's predecessor (and current Toronto Blue Jays replacement)? Well, Jeff Hoffman's season is trending in the opposite direction.
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Jeff Hoffman has fallen apart with Blue Jays as Jordan Romano turns season around for Phillies
The Phillies engineered an unofficial swap of high-leverage relievers this winter. Jeff Hoffman went to the Blue Jays on a three-year, $33 million contract, reaching his All-Star peak in 2024. The Phillies did not want to pony up on a multi-year deal and never made a serious push to re-sign Hoffman, despite outwardly expressing interest.
In return, Philadelphia inked former Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano to a one-year, $9 million contract, hoping to strike bargain-bin value for a top reliever coming off of an uncharacteristically poor season marred by injury.
That looked like a mistake initially. Romano was awful out of the gate and was quickly demoted to a less demanding role. Hoffman, meanwhile, logged a 1.10 ERA with 23 strikeouts through his first 14 appearances in Toronto. He was the best closer in baseball over the first month of the season — to the point where the Blue Jays may have leaned on him a little too heavily.
Now, after the Phillies took a patient approach to getting Romano back on track, he has five straight scoreless innings. Hoffman, on the other hand, has allowed 11 earned runs in 3.0 innings over his last five appearances. His ERA has ballooned to a far less appealing 6.05 on the season, although 31 strikeouts through 19.1 innings remains impressive.
Is this the new normal for Hoffman? Probably not. He will swing back in the other direction, just as Romano did. But suddenly the Blue Jays are in a tricky spot, having over-indexed their top reliever. Hoffman only ended up in Toronto after both Baltimore and Atlanta nixed contract agreements due to injury concerns. His durability is a real question mark, but the Blue Jays still hung him out the dry with too many innings, too quickly. Romano looks like he might return to closing duties for Philadelphia, or something close to it, sooner than later.
This is not to say Romano is the better pitcher or that Philadelphia even dodged a bullet by letting their All-Star bullpen ace walk, but Hoffman's stock is more volatile than it was a week ago. Romano's stock is much higher. It's a long season, and we often overreact to early trends, only for them to reverse course at a moment's notice.
Philadelphia probably feels good about not paying Hoffman premium money through his age-34 season. With Romano, it's a one-year, low-risk investment with tons of money coming off the books next winter. For the Blue Jays, there is a three-year window in which Hoffman must produce, lest that investment sour catastrophically. This month has certainly been an unexpected twist.