Former Phillie Jeff Hoffman shutting the door on Game 7 reminds us of how good his story is

In early 2023, Bryce Harper was making his return after Tommy John surgery.

His ramp-up included live batting practice at Citizens Bank Park on April 21 against other injured relievers and minor leaguers. One of those who faced Harper was a 30-year-old Jeff Hoffman, who signed a minor-league deal after the Twins cut him at the end of spring training.

Hoffman, at the time, had struggled to find his footing in Major League Baseball after being selected ninth overall by the Blue Jays in 2014. He had spent the previous two seasons with the Reds, where he owned a 4.28 ERA over 117.2 innings.

Hoffman was coming up on a May 1 option in his contract. He had an offer of about $1 million from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan, which he planned to take if the Phillies did not add him to their major league roster by the May 1 deadline.

Hoffman got the opportunity to face Harper, which, looking back on it, could have been the final decision whether he ventured to Japan or stayed in America.

His first six appearances at Triple-A Lehigh Valley to that point did not go his way. He had a 9.45 ERA with five walks in 6.2 innings, along with an impressive 12 strikeouts. However, his pitches were working. His fastball was dazzling, his slider was becoming a weapon, and a new splitter elevated his pitch mix.

The Phillies took notice, which earned him a chance to face one of baseball’s most prolific hitters. And Hoffman was dirty.

“It was just disgusting,” Harper recalled. “Jeff blew my doors away for a couple at-bats. I walked inside and I was like, ‘If we don’t bring this guy to the big leagues, we’re crazy.’”

Hoffman got the call on May 4, 2023, and it rejuvenated his career.

“You need to be here,” Harper said to Hoffman after. “You need to be in the big leagues with us.”

For a guy who had lost his footing in the majors, Hoffman’s 2023 season featured 52.1 innings, 69 strikeouts, a 2.41 ERA, and a 0.92 WHIP. Hoffman solidified himself as a back-end arm on a playoff team in just five months.

He followed that up with an All-Star 2024, becoming “the guy” out of the pen for the Phillies, with a 2.17 ERA in 66.1 innings and 89 strikeouts.

April 21, 2023, was a shot for Hoffman to show the organization what he can do, and it turned around his career.

“It’s a business at the end of the day. If they didn’t want to add me, they weren’t going to add me,” Hoffman said when he joined the Blue Jays in January. “But it was nice to know that I went in with the thought process of putting my best foot forward and making a good first impression, and I felt like I did that.”

A big knock against Hoffman comes from the 2024 NLDS, where the Phillies squandered against the Mets, featuring a collapse from the bullpen. He pitched just 1.1 innings and allowed six runs on three hits, walking two batters, hitting one, and tossing two wild pitches. In Game 1 of that series with a 1-0 lead in the eighth, he let in three runs on two hits and a walk without recording an out. His other three runs came in off of Francisco Lindor‘s grand slam against Carlos Estevez, who inherited the bases loaded, in Game 4. He suffered the loss in both games.

It was bizarre, especially with the elite regular season he had.

However, he still got paid. He signed a three-year, $33 million contract with the Blue Jays on January 10, which can potentially reach $39 million with incentives. Toronto drafted Hoffman back in 2014 with the ninth overall pick. He was traded to the Rockies at the deadline a year later in the Troy Tulowitzki deal.

In 2025, his career came full circle. From a washed top-10 pick to one of the best late-game relievers in baseball back on his former team, and becoming the second pitcher in baseball history to face three batters and strike out all three in the final inning of a Game 7 at the Rogers Center on Monday night.

Hoffman is going to the World Series with the Blue Jays as a top option out of the bullpen, and it is all because he was outstanding against a rehabbing Harper on April 21, 2023.

“I had a really good day,” Hoffman says of the match against Harper. “And it worked out well.”

Meanwhile, in what seemed to be a reliever swap, the Phillies came away with Jordan Romano, signing him to a one-year, $8.5 million contract. He was a two-time All-Star with Toronto, and the thought was that a new home would maybe revive his career.

It did not turn out that way.

Romano posted an 8.23 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP in 42.2 innings. He was terrible, and was phantom-IL’d in September and did not return.

Looking back on it, the Phillies could have really used a guy like Hoffman. But here we are watching him from home.

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