Jeff Hoffman joins Blue Jays on three-year deal, completing free-agent reliever swap with Phillies

In the end, the Phillies and Blue Jays wound up swapping free-agent closer candidates.

One month after Jordan Romano came to Philadelphia on a one-year, $8.5 million contract, his former team brought Jeff Hoffman to Toronto for three years and $33 million, the Blue Jays announced Friday night. The deal reportedly includes incentives that could push the overall value to $39 million.

In a statement, Jays general manager Ross Atkins said Hoffman will get a chance to close games, the role that Romano filled for most of the last four seasons.

Hoffman, who turned 32 on Wednesday, joined the Phillies on a minor-league contract at the end of spring training in 2023 and parlayed it into the Blue Jays’ largest commitment for a reliever since Mark Shapiro took over as president of baseball operations 10 years ago.

With the Phillies, Hoffman’s break came when he was summoned from triple A to throw live batting practice to Bryce Harper early in the 2023 season. The Phillies recalled Hoffman, who had a May out clause in his contract, and he soon became a trusted member of manager Rob Thomson’s bullpen.

In two seasons with the Phillies, Hoffman had a 2.28 ERA with 158 strikeouts and only 38 walks in 118⅔ innings. He was an All-Star last season, posting a 2.17 ERA and holding opponents to a .197 batting average and .577 OPS. Hoffman largely dominated the 2023 NL Championship Series but gave up a two-out, go-ahead single to Gabriel Moreno in Game 7. He stumbled badly in last year’s divisional round loss to the Mets, allowing six runs on three hits in 1⅓ innings after giving up a total of 16 earned runs all season.

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Drafted ninth overall by the Blue Jays in 2014 but traded 13 months later in a deadline deal for star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, Hoffman bounced from the Rockies to the Reds, transitioned from a starter to a reliever, and nearly signed a contract to play in Japan before hooking on with the Phillies.

With the projected 2025 payroll climbing to $306 million, above the highest luxury-tax threshold ($301 million), the Phillies stayed away from the multiyear commitment that it would’ve taken to keep Hoffman and likely Carlos Estévez, who remains unsigned. They are counting on 31-year-old Romano to bounce back after surgery in July to repair a right elbow impingement. Romano had a 2.37 ERA and 95 saves for the Blue Jays from 2021 to 2023.