Right-hander Jeff Hoffman has signed a minor league contract with the Phillies, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Phillies have added him to their Triple-A roster. According to Heyman, Hoffman will make $1.3MM in the majors and has opt-outs available to him on May 1 and July 1.
Hoffman, the 9th overall pick of the 2014 draft, began his career as a member of the Blue Jays before being traded to the Rockies as part of the Troy Tulowitzki trade. He made his major league debut with the Rockies in 2016, but struggled to a 4.88 ERA and 6.27 FIP in 31 1/3 innings. Though he continued to see playing time in a swing role over the next four seasons, Hoffman never found his footing in Colorado, ending his time with the Rockies with a 5.68 ERA and 5.34 FIP in 230 2/3 innings. The right-hander was then traded to the Reds ahead of the 2021 season in exchange for reliever Robert Stephenson.
In Cincinnati, Hoffman’s career began to turn around. His well below average 18.8% strikeout rate with Colorado climbed to 23.3% with the Reds, though his walk rate also rose to a worrisome 12.8%. Still, in 117 2/3 innings of work with the Reds from 2021-2022, Hoffman posted a 4.28 ERA and 4.86 FIP, good for a 108 ERA+. His best performance came in last season, when the Reds began to use him almost exclusively as a reliever. In 2022, Hoffman posted the first sub-4.00 ERA of his career, with his 3.83 figure standing as 17% better than league average by ERA+.
Hoffman signed with the Twins earlier this offseason, though the club later granted him his release just before Opening Day when it became clear he would not make the club’s roster to start the season. That led Hoffman to Philadelphia, where he figures to serve as depth for the starting rotation with Ranger Suarez, Andrew Painter, Nick Nelson, and Cristopher Sanchez all opening the season on the injured list. With Matt Strahm having stepped into the rotation from the bullpen to fill the vacancy left by Suarez, Hoffman or left-hander Michael Plassmeyer figures to be the next man up should the Phillies suffer another rotation injury.
That’s great! May he continue his growing his success in this division. Much better than going to the American League and starting off again against a bunch of strangers
Heyman had it the story yesterday. Including he’s opt out dates. twitter.com/jonheyman/status/1642170738235801601?s…
How did Noah Song’s bullpen session go yesterday?
He’s injured. I know you’re being sarcastic, but there you go.
Actually he did throw a BP yesterday.
Song was supposed to throw a bullpen on Saturday per Alex Coffey.
twitter.com/byalexcoffey/status/164222942318442905…
Haha. Wow. I completely misread your post. Apologies for the comment.
Haha. No problem Von.
I didn’t know he had an era under 4 last year, I know his FIP is significantly higher but you can do a lot worse on a minor league deal.
Hoffman, unfortunately, was a blue chip talent who never lived up to expectations.
Hark, a long reliever!
I can see where DD is headed with this. Every 5th day, the Phillies need to find 9 innings in the aggregate. Maybe Hoffman can be part of a combination that gets the Phillies to the 6th inning at least.
Right now it looks like every day
That Tulo trade had a lot less future value going in each direction than both teams thought at the time.
The Phillies are going to have to make some
Roster changes soon
It’s getting late early and the dark clouds over the rotation is adding to the dimness…