The Phillies “remain interested in” bringing Jeff Hoffman back, The Athletic’s Matt Gelb writes, seemingly with the idea of keeping Hoffman his familiar relief pitching role rather than using him as a starting pitcher. Though Hoffman hasn’t worked as a starter since 2021, some clubs have explored the idea of adding the free agent righty to their rotation rather than to their bullpen.
Hoffman’s transition to relief pitching with the Reds in 2021 led to an immediate uptick in production, and his results have only gotten better over the last four seasons. Despite a solid 3.83 ERA in 44 2/3 innings for Cincinnati in 2022, Hoffman could only find minor league contracts from the Twins and (after a release late in Spring Training) the Phillies, but his two seasons in Philadelphia have seen Hoffman develop into a high-leverage force. Hoffman has a 2.28 ERA, 33.4% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate over 118 2/3 regular-season innings for Philadelphia in 2023-24, and while he also pitched well in the 2023 playoffs, his 2024 postseason was marred by a pair of meltdowns against the Mets in the NLDS.
Hoffman and his agents at CAA undoubtedly took note of the three-year, $38MM deal that Clay Holmes just signed with the Mets, as New York intends to use Holmes as a rotation arm even though Holmes hasn’t started a big-league game since 2018. The lure of a bigger payday as a starter might influence Hoffman to look more in that direction, though he was already likely to receive a sizable contract as one of the best relievers in the free agent market. MLBTR projected Hoffman to land a four-year, $44MM deal with the idea that he would be a reliever, as our top 50 free agents ranking was written before the reports surfaced about the possibility of Hoffman becoming a starter.
Even if starting pitching may bring a larger average annual salary, “the Phillies can make competitive offers that come with a promise of playing for a contender,” Gelb notes. Hoffman is also on the record about how he liked pitching in Philadelphia, and as he enters his age-32 season, it stands to reason that Hoffman might prefer to stick in the relief role and city that brought him the first sustained success of his nine-year MLB career.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski first mentioned his team’s interest in reuniting with Hoffman during his end-of-season press conference, with the caveat that the Phils would bring back just one of Hoffman or Carlos Estevez. “We like them both. It’s hard for me to imagine that you end up bringing them both back under the circumstances because I would gather they’re both going to get offered long-term, big-dollar contracts, which they’re going to be looking for,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t see us spending that type of money on two relievers in our bullpen, but I’m just not sure at this time.”
Estevez also remains unsigned, with the Yankees known to be one of the teams linked to the former All-Star closer. Since the Phillies seem focused on adding to the bullpen, it could be they’ll end up prioritizing Estevez if Hoffman indeed winds up delving more into the starting pitching market. Gelb’s piece didn’t indicate one way or the other if the Phillies also still had interest in Estevez, or if Philadelphia necessarily had more interest in Hoffman over Estevez all things being equal.
