Jeff Hoffman ended April with a 1.17 ERA while Jordan Romano's sat at 12.19, facts that were difficult for many Phillies fans to wrap their heads around after the Phils seemed to deprioritize Hoffman over the winter.
The Phils had interest in a Hoffman reunion but this past offseason was the 32-year-old's one chance for a lucrative long-term contract. He sought more than some teams were initially willing to offer. The Blue Jays actually weren't even the first or second team he agreed to sign with — the Orioles backed out of a three-year, $40 million contract for Hoffman because of shoulder issues found in his physical, and the Braves also backed off a reported five-year deal for Hoffman worth $40-45 million.
He ended up signing with Toronto for $33 million over three years.
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SIGN UP HERE Hoffman's first month with the Jays looked similar to his dominant 2024 regular season with the Phillies. Through May 2, he'd saved seven games and finished 13, struck out 23 and walked two. He also earned three wins in April, pitching two scoreless innings in three different extra-inning games.
Things have since gone mostly downhill for Hoffman and his last month has been every bit as rocky as Romano's first with the Phillies.
Over his last 10 innings, Hoffman has allowed 15 earned runs and five homers. He enters the series with a 5.81 ERA overall, not too far off Romano's 7.36.
Romano was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2014, came up with them in 2019 and was their closer from 2021-24. This will also be a reunion for him, his first trip back to Rogers Centre.
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The Phillies arrived in Toronto with a shaky bullpen picture. Since Jose Alvarado's 80-game suspension came down on May 18, Phillies relievers have a 4.62 ERA and have allowed more baserunners per inning (1.62) than every team in baseball except the Athletics.
Romano has been more reliable than he was in April but has had inconsistent fastball velocity and slider command. Matt Strahm's opponents have hit .313 dating back to April 15. Orion Kerkering has been solid of late but was unable to work around bad defense on Sunday, snapping a string of nine straight scoreless outings.
The Phillies' bullpen gained another arm over the weekend in Taijuan Walker, who will pitch in relief the rest of the season even if an injury arises in the rotation. The Phils don't want to continue shifting Walker back and forth. Maybe his stuff will frequently play up in one-inning stints. He plans to still utilize five pitches and feels good about a new slider with more horizontal movement. It's worth checking out and can't hurt.
The Phils are desperate right now to find another reliable leverage reliever. Having only three hurts because pitching Kerkering, Strahm and Romano 4-5 times a week apiece is a recipe for burnout. But the trade deadline (July 31) is still more than eight weeks away and you're not acquiring a top-end reliever this early unless you bowl a team over in an overpay.
This current unit, which now includes Walker and Seth Johnson, will have to stem the tide until trade season actually begins. If/when the Phillies see Hoffman this week, it will be a reminder of the bullpen depth they had last summer. The Phillies went five deep in high-leverage arms for most of the second half with Hoffman, Strahm, Kerkering, Alvarado and Carlos Estevez. It wasn't too long ago this part of the team was regarded as a strength. Dave Dombrowski will almost certainly address it with one or two moves before July 31, but in the meantime, it's on Romano, Strahm and Kerkering to get the job done as the late-inning triumvirate with more needed out of pitchers like Tanner Banks, Joe Ross and Walker.