When the Rockies acquired Jeff Hoffman from the Blue Jays in the 2015 Jose Reyes/ Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster, the hope was that Hoffman would burgeon into a high-profile starter to pair with fellow prospect Jon Gray atop the rotation. Hoffman, after all, was the No. 9 select in the 2014 sketch and was in the mingle for the top overall excerpt as a junior at East Carolina University until he snap his UCL and involved Tommy John surgery. He was a volatile select for the Jays, but the industry believed in him; he territory on the top 100 prospects of Baseball America, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs and ESPN between 2015 -1 7.
Hoffman rent through Class-A Advanced and Double-A in his first full pro season — the same season that viewed him shipped from the Jays to the Rox. While the 4.02 ERA he logged in Triple-A in 2016 wasn’t eye-catching, affixing that digit in the Pacific Coast League while overseeing better than a strikeout per inning was encouraging. Hoffman seemed plenty promising, even though they are his 2016 MLB debut resulted in a pedestrian 4.88 ERA with a 22 -to-1 7 K/ BB ratio in 31 1/3 frames.
Since that time, though, he’s seen his velocity descend and his makes take a nosedive. Hoffman has compiled 178 innings in the Majors over the past three seasons, but he’s been husk for a 6.32 ERA with 7.8 K/ 9, 4.1 BB/ 9, 1.82 HR/ 9 and a 39.4 percent ground-ball frequency that’s a far cry from the 50 percent assessment he displayed as a rookie. He dealt with a brief shoulder issue in 2018 but has otherwise been mostly health — but he still entered only 8 2/3 formulates in the Majors that time while struggling in Triple-A. Hoffman worked with Driveline Baseball in the 2018 -1 9 offseason in hopes of regaining his velocity and improving his car-mechanics. Hoffman did average 93.7 mph on his four-seamer in 2019 — up from 92.8 mph in a minuscule 2018 sample — but it wasn’t the 99 mph he was pumping in offseason hearings at Driveline, either.
Hoffman made some other alters as well, absolutely scrapping his slider in favor of more curveballs — a pitching that was regarded as his best offering during his prospect daytimes. He’s tinkered with his liberate extents on all of his degrees during the course of his job and made a particularly notable adjustment to the release point on his heater in 2019. Manager Bud Black discussed that change with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post earlier this spring , noting that the goal was to lessen Hoffman’s delivery in hopes of more consistency. The vary was apparent early in the year, but whether by design or otherwise, Hoffman’s vertical liberate part in September looked much closer to his release station from 2016 -1 8.
Now out of minor league options, Hoffman is in a precarious position. He’s propitious that the Rockies’ rotation is wide open behind the aforementioned Gray, German Marquez and rebound candidate Kyle Freeland. But this will be his last chance to either establish himself as a donor with the Rockies or be included on waivers and experience his demise left up to the DFA gods. Then again, perhaps a change of scenery would ultimately be best for Hoffman.
Like countless pitchers before him, Hoffman has been hammered at Coors Field, where his busines 7.03 ERA is more than two extends greater than his 4.88 apart mark. That artery ERA is hardly an heartening amount — particularly with FIP, xFIP and SIERA ratings north of 5. 00 — but it does illustrate that his home surrounds haven’t done him any favors.
Beyond those rudimentary home/ superhighway divides, another squad might try a different approach with Hoffman. As is the case with Carson Fulmer, who finds himself in a same arrange, Hoffman has a high-spin four-seamer ( 88 th percentile) — but he works principally at the bottom of the zone with the tone year after year( 2016, 2017, 2019 ). The arising 7.2 percent swinging-strike frequency isn’t much to be examined , nor is the. 323/.428 /. 741 flog opposings announced against the degree. The pitiful. 151/.204 /. 267 cable adversaries posted against his fasten, which also has above-average rotate, is still much work appeal though.
Even without the upper-9 0s hot he’s had at times in the past, Hoffman would likely miss more bats manipulating near the top purpose of the zone. It’s not a romance thought — pitchers throughout the league have increasingly tended toward that approach — but 18 of the 21 homers Hoffman ceded in 2019 came on that four-seamer. Clearly, sloping down in the zone isn’t getting the job done, so a change of approach can’t hurt at this station. And if the Rockies haven’t propagandized him toward such an approach, perhaps another squad wished to be do so.
At this detail, Hoffman enrolls a make-or-break year where he’ll have to either lock down a distinguish on the pitching faculty or likely is open to other clubs. Expanded rosters may increase the rein that he’s handed, but Hoffman is surely on thin ice at this target. If he fades from the picture, the Rockies will have just one player left — right-hander Jesus Tinoco — remaining from the craft of one of the franchise’s most iconic players.
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