CLEARWATER, Fla — Jeff Hoffman donned a Pitching Ninja shirt in the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse Friday afternoon after he finished a workout and ate lunch. He appeared about as calm as you can possibly be, which makes sense since he’s a lock to be in the team’s Opening Day bullpen after a breakout 2023 season.
It would be hard to put into perspective just how much Hoffman’s life has changed in less than a full calendar year. The former first-round pick spent last spring in camp with the Minnesota Twins, opting out of his minor-league deal after not being selected for the team’s Opening Day roster. The Phillies inked him to a minor-league deal on April 2, which really didn’t guarantee anything other than the chance to pitch for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs. But it turned into much more than that.
With an offseason to catch his breath, Hoffman has been able to process how much of a whirlwind 2023 was as he went from Allentown at the outset of the regular season to a key cog in Rob Thomson’s bullpen during a second consecutive deep playoff run by the Phillies.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Hoffman said of his 2023 season in a conversation with Phillies Nation. “I think the way it started with me not even being in camp here. And then taking my opt-out, not really knowing if I was gonna stay stateside or not. I think everything obviously happens for a reason, and I fell into a good spot. Organizationally, personally everything just really lined up and [I] took advantage of a couple opportunities and found ourselves in some pretty big spots in October.”
Perhaps what’s craziest about Hoffman’s ascension is that he really hadn’t pitched well in eight appearances at Triple-A before getting called up, giving up seven earned runs and walking seven batters in nine innings of work.
But the moment that changed Hoffman’s career — and really, his life — came on April 21 when he was summoned to Citizens Bank Park to throw live batting practice to Bryce Harper, as the two-time NL MVP was working his way back from Tommy John surgery.
Utilizing his new slider, Hoffman was so dominant that Harper struggled to consistently hit him. Hoffman has since said he treated the live batting practice session against Harper as his World Series. And he performed well enough to make the Phillies believe he might be able to handle some high-leverage spots as they tried to reach the actual World Series for the second year in a row.
“I felt like, at least, I needed to give myself that chance,” Hoffman recalled. “If I was to go out and not impress anybody, then it was kind of a missed opportunity. That was kind of my first opportunity of the year, where I didn’t know anybody around here. I didn’t know coaches … I didn’t know players, well [I knew] a couple players. But that was my first big opportunity where I was like, ‘Alright, if I can just like do a couple things well here, maybe [I’ll] give myself a shot to get called up.’ Because, I had an opt-out coming up here too.”
Hoffman did have an opt-out in his contract, and knew he had an opportunity in Japan if the Phillies didn’t promote him to the majors shortly after his live batting practice session with Harper. But some feedback he got from Harper after throwing to him probably tipped the hand of the direction things were heading.
“Yeah, in joking, [Harper was] just like ‘I think you should be here. I think you should be on the team.’ That kind of stuff,” Hoffman said of whether Harper had anything to say to him after they faced off on April 21.
“And yeah, I mean, Bryce’s word means a lot,” Hoffman continued. “[He’s] such an accomplished player and such a face of our game that I think when he opens his mouth, people listen.”
On May 4, with Hoffman otherwise prepared to opt out of his deal, the Phillies promoted him to the majors. With José Alvarado spending two stints on the injured list and Seranthony Domínguez ineffective for much of the season, Hoffman became one of the most reliable Phillies relief options for the the remainder of the summer.
Across 54 games for the Phillies last regular season, Hoffman posted a 2.41 ERA and 180 ERA+ (100 is the league average), developing a reputation as a player that was able to come in with inherited runners on base and wiggle out of trouble.
While Nick Castellanos — who had previously been teammates with Hoffman on the Cincinnati Reds — called him “Hoffdaddy,” the reliever earned a more fitting name from Harper, “the Garbage Man.”
The best example of Hoffman’s ability to embrace dirty innings came in Game 3 of the NLCS in Arizona. With the Phillies locked in a 0-0 tie against the Diamondbacks, Hoffman came on to relieve Ranger Suárez in the bottom of the sixth inning. Ketel Marte had led off the inning with a double, and then advanced to third base on a groundout by Corbin Carroll. The Diamondbacks seemed destined to take the lead.
Instead, Hoffman took out the garbage in a particularly nasty fashion, using the slider he had developed in Spring Training with the Twins to strike out Arizona catcher Gabriel Moreno for the second out. He then induced an inning-ending grounder from first baseman Christian Walker, escaping the jam he had inherited unscathed.
Of course, the Phillies would lose Game 3 of the NLCS, which was the beginning of the end. But had they gone on to the World Series, Hoffman wiggling out of a precarious situation once again would have been one of the signature moments of the playoff run.
So what makes Hoffman confident that he’ll be able to emulate his form from a year ago?
“Just the process of what went into the daily grind last year, I think we didn’t really stay stagnant in the offseason and just hope that everything would turn out the same,” Hoffman said. “I think we attacked some areas. There were some parts of my arsenal that we felt like could be better — slider consistency, some stuff like that. So I feel like those areas that we targeted should even help me get better in some ways.”
If Hoffman is able to pitch at a similar level to what he did a year ago — or even get better — he’ll be in demand next offseason when he can become a free agent, likely on a multi-year deal. He’s hopeful if he takes care of business in 2024, he’ll be back with the Phillies in 2025.
“Obviously, I love it here. I love the city, my family loves the city. It’s close to home. I would love to be here,” said Hoffman, who is from upstate New York. “I would love to be here, but that’s kind of out of my control right now. So I’m just kind of trying to keep my head down, and just take it day by day. Hopefully the opportunity does present itself, and we would be happy to visit that.”
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