OverDrive - Matheson on Hoffman finished as closer, Yesavage and Berrios nearing returns and Guerrero Jr.'s inconsistency

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joined OverDrive to discuss Jeff Hoffman's role changing, his removal as the closer, the team's unit at the position, Trey Yesavage and Jose Berrios' return to the mound. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s decent April statistics, the look of the lineup and more.

from MLB.com and TSN. Here's our main man, Keegan Matheson. How are we doing, Keegan? Doing well, fellows. We're back. How's everything going? Yeah, it's great. Good to see you. Ross Akin speaking today. Is there anything in particular that you took out of that that would be considered newsworthy? What was the biggest piece of news from Ross Atkins this afternoon? Big one guys being what we expected today, which is Jeff Hoffman being removed from the closest roll. Now, they are framing this as they're going to move to a group effort here. This is going to be a closer by committee, and everyone's going to get a crack at it. Louis Varland, I expect Braden Fisher, maybe Mason Flew Hardy, Tyler Rogers.

But the big news out of that is that it's not Jeff Hoffman's job right now. And the reasons are extremely obvious because we've talked about Jeff Hoffman, probably the last five times I've been on. And if you're talking about a closer, it's rarely because we're saying, damn, isn't the closer really good? So we've been talking about the closer for too long. This is where it's ended up, guys, and it's the right decision. And this allows Jeff Hoffman to go pitch in the sixth or the seventh inning and figure this out. Last year, his problem was home runs. This year, the problem has been that on top of walks, hitting batters, the control is not there.

So this is a step back. In July, August, September, we might be talking about him closing games again, but for now he is out, and you're going to see a lot of different guys in the ninth inning. So, Kagan, you just talked about a lot of. lot of different guys and them doing it by committee. Is there somebody that you would circle that might have the inside track or you believe could get to that next level to take over that role? Yeah, Nudels.

Louis Varlane is their best reliever. Outside of Mason Miller, he might be one of the best relievers from Major League Baseball right now. But I don't think that means he's the closer every single night. So what I mean by that, guys, is that I think question number one, if you're John Schneider and you're Pete Walker and you're Ross Atkins, every single night going into a game, is how can we get Louis Varland? our best reliever in the most important spot of the game. That's probably going to be the ninth inning, a lot of nights,

but there will be nights where it's the eighth inning. Their one, two, three hitters are coming up. You're trying to hold on to a lead. That's when you use Louis Varlane, the biggest spot for your best pitcher. And then I think you feel good about Braden Fisher, Flew Hardy, Rogers, whoever it is in the ninth inning. The role of the classic closer has gone away a little bit. It's a bit more flexible across the league.

it's another reason to use the word collaboration fellas i'm always excited to find a new reason for people to collaborate in this sport but it's going to be a little bit of everybody and i think louis varland gets the first bite whenever it's possible hegan you talk about you know it's a reset for hoffman and he can go and figure things out and get back to who he thinks he can be but given where he's been and the scar tissue mentally that may or may not exist after this man had the World Series in his hand and it slipped away, is it even feasible that if this team believes it's going to be a playoff team, it's going to snap out of this early, slow start and get right back to where it hoped it could be, and it will be in the playoffs? Is it feasible in your mind that

this guy could be your playoff closer again, given what happened last playoffs? Yeah, a lot's got to change, right? It's similar to the conversation, guys, we've had a bit about Brandon Little. Like, he went down to AAA and he's looked great, but what happens when you bring him back. So even if Jeff Hoffman goes out and has 10 scoreless outings in a row and he's striking out a ton of batters, what's going to happen when he comes into the ninth? And the light show plays for him and the game is on the line there. That's the great unknown. And at the trade deadline, there are going to be closers available who you can go out and go get. It's the most important factor, I think, in this is how you handle the mental side. And Jeff Hoffen, we've seen him thrive

There's a closer and bounce back from bad outings. But I think that's something that even me sitting here, I need to recognize it. If I have a bad day and write a crappy story, maybe someone tells me I had a typo, but life doesn't get much worse than that, okay? When Jeff often has a bad day, we're talking about them all day. Everyone hates the guy. Everyone's pissed off, but the closer blew the game. It is one of the most high-pressure jobs in sports.

And when you do the job, you don't always get the applause, you just get, okay, that's what you were supposed to do. The closure's supposed to save games. So that's a major hurdle. It's a big one. And I think that the Blue Jays closer come August, September, October, might not even be on this roster right now. If there's one area that probably gets talked about leading up with the trade deadline,

I know we're way down the road, but it's the back end of the bullpen. There's always somebody available. With Keegan Matheson, Jay's Guardians down at the don't tonight, Atkins didn't really give any concrete answers on Barrios or you Savage, either, Keegan, like Barrios is close, and maybe you can join soon, but they're not sure, and you're savage, you've got to think of a lot of things. How do you interpret the Atkins dance on those two in particular today? Thankfully, I'm experienced interpreting, fellas, not to practice.

But right now, it feels like Berrios is the normal rehab, and Yassavage is the strange one. Because right now, Berrios, I know there's nothing normal about pitching through a cracked elbow. I'm still amazed this is working or happening at all. to him. He's making it happen. He is going to pitch again Tuesday in AAA Buffalo. If that goes well, and if he gets up to 70 plus pitches, no reason his next star can't be in the big leagues. Like, as long as everything looks good, Berrios is, when he's good, he's just such a normal, predictable pitcher. And I think he can get back to that. Yassavage has been a little more of a wildguard in all of this. Each of his last two rehab

outings, I thought, were the last ones. But there have been a lot of conversations with YSavage throughout this, sounds like there's going to be more of those. His results have not exactly been there. And guys, if you are Bereos for Kevin Gosman and you have an ugly rehab start, I don't care. I really don't. But if you're Trey Yassavage, who hasn't fully established himself in the big leagues and the routines

and the boring things that go into true greatness in the big leagues, you want to see some results, and they haven't gotten those from Yassavich. So we should know more tomorrow, but one way or the other, a couple of weeks from now, they will have a couple of healthy pitchers coming back. And I think that's a very good thing. You can bump lower to the bullpen in a long roll. Maybe we'll see how

he likes that. I'm not sure. But things will get better pretty soon. So, Keegan, I was down at the basketball game last night, though. It was a bit of a slow start for both teams, really sloppy game. And the biggest cheer until probably the fourth quarter, and the Raptors exploded and won the thing, was for your guy, Vladdy Guerrero Jr. when they showed him on the big screen, probably the most popular athlete in Toronto right now. And I'm wondering, like, he's about to play his thousands game as a Blue Jay.

I think it's like, what is a short list of maybe 12 guys that have played more. But is it, you know, and yet, and yet, and we know how great he was in the playoffs. And yet, is it too early to start wondering, like, is he still a singles hitter in the regular season or what's going on here? Yeah. Yeah, when I look at the records, guys, I was going through it today because of game 1,000. he's going to own every record forever in this organization. And he's a lot closer to the games played and the hits and runs scored, walks, all of those,

than he is the home runs. Within three or four years, guys, he is going to knock off Delgado, Bautista, Tony Fernandez, Vernon Wells, for all of those counting stats. And I think he's going to do it pretty easily. And we'll end up just having the conversation of does he win a ring or not for the greatest of all time, et cetera, et cetera. But home runs, it's a little further down the road. You're probably, if he's hitting 30 a year guys, like he has been,

you're probably looking more six, seven, eight years down the road. To catch Carlos Delgado, and I think about Delgado's peak guys, from 98 to 2003, he was hitting 40, 42 a year. And that's what I think of when I think of a power hitter. I know that Flattie's always been more of a hitter than a power guy naturally, but when I look at him and see how he is built, And when I see what he can do with one swing of the bat, it's hard to get excited about singles. And I know they still matter.

I know they're not an out. I get it. But when you see a guy that wins the home run derby who looks like if you walk past Vladie on the street, you're looking at the guy saying he hits home runs. The dude's built for power. The Blue Jays could benefit from that so much more right now. And I know he's not getting pitches to hit. Neither are any of the great hitters.

Okay, I don't like that as an excuse all the time. you think the guys winning home run crowns every year getting cookies? No. So I think they need the Vlady that's hitting 35-38 home runs, not the 25-28. There's a huge difference there. Yeah, I mean, you look at the lineup tonight. Lucas had a much better weekend.

Like the last handful of games, he's starting to come around. But they got Lucas leading off, Clement hit and second. Sanchez, 4th, Lenin Sosa, 5th. Like, it's just a wild lineup right now. Right, with Springer and Kirk and Barger out. It's just a wild, wild-looking lineup. Like, what do you expect until Springer returns and until Barger returns?

We know Kirk's going to be further down the line, but they've got to play some small ball here, I think, to put runs on the board. It's amazing to look at this lineup, guys, on April 24th. You know, like, it once again brings me back to the idea of what the hell am I doing in spring training all those weeks. So confidently predicting how the season will go.

But this looks like a lineup that needs to figure out some way, somehow. And guys going back to what we just talked about with Vladdy, a big home run from Vladdy takes care of all this. And we don't talk about anything else until George and until Addison Barger are back. But I didn't expect to be talking about Lenin Sosa this year, especially not as the number five hitter. I didn't expect to be talking about a revolving door in the lead-off spot. What made the Blue Jays great last year was that they figured out a way.

They were creative. And that can be something that's difficult to attain year over a year. There's some magic to it. It's hard to grasp. But the easiest solution to every damn question the Blue Jays are going to face these next couple weeks until they're healthy again is Vladdy. It's the easy answer. Maybe it's the lazy answer out.

But if he has a big game or two, everything else that's strange about this lineup suddenly looks like a great complimentary supporting cast around the superstar. And these are the times they need him more than ever. Yeah, you're right. He gets on a heater right now. It might be the time you need it over the course of 1602. Like get on a heater for two weeks and then, you know, take it from there. Jay's Guardians tonight throughout the weekend.

Great catching up with you, Kagan. We'll do it again soon. Thank you for this. You got her fellow. There he has. Kegan Mathis at MLB.com. Experience Megan Maroni Live on her only Canadian tour date

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