As closer Jeff Hoffman falters, Blue Jays are missing injured Yimi Garcia that much more

National Post

6 hours ago

It's easy to go 'out of sight, out of mind' with the walking wounded on the Blue Jays roster, though that would be a gross undersell of the team's season to date.
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Starting pitcher Max Scherzer is the most-celebrated and talked-about one given that, after a 74-game stint on the injured list with a vexing thumb injury, he's due to return to game action on Wednesday in Cleveland.
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Anthony Santander, the other high-rent off-season acquisition by the Jays, is the big dude rarely talked about now. Sidelined for 21 games with shoulder inflammation (and only vague speculation on when he will return), the former Orioles slugger is almost literally the forgotten man given the virtual invisibility of his first two months as a Blue Jay.
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But given the sudden wobbles of the Blue Jays bullpen, the one absence that is perhaps most impactful is that of reliever Yimi Garcia, now missing 28 games (and counting) with what the team describes as a shoulder impingement.
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When the bullpen was humming, Garcia was better than the ideal setup man for closer Jeff Hoffman. The pair provided a dynamic one-two highest-leverage punch at the back end of the bullpen that were a clear strength of the team in the early going.
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Garcia didn't allow an earned run in 19 of his 21 appearances and none in his first 14 outings while pitching to a tidy 3.15 ERA.
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But now with Garcia out and Hoffman struggling, there is at minimum a sense of disarray in the Jays 'pen and, at worst, serious concern for manager John Schneider's late-game options.
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Hoffman, of course, was money in his early days with the Jays, seemingly easily validating general manager Ross Atkins' decision to move on from Canadian closer Jordan Romano. In the first month of the season, Hoffman allowed just one home run and owned a skimpy 1.17 ERA.
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Since then, there have been issues. His ERA in the interim is a shade over 9.00 and he has surrendered seven homers and nine walks. The latest blip came in Sunday's blown save against the White Sox, an outcome that was undeniably ugly but, in fairness, was caused more by Hoffman's fielding miscue than how he was operating on the mound.
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After the game, Schneider was adamant that the Jays 'trust the (poop)' out of Hoffman. That may be the case, but the longer Garcia is out, the more the concern about shutting down wins will heighten.