Louis Varland and manager John Schneider look like they have given the Blue Jays a real closer now, not just another temporary bullpen patch.
That was already starting to show on the field. Now it is showing in the presentation, too.
Varland has a closer entrance at Rogers Centre, complete with a video of bullpen coach Graham Johnson slapping him on the back and a revving engine before he heads in. That is not how clubs treat a random committee arm. It looks like Toronto has made its call.
The timing fits the bigger bullpen story. On April 24, the Blue Jays officially removed Jeff Hoffman from the closer role and said they would use a committee while he reset.
Since then, Varland has done the one thing that matters most in that spot. He has kept finishing games.
MLB's player page shows Varland recorded another save in Toronto's 2-0 win on May 8, and he already took home American League Reliever of the Month for April. Those are not small clues. Those are the markers of a reliever taking ownership of the ninth.
The stuff backs it up, too. Baseball Savant has Varland sitting at 98.0 mph with a 1.88 expected ERA, a 39.7 percent strikeout rate, and a 59.5 percent ground-ball rate. That is closer-level power with real swing-and-miss behind it.
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Jeff Hoffman now fits better in front of Varland
This is where the Blue Jays may have stumbled into a better bullpen shape than the one they opened with. Hoffman has not looked like a reliable ninth-inning arm, carrying a 5.74 ERA and 3 saves in 17 games.
But his recent stretch hints at a cleaner role. Over his last 7 games, Hoffman has a 2.84 ERA with 9 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. That looks a lot more like a useful setup man than a locked-in closer.
And that may be the best outcome for everyone involved. Hoffman still has the fastball and the strikeout ability to handle leverage, just without carrying the full weight of the final 3 outs every time.
Varland, meanwhile, looks built for that weight. He throws harder, gets more swing-and-miss, keeps the ball on the ground, and now even has the entrance that tells the crowd who is coming.
That does not mean Toronto needs to stop calling it a committee in public. Teams like keeping those doors open.
Still, the Blue Jays do not need to overcomplicate what is right in front of them. Louis Varland looks like the closer moving forward, and Jeff Hoffman looks like the type of setup man who can help make that choice work.
Should the Blue Jays keep Louis Varland as their full-time closer from here on out?
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