The Toronto Blue Jays, at 10-14 going into the weekend, devised a new game plan about a month into the season. The plan was that the guy who was supposed to close games wasn't going to close games anymore. Instead they would adopt a "closer by committee" plan in an effort to subside what the they felt was one of the reasons for their slow start.
But in their first chance of executing the committee game plan, the result was almost the same as Louis Varland did his best Jeff Hoffman impression and allowed the tying run to reach base in the top of the ninth. Fortunately for Varland and the Blue Jays, they managed to get out of a bases loaded jam and secure a 5-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
It was Varlands second save in as many chances, but was easily his most trepidatious outing of the season as he allowed three hits, a walk and a run to score. He also had to work around the bases being loaded with the tying run on second and only one out, before ending the game with back-to-back strikeouts of Bo Naylor and Brayan Rocchio.
When it comes to the standings they don't ask how, they only ask how many and now the Blue Jays sit at 11-15, after Saturday afternoons win (Apr. 25) followed Friday night's loss in which they never had a chance to put the new plan in to practice as starting pitcher Max Scherzer allowed five runs in the first inning and never really gave the Blue Jays a chance to win that ball game.
Blue Jays may need Hoffman in a save situation again very soon
So with Varland getting the job done but needing 30 pitches to make it happen, the Blue Jays may not go to him in Sunday's finale against the Guardians and may have to turn Hoffman regardless. But that's what might secretly be genius about this plan, is that by not locking themselves into one ninth inning stopper, they have the flexibility to utilize guys based more on a "matchups" type scenario.
Hoffman hasn't pitched since he was lifted in the ninth inning from Wednesday's game against the LA Angels. In that contest he came in with a save opportunity and after allowing a run on two hits, while also hitting two batters, he was taken out in favour of Varland to try and end the game with the bases loaded and the tying run on second base. Varland entered, got the ground ball double play he needed and picked up career save number one.
Hoffman should be fresh and Sunday would mark his fourth day since he was last in a game, so regardless of what happens, he will likely get the ball at some point. It could be in a meaningless mop up role, or it could be in another high leverage situation. The point of the "committee plan" is that manager John Schneider should be able to rely on any of his back-end arms in any situation.
Nobody breathed a bigger sigh of relief than Varland after the last out was made on Saturday, but perhaps both Schneider and GM Ross Atkins weren't far behind considering how public they made their intentions known about the plan and there's nothing worse than a failed first attempt at a new plan.