Sho Alli

And there is something to be said for believing in a human being.

And that is probably part of what's going on, right?

Like he sees the work Jeff Hoffman puts in behind the scenes.

behind the scenes.

He has seen Hoffman go through struggles.

There was a whole month last year in May where his ERA was over 10 and he bounced back and he was effective.

And as much as most fans are going to remember that moment at the end of the World Series, Jeff Hoffman was fantastic in the playoffs up until that moment.

And even if you look at his overall stats for playoffs, they are very, very good.

Like,

John Schneider has seen Hoffman down in the dumps and he has seen him drag himself out and become really good in that role.

Is that enough to justify putting him out for the next save opportunity?

I'm not so sure about that because now we're looking at three of the last four have been really problematic.

This has been problematic in a way that would scare me even more than the other ones, even though the other ones had worse results for the team and more runs on the board.

This one scares me a little bit more if I'm trying to put Hoffman out in another close situation.

But it is tough very early in the season to say, oh, this is a guy I don't necessarily believe in anymore.

There's a long road and they will need him at some point.

Again, will they need him in the closer role?

TBD.

But John Schneider is willing to go out there and say something that a lot of people listening right now and a lot of people calling in are not necessarily going to agree with.

He has already done that in the past, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does in the future.