The Blue Jays didn’t open 2026 with Louis Varland penciled in as their closer. That job belonged to Jeff Hoffman, who had handled the ninth inning throughout 2025. But after a rocky first month, Toronto changed course - and the move ended up defining the season.
By the third week of April, the Blue Jays were 10-14, and Hoffman had a 7.59 ERA in 12 games with three blown saves, tied for the most in baseball. Manager John Schneider kept standing by him, and that made sense given what Hoffman had dealt with after giving up the game-tying home run in Game 7 of the World Series.
Still, the struggles kept piling up. He was walking hitters, hitting them too, and the breaking point arrived in Anaheim.
Three days later, Hoffman came into the ninth with a three-run lead against the Angels, got one out, then loaded the bases on a single and two hit batters. Schneider turned to Varland, and he needed just one pitch to get Nolan Schanuel to ground into a game-ending double play in a 4-2 win. It was Varland’s first career save, and it changed everything.
After an off-day, Toronto announced on Apr. 24 that Hoffman was out as closer and the team would split ninth-inning duties in the short term. General manager Ross Atkins said, “We feel it’s best for him and us at this point,” while also saying he still believed Hoffman could be a weapon. Varland and Tyler Rogers were set to be part of the “closers role” mix, with Schneider using matchups to guide the ninth.
The committee didn’t last long. Varland, who hadn’t allowed a run in his first 12 outings of the year, followed with consecutive saves against Cleveland that weekend and took over from there. Hoffman finished his Blue Jays stint with a 3.94 ERA and five saves in 51 appearances before being moved to the Twins.
Varland’s numbers from there were elite. He finished 5-6 with a 1.27 ERA and 1.00 WHIP, piling up 35 saves and 97 strikeouts while allowing 23 walks in 78 innings over 71 appearances.
His 3.6 bWAR backed up the eye test, and so did the run prevention: among pitchers with at least 50 innings, nobody posted a lower ERA. Tampa Bay’s Bryan Baker was next at 1.44.
Baker and Cleveland’s Cade Smith each had 41 saves, six more than Varland, but the gap in effectiveness was too big to ignore.
That’s why the voters got it right. Varland collected 16 of 30 first-place votes and finished with 146 points.
Smith got seven first-place votes and 133 points, while Baker received six and ended with 111. Smith was the only reliever on all 30 ballots, Varland appeared on 27, and Josh Hader got the final first-place vote.
The award itself is new - the first BBWAA honor introduced since 1983 - and it goes annually to the top pitcher in each league whose work comes primarily out of the bullpen. San Diego’s Mason Miller was the unanimous NL winner.
For Varland, it marks another big step in a fast rise in Toronto. The Blue Jays got him from the Twins at the 2025 trade deadline with first baseman Ty France, sending Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas back to Minnesota. He then made 15 appearances in the 2025 postseason, the most in a single postseason in MLB history, as Toronto pushed all the way to Game 7 of the World Series.
The Blue Jays didn’t end 2026 where they wanted, but the switch in the bullpen was one of the season’s best decisions. Putting Varland in the ninth turned into one of the smartest moves they made, and with four more years of team control, he’ll be back anchoring the bullpen in 2027.
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