After 16 years and 902 appearances with the San Diego Padres, Trevor Hoffman is changing addresses. The man with the most saves in major league history is going to finish games for the Milwaukee Brewers this season. The Brewers are expected to announce the signing of Hoffman at noon EST.
Hoffman has notched all but two of his 554 career saves for the Padres. He went to the postseason four times with them, including a World Series trip in 1998. He now takes his devastating changeup to Milwaukee in what is reportedly a one-year deal with a club option for 2010. The dollar figures of the deal are not yet known, but all reports are stating it is complete.
While this does help sort out the back-end of the Brewers' bullpen, which was an issue last season, it hardly completely solves it. Hoffman is going to be 41 years old, and he's lost significant velocity. His 3.77 ERA last year was his worst since 1995.
On the other hand, he still managed to save 30 games for a pathetic team in 2008. You'd expect the Brewers to remain in the pennant race again, so it's possible this will reinvigorate Hoffman. He certainly has the guile to survive without his old velocity, and he's only two years removed from finishing second in Cy Young voting.
As long as they aren't paying him something like $8 million a year, this is a good -- not great -- signing for Milwaukee.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Padres are like a number of sports teams by letting Trevor Hoffman go to the Brewers. He has been loyal to the city of San Diego like Tony Gwynn. These guys could of made millions more by going to L.A., Chicago, N.Y. etc. they took less and stayed with the Padres. Stats, for the last 8 years Hoffman averaged 40 saves per year. Mariano Rivera for the same time averaged 39 saves per year. I no longer will go to Padre games until they fire Alderson.
When Trevor Hoffman is finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame he should go there as a Brewer. San Diego fired Hoffman for the team results of 2008 and he should return the favor by slapping the Padres in the same manor.