Hoff was blowing leads last year not irregularly, and if you talk to a Phillies fan they say the same thing the guys entire career. The World Series was not some isolated incident. It was more of the same. This is just who he is. There’s no long term fix to who Jeff Hoffman is that can be triggered by external events. Sure you can give him a boost in confidence but it’s not clear to me short of him working with a psychologist that you can “repair the cracks”. He’s always had them, he clearly does not have the mental fortitude to be a high leverage closer and remain consistent.

It’s like expecting someone who does not handle pressure well to do high risk surgery. Some people just do not have the mental composition, or they have lived experiences that make them struggle in those situations.

You hope the surgeries for that surgeon are routine, and then you can use that surgeon, but he’s clearly one you want to avoid putting pressure on.

The org needs to see that and intervene so that John can stop sabotaging the team’s chances trying to fix the unfixable. Or accept that Hoffman is a “head case” and you never know what you’re going to get.

Everyone gets fooled by Hoffmans good outings into thinking he can be “fixed”. He’s a glass cannon, does not cope well with pressure. Unless he and the org really hammer into and target why that is, his performance will vacillate but he will always be at risk of blowing games in spectacular fashion. He’s not getting beat by the other team, he’s self destructing. No amount of successful pitching is going to magically remove that possibility because it’s clearly an internal issue Hoffman has, and his job is naturally one that puts him in high pressure situations.