Former Shaker High Player Traded In MLB

Shaker High School graduate Jeff Hoffman is on the move. Hoffman was traded earlier this month from his former team, the Colorado Rockies, to the Cincinnati Reds. Colorado also sent outfielder Case Williams, the franchise's 2020 fourth-round draft pick, to Cincinnati for right-hander Robert Stephenson and outfielder Jameson Hannah. Hoffman will now begin his tenure with a third different franchise in his career. In 2014, Hoffman was drafted ninth overall by the Toronto Blue Jays in the Major League Baseball draft. In 2015 Hoffman was included in the trade sending All Star Rockies infielder Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays while Hoffman was shipped to the Colorado Rockies. In his five seasons playing for the Mile High City's franchise, Hoffman posted at 10-16 record with 6.40 earned run average. Hoffman posted this message on his personal Instagram account thanking the Rockies fans

What could the future hold for Hoffman in Cincinnati? Reds blog sites including RedLegNation.com believes spin rate could be the perfect ingredient in "fixing" some of Hoffman's struggles. Redlegnation.com offered this evaluation on Hoffman

Well, he spins the ball quite well. And if you’ve been paying attention to how the Reds have gone about looking for and identifying pitchers since Derek Johnson became the pitching coach, these are the kinds of ones the Reds have been looking at. Reds minor league pitching coordinator Kyle Boddy even started a Spincinnati thing this past instructional league for minor leaguers. It’s clearly something the organization believes in.

Hoffman is not the only former Shaker High School graduate making Major League Baseball news this fall. 104.5 The Team shared the news of now former New York Yankee Tommy Kahnle leaving the franchise. Kahnle is expected to miss the entire 2021 regular season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

You can listen to Kahnle's interview with Goz and CBS 6's Chet Davis from October 2019 here