Need Advice on Rotation Animation with 2D Blendtree

I have a 2D Freeform Blendtree that I'm using to animate a character that can:

-Walk / Sprint Forward
-Walk / Sprint Backward
-Strafe / Sprint Strafe Left
-Strafe / Sprint Strafe Right
-Idle

I am a bit stuck on how to best implement animations for turning or even jumping. I understand how to handle and call the animations in the code, but not sure of how it should be set up in the animator.

Do I transition to rotation animations on the base layer? Can I build it into a 2D blend tree even though the blend tree is only X and Z axis? I also plan on adding Jumping and crouching, though I'm assuming however I handle rotation animations I could use the same method.

 public class twoDControllerMovement : MonoBehaviour
 {
     Animator animator;
     public CharacterController controller;
 
     [SerializeField] private float walkSpeed = 12.0f;
     [SerializeField] private float strafeSpeed = 10.0f;
     [SerializeField] private float sprintMultipler = 2.0f;
     [SerializeField] private float rotationSpeed = 120.0f;
 
     // Start is called before the first frame update
     void Start()
     {
         animator = GetComponent<Animator>();
         controller = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
     }
 
     // Update is called once per frame
     void Update()
     {
 
         // handle sprint
         float currentWalkSpeed = walkSpeed;
         float currentStrafeSpeed = strafeSpeed;
         bool runPressed = false;
 
         // handle shift
         if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.LeftShift))
         {
             currentWalkSpeed = walkSpeed * sprintMultipler;
             currentStrafeSpeed = strafeSpeed * sprintMultipler;
             runPressed = true;
         }
 
         // calculate movement
         float strafe = Input.GetAxis("Strafe") * currentStrafeSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
         float translation = Input.GetAxis("Vertical") * currentWalkSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
         float rotation = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") * rotationSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
 
         // execute movement
         transform.Translate(strafe, 0f, translation);
         transform.Rotate(0, rotation, 0f);
 
         // handle movement animations
         if (runPressed) {
             animator.SetFloat("VelocityZ", Input.GetAxis("Vertical") * sprintMultipler);
             animator.SetFloat("VelocityX", Input.GetAxis("Strafe") * sprintMultipler);
         } else 
         {
             animator.SetFloat("VelocityZ", Input.GetAxis("Vertical"));
             animator.SetFloat("VelocityX", Input.GetAxis("Strafe"));
         }
 
         // handle roration animations
         if (Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") < 0.1f)
         {
             //Debug.Log(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"));
         } else if (Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") > 0.1f)
         {
             //Debug.Log(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"));
         }
 
     }
 }

Also any advice on improving the code I am open to as well! I do have a slight delay in animations starting when switching directions that I have to work out at some point.