Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Alejandro Kirk

Alejandro Kirk is a 24-year-old, right-handed hitting catcher.

In 2021 he got into 60 games, 44 of them as catcher. He was Robbie Ray’s ‘personal catcher’ for most of the season. Before the 2020 season he was #8 on our top 40 prospect list.

Last year I joked that instead of being a right-handed hitting catcher, Alejandro Kirk was a right-handed hitting hitter who can wear the tools of ignorance. But, he proved he can catch.

Baseball Savant had him the fourth-best framer in baseball, even though he was 32nd in pitches received. He only had one passed ball and 12 wild pitches against him (and Buck lightened up on the complaining about the one-knee catching style). And he was slightly above average in throwing out base stealers. Add in that pitchers seemed to like throwing to him. The pitchers had a 3.48 ERA throwing to him, 3.74 to Jansen.

So we can’t complain about him behind the plate.

For a guy home is very slow on the bases, he seems more than adequately athletic behind the plate. Course slow for a baseball player would still be faster than me and, more than likely you.

As a hitter, he had a great first half (.315/.395/.487) and an okish second half (.246/.340/.320). In total .285/.372/.415. Baseball Reference had him at a 3.9 WAR.

I don’t know what happened in the second half. Catchers can accumulate little hurts as the season goes on. Perhaps he had had things that were sore, enough that he lost that tiny bit off his swing. Or perhaps he tired as the season went on. Or maybe pitchers found something on him.

We are all hoping that the first half of the season is the Alejandro Kirk we will see in the future.

Steamer thinks he is going to hit .285/.370/.466 with 18 home runs in 116 games. I’d take that from him.