Alejandro Kirk Has Emerged as MLB’s Second Best Catcher

It’s been nice to see. But no storyline has been sweeter than seeing the most angelic and handsome Blue Jay, Alejandro Kirk, return to glory. He’s recorded at least one hit in 16 of his last 18 games, is riding a seven-game hitting streak, and recently collected a four-hit game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Not only has Kirk been looking an awful lot like his old self, but he’s got a legitimate case for being the second-best catcher in baseball this year behind the superhuman Cal Raleigh.

A Unique Path

Kirk, 26, is now in his sixth season on the Blue Jays, and it’s safe to say that his career has been full of high highs and low lows to this point.

Many people don’t realize that Kirk has never played a single game (outside of a rehab assignment in 2021) at the Double- or Triple-A levels. He made the jump from High-A to the majors and hasn’t looked back.

The backstop hit .279 with a .788 OPS through his first 208 games spanning 2020 to 2022. Along the way, he emerged as one of the game’s top offensive catchers while starting the All-Star Game and earning a Silver Slugger in that 2022 season.

In 2023, he lost his feel for hard contact and his numbers faltered because of it. Kirk finished the season in some extremely low percentiles in Hard-Hit%, Barrel%, xwOBA, and AVG Exit Velocity that year. A gradual improvement across the board in 2024 bridged the gap to what has been a(nother) breakout season for the rotund catcher in the current campaign.

Now, Kirk is back and better than ever. It’s easy to look at a player of Kirk’s stature and determine that he doesn’t have the ideal body shape for a professional baseball player, but he’s been dominant on both sides of the ball this year despite the fact that he stands at 5-foot-8 and is around 250 pounds.

This player is a picture-perfect example that body shape doesn’t always directly correlate to success or failure. Sure, there have been a ton of big-bodied sluggers over the years that routinely annihilated baseballs, but there haven’t been many that are as fun-sized as Kirk. There are even less who have taken that body shape and turned themselves into elite defenders quite like Kirk has.

Not Cal Raleigh, and That’s Just Fine

In case you hadn’t heard, Cal Raleigh has been on another planet to open the 2025 season. No catcher in the league is going to touch the Seattle Mariners backstop’s otherworldly production, but it means a lot for Kirk to even be second-best to a player like Raleigh.

Raleigh, 28, leads the majors in home runs and tops catchers in home runs, runs, RBI, stolen bases(!!!), SLG, wRC+, and fWAR. By the time we get to season’s end, he’s going to have a case for AL MVP, but we’ll save that conversation for another time.

Over in Toronto, Kirk is striking out less than all other qualifying backstops in baseball (10.1 K%), which falls right in line with his career norms. His .325 batting average is No. 1 in the league amongst his fellow catchers, and he’s also third in catcher’s OBP and wRC+.

Behind the plate, he’s been elite. Kirk is the best in the game in Catcher Framing Runs (+6) while also having +9 Blocks Above Average, which is just behind Dillon Dingler of the Detroit Tigers (+10).

Kirk’s defensive prowess has landed him in the 98th percentile in Blocks Above Average, 91st in Caught Stealing Above Average, and 100th in Framing. Those go along nicely with his offensive numbers that have wildly improved across the board from last season.

I mean, just look at that. What more could you want out of a catcher? He hits, he fields, and he controls a pitching staff like few others do in the game. Now that he’s no longer stuck in a time-share with Danny Jansen behind the plate, Kirk has (re)blossomed into the star-caliber backstop he’s shown glimpses of being multiple times over the years.

Alejandro Kirk Is So Back

In late March, the Blue Jays opted to tie Kirk down for the next half-decade by inking him to a five-year, $58 million extension. It was a bold move at the time after he posted two so-so seasons in a row, but he’s been making good on their investment ever since.

During this past offseason before signing the paperwork on the extension, Kirk spent extra time focusing on his conditioning. Clearly that goes a long way to shaping the product you see on the field on a nightly basis.

The Blue Jays made it known to him that he was going to have to log more time behind the plate than he had in the recent past, so he took the assignment seriously.

It’s true that he lost a bit of weight over the offseason and him trimmed himself up ever-so-slightly, but what Kirk mostly did is find more ways to do a lot with what he’s got. He refined a lot of his existing tools instead of revamping what he’s made work for the past few years in the big leagues.

Now, he’s turning himself into one of baseball’s most well-rounded catchers. Outside of Raleigh, Kirk is easily the best backstop in the American League. Will Smith and William Contreras are two of the National League’s premier catchers, but neither have had the success on both sides of the ball that Kirk has through the first few months of the new year.

Closing Thoughts

Now that Alejandro Kirk is getting another chance to be the Blue Jays’ primary catcher instead of splitting time with someone like Jansen, he’s back to being a stud. Toronto made it clear that they view Kirk as their long-term solution behind the plate, and he took their faith in him and found a way to elevate his game even further.

This goes to show that sometimes boosting a player’s comfort can go a long way to boosting their performance on the field.

Sure, Kirk has his shortcomings, but he’s put himself legitimately in the conversation (perhaps even at the top of it) for being one of baseball’s best catchers. He’s got some of the sharpest defensive chops in the league and a red-hot bat to go along with that. What’s not to love?