Alejandro Kirk

Alejandro Kirk
(El Capitan)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 5' 8", Height 265 lb.

Debut September 12, 2020

Born November 6, 1998 in Tijuana, Baja California MEX

Biographical Information[edit]

Catcher Alejandro Kirk had never played above Class A when he made his major league debut for the Toronto Blue Jays on September 12, 2020. He had played the previous season with the Dunedin Blue Jays in the Florida State League and the Lansing Lugnuts in the Midwest League, hitting a combined .290/.403/.465 in 92 games.

Kirk was originally signed by the Jays on September 24, 2016 as an amateur free agent out of Mexico for a minimal bonus, as we was not scouted much due to his atypical body-type. He was first discovered by former major leaguer Jorge Campillo, who signed him for the youth academy of the Toros de Tijuana. He began his pro career in 2017 with the GCL Blue Jays, playing just 1 game, then spent the 2018 season with the Bluefield Blue Jays, where he hit a scorching .354/.443/.558 in 58 games. He was a postseason All-Star in the Appalachian League that season, then an organization All-Star in 2019 for his performance in Class A. He attended spring training with the Blue Jays in 2020, then when the minor leagues were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, he spent the first few weeks of the year at their alternate training site. When back-up catcher Reese McGuire failed to hit and was replaced on the major league roster by Caleb Joseph in early September, he was promoted to the taxi squad, then a week later replaced Joseph on the major league team. His first start came against the New York Mets, when he caught veteran Robbie Ray and guided the Jays to a 3-2 win. He went 1 for 3 and walked and scored a run in the game. On September 21nd, he went 4-for-4 and hit his first major league homer off Chad Green in an 11-5 win over the New York Yankees; another one of his hit was off the fence in right field and would have been a homer in New Yankee Stadium - but the game was played in the Jays' temporary home of Sahlen Field in Buffalo, NY. He ended the season at .375 in 9 games, with 2 doubles and a homer, and not only was he added to the Jays' postseason roster, but he started Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at DH, with lefthander Blake Snell starting for the Tampa Bay Rays. He led off the 6th with a single off Snell, but the Jays were unable to drive him in.

In 2021, he continued to surprise as he beat out McGuire for the Jays' backup catcher position on Opening Day, with Danny Jansen the starter. On April 30th, he had the first two-homer game of his career in a 13-5 win over the Atlanta Braves. Jansen was still considered the better defensive catcher and the nominal starter, but Kirk was hitting so much better than he was that he was in danger of losing his title. Unfortunately, Alejandro had to leave the next day's game with a hip flexor and was placed on the injured list. He missed over two and half months, returning to the line-up on July 23rd. On September 7th, he had another two-homer game, this one against the Yankees, connecting off Gerrit Cole and Clay Holmes in a 5-1 win. By then he had also developed a great relationship with Robbie Ray, who was named the American League Pitcher of the Month in August with Alejandro starting behind the plate every time he came to the mound. He finished the season at .242 in 60 games, with 8 homers and 24 RBIs and an OPS+ of 105, while Ray won the Cy Young Award.

Kirk started the 2022 season slowly, hitting .245 without an extra-base hit in 19 April games, but he got very hot after that. He batted .347 in May and in June homered in three straight games, including one on June 24th when he went 4-for-4 in a 9-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, raising his average to .321. By then he was leading all American League catchers in votes for the All-Star Game and was indeed elected to be a starter in the game. He was the first Mexican catcher ever to play in an All-Star Game, and before the game got to catch the ceremonial first pitch from Mexican legend Fernando Valenzuela at Dodger Stadium. He cooled down after that but still hit .285 in 139 games, with 14 homers and 63 RBIs and was the recipient of the Silver Slugger Award as the best-hitting catcher in the AL that year. He also went 3 for 8 with a double as the Jays were swept by the Seattle Mariners in the Wild Card Series. He was supposed to be a catcher for the Mexican national team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but his wife was due to give birth to their first child, a daughter, that spring, and he pulled out when the birth was delayed. He did not do as well with the bat in 2023, falling to .250 in 123 games with 8 homers and 43 RBIs. His OPS+ fell from 127 the year before to just 92. But he was once again among the few Jays hitters to contribute in the postseason, going 2 for 6 with a walk while Toronto was again swept in two games in the Wild Card Series, this time at the hands of the Minnesota Twins. During those two years, even though it was his bat that had got him to the majors quickly, he developed a reputation as an excellent defensive catcher, particularly adept at framing pitches and blocking balls in the dirt.

For the fourth straight year in 2024, the Blue Jays entered the season with Kirk and Jansen forming a tandem behind the dish, although there would not be an opportunity for the one not starting to be the DH given the Jays had signed veteran Justin Turner in the off-season to be their full-time DH. Jansen was injured at the start of the year, meaning that Alejandro had to catch almost every day, as third-string catcher Brian Serven was really a fill-in without much ability to contribute with the bat. Maybe as a result, he got off to a very poor start, hitting just .194 in April, and spent the remainder of the season trying to catch up. However, this was the year when the Jays' brass finally made a decision between Kirk and Jansen, and they decided to go with Kirk, sending Jansen away at the trading deadline, even though it meant that Serven would have to finish the season as a back-up (he was eventually DFA'd in September after hitting .159 with no power and was replaced by Tyler Heineman, who had served as the Jays' third-string catcher on previous occasions). Kirk hit a lot better over the final two months, including putting together an 18-game hitting streak in September, the longest of his career; he also hit his first career triple during that stretch, belying his reputation as the slowest baserunner in the majors. He finished with numbers almost identical to the previous year's - .253 with 5 homers and 54 RBIs in 103 games, and an OPS+ of 94. During the second half, his throwing became much better, as his percentage of runners caught stealing jumped from 18% to 31%, easily the best figure of his career.

In 2025, he went to spring training for the first time as the undisputed starter behind the dish and had a great spring. On March 22nd, the Blue Jays rewarded him with a five-year contract extension worth $58 million, covering the period from 2026-2030, in recognition that he was now a key player on the Jays' roster. He had an excellent first half, even if it was overshadowed by the plethora of home runs hit by Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, and was named to the All-Star team for the second time. Playing virtually every day, he batted .303 with 7 homers and 45 RBIs in 81 games before the break, while playing outstanding defense. The Jays really got hot in July, which coincided with his bat cooling down a bit and spending some days on the concussion list. On August 15th, he was at the center of a comeback win over the Texas Rangers at the Rogers Centre, homering in the 7th and then hitting a bases-loaded single in the 8th to turn a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 win, but he really stunned everyone in the ballpark by following the single with his first career stolen base, taking advantage of the lack of attention paid him by Phil Maton. That base theft came in his 532nd major league game. He went into a slump in September, going 5 for 50, but woke from it right in the time, as he hit his 13th homer in the Jays' penultimate game on September 27th to provide an important insurance run in a key win over the Rays. He then followed that with his first career grand slam in the 1st inning the next day, in a game that the Blue Jays absolutely had to win to secure the division title. He then added a double and another homer, a two-run shot, in the 5th. The first homer tied his career high at 14, and the second one set a new mark; he had already set a personal best for RBIs and pushed that total further to 76 with the six-RBI game. His batting average was .282 in 130 games, and his OPS+ 111. His hot hitting continued in the first game of the Division Series against the Yankees, as he it a solo homer off Luis Gil in the 2nd, and a second to lead off the bottom of the 8th, to lead Toronto to a 10-1 win. He became the first Mexican-born player to homer in a World Series game when he did so in the 6th inning of Game 1 of the 2025 World Series against Anthony Banda of the Los Angeles Dodgers; he was only the 7th position player from his country to play in a Fall Classic and the first in over 20 years. He made the last out the World Series, however, in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7 on November 1st, when he grounded into a double play against Yoshinobu Yamamoto with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. representing the potential tying run; SS Mookie Betts took advantage of Kirk's lack of speed to turn the twin killing himself.

He did get to play for Mexico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, going 4 for 15 with a double and a homer while starting all four of Mexico's pool games. He then started off the 2026 season slowly, like almost all members of the Blue Jays, as he was hitting just .150 after 5 games. His only homer was a big one, however, as his blast off Michael Kelly in the bottom of the 9th inning on March 28th forced extra innings, during which the Jays prevailed, 8-7, over The Athletics. But less than a week later on April 3rd, he broke his left thumb when he was hit by a foul tip off the bat of Austin Hays of the Chicago White Sox in the 10th inning. He had to undergo surgery, which put him out for an extended period. He finally returned to the active roster on June 12th. In his absence, rookie Brandon Valenzuela played much better than expected and dislodged Tyler Heineman as his main back-up. In his first at-bat after his returned, he doubled in a run off Ryan Weathers of the New York Yankees and later added two more hits and reached base four times in an 8-5 win.

Short and heavy-set, his body type is close to that of Willians Astudillo, who was also a catcher who struck out very rarely and put the ball in play to all fields. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to Wally the Green Monster. But Kirk is also considered a very solid defensive catcher with great game-calling instincts and pitch-framing skills. In fact, when MLB tested the robot umpire system in spring training in 2025, he showed that he had an incredible knack of judging whether balls were in the strike zone or not: he was correct on just about every one of his appeals to the video system, whether as a catcher or as a hitter.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2-time AL All-Star (2022 & 2025)
AL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2022)

Related Sites[edit]

Alejandro Kirk on mlb.com

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Alejandro Kirk

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