Give us your grade for Kirk’s first half of the season.
Alejandro Kirk is in his sixth season for the Blue Jays (though that first season, he only made it into nine games). We were told he was a bat-first catcher when he came up, but his glove wouldn’t be great. Until this year, he’s been a great glove/average bat catcher.
This year, his glove has been great and so has his bat:
| Season | Age | WAR | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | GIDP | HBP | SF | IBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | 1.6 | 63 | 251 | 232 | 19 | 71 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 26 | .306 | .347 | .431 | .778 | 115 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
On defense? He’s thrown out 31.1% of base stealers (league average is 22.6%). Baseball Savant has him at a +7 for Catcher Framing Runs, the best in baseball. FanGraphs has him with a 13 Fielding Run Value, which puts him at the top of all fielders in the major leagues.
He rates high in Blocks Above Average (100%), Caught Stealing Above Average 97%).
FanGraphs has him at a 2.7 WAR (19th in baseball). Baseball Reference has him at 1.6.
He has a 115 OPS+.
So far this month, he is hitting .329/.347/.557 with 4 home runs and 12 RBI in 17 games. Kirk had a slow start to the season, with just a .610 OPS at the end of April, but it has been .879 since the start of May.
He’s much better than last year on BABIP (.339 from .297).
Kirk is in the 91st percentile for average exit velocity at .92.6 and in the 98th percentile for hard hit percentage. As well, he’s at 96% for ‘squared up’ and 96% for strikeout percent.
His walk rate is down from last year (6.0% from 9.1, but then he’s never walked a lot). His strikeout rate is also down (10.4% from 13.2).
His only real negative is sprint speed (2%) (and that he doesn’t walk much).
Let’s have the poll: