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Alejandro Kirk continuing to step up for Blue Jays’ offence: ‘He’s probably our best player right now’
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Photo credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Thomas Hall
Jun 11, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 30, 2025, 06:16 EDT
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This is the best version of Alejandro Kirk that we’ve seen in quite some time.
Nearly three years removed from his lone All-Star selection, Kirk — who ranks second among major league catchers in fWAR (2.5) this season, trailing only Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (4.0) — appears primed to represent the Toronto Blue Jays at next month’s festivities in Atlanta with the way he’s performed on both sides of the ball lately.
The 26-year-old had to wait for his offensive results to arrive while suffering from batted-ball misfortune out of the gate. But since the calendar flipped to May, he’s been leading the charge for one of baseball’s hottest teams, hitting .393/.440/.545 with four home runs, 23 RBIs and a 180 wRC+ in 32 games since April 30.
For an offence currently battling injuries, with Anthony Santander and Daulton Varsho on the IL, and waiting for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s consistent power stroke to round into mid-season form, it’s been Kirk at the heart of Toronto’s 21-10 surge since May 8. And he was at it again Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Following Monday’s four-hit performance, the right-handed-hitting backstop added another three hits — recording his 18th multi-hit showing of 2025 — while blasting his second home run in as many games, crushing a 94.1-m.p.h. sinker to the opposite-field power alley for a two-run bomb that travelled 402 feet and produced a 104 m.p.h. exit velocity.
Kirk continues to rise to the occasion for the Blue Jays’ offence, and he raised his wRC+ to 129 (100 league average) on the season with another remarkable performance on Tuesday. He’s been one of the best-hitting catchers in the sport thus far, leading his position in AVG (.323) while sitting third in OBP (.366) and wRC+.
Though only two of his five batted balls Tuesday were hit hard (at least 95 m.p.h.), with both resulting in hits, he’s still positioned among the league leaders in hard-hit rate this season, as his career-high 56.5-per-cent clip sits fifth-highest — trailing the likes of Kyle Schwarber (57.7 per cent), James Wood (58.1 per cent), Oneil Cruz (60.9 per cent) and Shohei Ohtani (62.3 per cent).
Plenty of Kirk’s production has occurred during two-strike counts, and he’s arguably been the sport’s best hitter in those situations thanks to his MLB-leading .359 AVG, .402 OBP, .396 wOBA and 160 wRC+.
Of course, Kirk also stands among baseball’s elite defenders. Between his pitch framing, blocking and improved ability to control the running game, it makes perfect sense as to why his plus-10 fielding run value ranks in the 100th percentile of the majors — with Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong the only player, regardless of position, to record a higher value than Kirk.
“He’s probably our best player right now,” Chris Bassitt told reporters, including Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, after throwing seven innings in Tuesday’s 10-9 victory. “I don’t think that’s a stretch by any means. He doesn’t say a lot of words, but then all of a sudden he goes out there and plays some of the best defence, and his offence is off the charts right now. He’s carrying our team.”
It’s tough to imagine where the Blue Jays would be without Kirk performing at an elite level on offence and defence. What’s even more impressive is he’s delivering this all-around showing while enduring an uptick in usage — he’s on pace to play 131 games in ’25, his most in three years — during his first season as the club’s undisputed No. 1 catcher.
“I think he’s really taking a step forward in understanding how important he is to this team,” manager John Schneider said of Kirk on Monday, as relayed by MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. “We can say, ‘It’s just Kirky,’ but he understands that he’s a big part of it. He’s running the pitching staff. He’s getting big hits. Guys really feed off of that, too. He’s leaning into that. I love it.”
Kirk is setting the stage for the best performance of his six-year big-league career. Entering Wednesday’s series finale in St. Louis, which will be his 55th contest of the season, he’s already matched his home run total (five) from last season, sitting three shy of his ’23 total.
Toronto’s superstar catcher has also nearly eclipsed his 2.8 fWAR from a season ago, doing so in half as many games and putting him on track to serve as a four-win player for the second time in his career — quite a bargain considering he’s making just $4.6 million in ’25 before his five-year, $58-million extension kicks in next season.

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