<p>It&#8217;s Alejandro Kirk&#8217;s world, and we are just living in it.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays&#8217; backstop has been on a tear lately, and not just from his at-bats. He&#8217;s doing it on both sides of the coin, and the Jays are benefitting from everything he has put forward so far in the 2025 season.</p>
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<p>The Mexican native has been the spark plug for the Jays on numerous occasions this season, and last night was no different. He was the key factor defensively, first by throwing out Chandler Simpson at second base in the top of the third inning. In the following play, Brandon Lowe laced a double to right field that would have easily scored Simpson and put the Jays in an early deficit. Later, he drove a Ryan Pepiot middle-middle fastball over the centre field wall to give the Jays a 3-1 lead, a 407-foot blast that scored three runs and was all that was needed to lock down the win.</p>
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<p>&#8220;I thought we hit some balls early and some mistake pitches we were just missing,&#8221; said manager John Schneider, &#8220;An 0-2 fastball that&#8217;s middle-middle, he (Kirk) did not miss it. That&#8217;s just a huge swing in the game.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kirk wasn&#8217;t perfect, as a throwing error on a stolen base attempt in the fourth put Christopher Morel on third, but he was going to score anyway had he stolen the bag, as Kameron Misner put a ball into the outfield right after for a single. But he went 2 for 4 on the day and took some really good swings at the ball to put the Blue Jays ahead when the dust settled.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Blue Jays Alejandro Kirk is batting an AL-best .339 with 2 strikes<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LightsUpLetsGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LightsUpLetsGo</a> <a href="https://t.co/ye0E2mhi0l">pic.twitter.com/ye0E2mhi0l</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) <a href="https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1922820870751260825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;For him to hit the ball that part of the field, that hard, is really encouraging,&#8221; said Schneider, speaking on Kirk&#8217;s heroics last night. &#8220;That position is so physically and mentally demanding. One of his best traits is that he&#8217;s just &#8216;right here&#8217;; he doesn&#8217;t really get high or low. He&#8217;s just cool and calm&#8230; It&#8217;s hard to do that, it&#8217;s hard to digest the gameplan, it&#8217;s hard to catch Chris Bassitt, it&#8217;s hard to block Brendon Little&#8217;s curveball, and it&#8217;s hard to go hit. He&#8217;s doing all of that.&#8221;</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time Kirk has played hero this season.</p>
<p>In the April 30th game against the Boston Red Sox, Kirk walked to the plate with bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth inning and laced a single to left field, winning the game on his bobblehead night. He was 2 for 5 on the day, adding a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.</p>
<p>&#8220;With that at-bat, I just wanted to be timed up with his fastball,&#8221; said Kirk, speaking through an interpreter about last night&#8217;s home run off Pepiot. &#8220;He has a good fastball, and he throws that fastball regardless of the count, and he left it right down the middle.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kirk is certainly doing his part, with the backstop producing a .407/.429/.556 slash line through his last seven games and 27 at-bats, collecting 11 hits that include last night&#8217;s home run and four RBIs. He also walked once while striking just two times during the stint.</p>
<p>Kirk&#8217;s season totals are now sitting at .293/.318/.398 with a .716 OPS, as the right-handed batter has produced 36 hits, seven of which have been for extra bases.</p>
<p>&#8220;Very happy, very proud moment,&#8221; said Kirk.&#8221;With the times right now, everybody&#8217;s doing their part, and I am happy that I could make that moment for my time today.&#8221;</p>
<p>On the defensive side of the game, Kirk has been lauded for his work behind the plate in terms of blocking and pitch framing, but he&#8217;s made massive strides with his arm as well. He&#8217;s improved his pop time by over .05 seconds compared to last season (1.95 versus 2.00) and after throwing out just 18.1% of base stealers in 2023, he&#8217;s improved over the years to rank in the higher percentiles with his arm, tossing out 31% and now 33.3% of base stealers in 2024 and 2025, respectively.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Alejandro Kirk Caught Stealing %<br />2020-23: 20%<br />2024: 31%<br />2025: 36%</p>
<p>Average pop time is 1.96 seconds this yr but it&#39;s the accuracy of his throws that stands out. Every time, right on the money. Worth pointing out almost (if not) every successful SB attempt is completely on pitcher <a href="https://t.co/Kxy6cA8W1i">pic.twitter.com/Kxy6cA8W1i</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Chris Black (@DownToBlack) <a href="https://twitter.com/DownToBlack/status/1916122127339503630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>He<a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?qual=y&amp;stats=fld&amp;pos=c&amp;sortcol=17&amp;sortdir=default&amp;pagenum=1"> ranks first</a> within the American League with nine runners thrown out while only allowing 18 stolen bases during that span.</p>
<p>&#8220;Going back to the offseason of 23, he put a lot of emphasis into his throwing and arm strength, as well as accuracy,&#8221; said Schneider, speaking on Kirk&#8217;s throwing. &#8220;The thing with catching, you have to be accurate for things to happen, and he&#8217;s checked that off as well as improving his arm strength. I know he&#8217;s up there in terms of framing and blocking, I think he&#8217;s doing a good job of understanding what he&#8217;s good at and using his skills accordingly. I&#8217;ve been really impressed with his throwing, it&#8217;s not as easy as what he makes it look like.&#8221;</p>
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It's Alejandro Kirk's world, and we are just living in it.

The Blue Jays' backstop has been on a tear lately, and not just from his at-bats. He's doing it on both sides of the coin, and the Jays are benefitting from everything he has put forward so far in the 2025 season.



The Mexican native has been the spark plug for the Jays on numerous occasions this season, and last night was no different. He was the key factor defensively, first by throwing out Chandler Simpson at second base in the top of the third inning. In the following play, Brandon Lowe laced a double to right field that would have easily scored Simpson and put the Jays in an early deficit. Later, he drove a Ryan Pepiot middle-middle fastball over the centre field wall to give the Jays a 3-1 lead, a 407-foot blast that scored three runs and was all that was needed to lock down the win.
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"I thought we hit some balls early and some mistake pitches we were just missing," said manager John Schneider, "An 0-2 fastball that's middle-middle, he (Kirk) did not miss it. That's just a huge swing in the game."

Kirk wasn't perfect, as a throwing error on a stolen base attempt in the fourth put Christopher Morel on third, but he was going to score anyway had he stolen the bag, as Kameron Misner put a ball into the outfield right after for a single. But he went 2 for 4 on the day and took some really good swings at the ball to put the Blue Jays ahead when the dust settled.

https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1922820870751260825

"For him to hit the ball that part of the field, that hard, is really encouraging," said Schneider, speaking on Kirk's heroics last night. "That position is so physically and mentally demanding. One of his best traits is that he's just 'right here'; he doesn't really get high or low. He's just cool and calm... It's hard to do that, it's hard to digest the gameplan, it's hard to catch Chris Bassitt, it's hard to block Brendon Little's curveball, and it's hard to go hit. He's doing all of that."

This isn't the first time Kirk has played hero this season.

In the April 30th game against the Boston Red Sox, Kirk walked to the plate with bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth inning and laced a single to left field, winning the game on his bobblehead night. He was 2 for 5 on the day, adding a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.

"With that at-bat, I just wanted to be timed up with his fastball," said Kirk, speaking through an interpreter about last night's home run off Pepiot. "He has a good fastball, and he throws that fastball regardless of the count, and he left it right down the middle."

Kirk is certainly doing his part, with the backstop producing a .407/.429/.556 slash line through his last seven games and 27 at-bats, collecting 11 hits that include last night's home run and four RBIs. He also walked once while striking just two times during the stint.

Kirk's season totals are now sitting at .293/.318/.398 with a .716 OPS, as the right-handed batter has produced 36 hits, seven of which have been for extra bases.

"Very happy, very proud moment," said Kirk."With the times right now, everybody's doing their part, and I am happy that I could make that moment for my time today."

On the defensive side of the game, Kirk has been lauded for his work behind the plate in terms of blocking and pitch framing, but he's made massive strides with his arm as well. He's improved his pop time by over .05 seconds compared to last season (1.95 versus 2.00) and after throwing out just 18.1% of base stealers in 2023, he's improved over the years to rank in the higher percentiles with his arm, tossing out 31% and now 33.3% of base stealers in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

https://twitter.com/DownToBlack/status/1916122127339503630

He<a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?qual=y&amp;stats=fld&amp;pos=c&amp;sortcol=17&amp;sortdir=default&amp;pagenum=1"> ranks first</a> within the American League with nine runners thrown out while only allowing 18 stolen bases during that span.

"Going back to the offseason of 23, he put a lot of emphasis into his throwing and arm strength, as well as accuracy," said Schneider, speaking on Kirk's throwing. "The thing with catching, you have to be accurate for things to happen, and he's checked that off as well as improving his arm strength. I know he's up there in terms of framing and blocking, I think he's doing a good job of understanding what he's good at and using his skills accordingly. I've been really impressed with his throwing, it's not as easy as what he makes it look like."

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Alejandro Kirk shines in latest Blue Jays’ victory

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