If all goes well, Alejandro Kirk could return to the Toronto Blue Jays&#8217; lineup when he&#8217;s first eligible on Sunday. 
Kirk continues to make steady progress after being placed on the seven-day concussion IL on Sunday, manager John Schneider told reporters in <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/07/30/toronto-blue-jays-gdb-110-0-blue-jays-lean-on-jose-berrios-halt-four-game-skid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baltimore prior to Wednesday&#8217;s series finale</a>. The 26-year-old catcher has recently increased his baseball activities and could be cleared to begin a triple-A rehab assignment on Saturday.
Assuming he checks all the boxes, the Blue Jays may opt to activate their everyday catcher for Sunday&#8217;s series finale versus the Kansas City Royals, as relayed by MLB.com&#8217;s Keegan Matheson.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Alejandro Kirk (concussion) is tentatively on track to play a game in Triple-A Saturday, which would put him on track to be activated Sunday if all goes well over the next few games. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlueJays</a>
&mdash; Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeganMatheson/status/1950575213676318807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
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With Kirk unavailable, Toronto recalled Ali Sánchez from the Bisons to serve as Tyler Heineman&#8217;s backup, and the duo have shared primary catching duties during the club&#8217;s four-game road series in Baltimore this week.
Heineman has been among this season&#8217;s biggest surprises, particularly at the plate, as he entered Wednesday&#8217;s contest sporting a sensational .343/.405/.520 slash line and 158 wRC+ (100 league average), albeit across a limited sample size of 119 plate appearances. Still, he&#8217;s already been worth a career-high 2.2 fWAR over 42 games.
There&#8217;s no replacement for what Kirk has provided thus far, though, <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&amp;lg=all&amp;type=8&amp;season=2025&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2025&amp;ind=0&amp;pos=c&amp;qual=250" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trailing only Will Smith (3.9) and Cal Raleigh (6.4) among major league catchers in fWAR</a> with his 3.4 rating.
Following consecutive underwhelming offensive showings, Kirk has enjoyed a resurgent performance at the plate this season, slashing .304/.361/.413 with seven home runs and a 117 wRC+ in 88 games. He&#8217;s also been the best two-strike hitter in baseball, leading the majors in AVG (.323) and wRC+ (130) in those situations.
That&#8217;s on top of what the two-time All-Star has brought defensively, ranking in the 82nd percentile in caught stealing above average (three), 98th in catcher framing runs (10) and 100th in blocks above average (14) and fielding run value (16), per <a href="https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/alejandro-kirk-672386?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baseball Savant</a>.
The Blue Jays also provided encouraging news regarding George Springer&#8217;s status after he was hit on the side of the head by a 96-m.p.h. sinker on Monday. While he&#8217;s likely unavailable off the bench for Wednesday&#8217;s finale, he should avoid the seven-day concussion IL if he continues improving through Thursday&#8217;s off-day.

If all goes well, Alejandro Kirk could return to the Toronto Blue Jays' lineup when he's first eligible on Sunday. 

Kirk continues to make steady progress after being placed on the seven-day concussion IL on Sunday, manager John Schneider told reporters in <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/07/30/toronto-blue-jays-gdb-110-0-blue-jays-lean-on-jose-berrios-halt-four-game-skid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baltimore prior to Wednesday's series finale</a>. The 26-year-old catcher has recently increased his baseball activities and could be cleared to begin a triple-A rehab assignment on Saturday.

Assuming he checks all the boxes, the Blue Jays may opt to activate their everyday catcher for Sunday's series finale versus the Kansas City Royals, as relayed by MLB.com's Keegan Matheson.

https://twitter.com/KeeganMatheson/status/1950575213676318807

With Kirk unavailable, Toronto recalled Ali Sánchez from the Bisons to serve as Tyler Heineman's backup, and the duo have shared primary catching duties during the club's four-game road series in Baltimore this week.

Heineman has been among this season's biggest surprises, particularly at the plate, as he entered Wednesday's contest sporting a sensational .343/.405/.520 slash line and 158 wRC+ (100 league average), albeit across a limited sample size of 119 plate appearances. Still, he's already been worth a career-high 2.2 fWAR over 42 games.

There's no replacement for what Kirk has provided thus far, though, <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&amp;lg=all&amp;type=8&amp;season=2025&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2025&amp;ind=0&amp;pos=c&amp;qual=250" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trailing only Will Smith (3.9) and Cal Raleigh (6.4) among major league catchers in fWAR</a> with his 3.4 rating.

Following consecutive underwhelming offensive showings, Kirk has enjoyed a resurgent performance at the plate this season, slashing .304/.361/.413 with seven home runs and a 117 wRC+ in 88 games. He's also been the best two-strike hitter in baseball, leading the majors in AVG (.323) and wRC+ (130) in those situations.

That's on top of what the two-time All-Star has brought defensively, ranking in the 82nd percentile in caught stealing above average (three), 98th in catcher framing runs (10) and 100th in blocks above average (14) and fielding run value (16), per <a href="https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/alejandro-kirk-672386?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baseball Savant</a>.

The Blue Jays also provided encouraging news regarding George Springer's status after he was hit on the side of the head by a 96-m.p.h. sinker on Monday. While he's likely unavailable off the bench for Wednesday's finale, he should avoid the seven-day concussion IL if he continues improving through Thursday's off-day.

Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk progressing well from concussion, could begin triple-A rehab assignment Saturday

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