Blue Jays' Alejandro Kirk earns ridiculously high defensive praise amid improvements

Mainly renowned for his bat when coming up from the Toronto Blue Jays system, Alejandro Kirk has come a long way with his defense since making his debut in the majors in 2020. More remarkably, Kirk has even become one of the best defensive catchers in the league in recent years, despite not yetn being recognized with a Gold Glove Award for his accomplishments.

But his efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, as Mike Petriello of MLB.com recently released his list of the best defensive players in the league on the MLB Network. The Blue Jays star catcher finds himself among the top 10 in the entire league regardless of position, comfortably in the No. 7 spot. More noteworthy is the fact that Kirk was only one of three players on the list that has yet to win a Gold Glove, along with Denzel Clarke of the Athletics and Jacob Young of the Washington Nationals.

MLB Network regards Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk as one of the best defensive players regardless of position 

When it comes to Kirk’s defensive accomplishments with the Blue Jays, he certainly ranks up there with the elite in MLB. In just six seasons with Toronto, the 27-year-old catcher has posted a stellar .993 fielding percentage with only 27 errors and 15 total passed balls over that time frame. On top of that, Kirk has accumulated 45 Defensive Runs Saved, along with a solid 22.7% caught-stealing success rate for his career. 

Moreover, taking a look at his advanced defensive statistics this past season, Kirk ranked in the 100th percentile in the league with 21 Blocks Above Average and in the 98th percentile in framing, according to Baseball Savant. Let’s just say that with the star catcher behind the plate, the Blue Jays don’t need to worry much about giving away too many free runs to the opposition. 

Having someone that can give you stellar defense day in and day out, while adding some big-time offense to boot, is everything the Jays could ask for behind the plate. Kirk is coming off one of his best season in the majors in 2025 when he posted a .282 average, .769 OPS, 45 runs scored, 18 doubles, 15 home runs and 76 RBI in 130 games played.

Don’t forget that the Blue Jays are also currently fielding a team that consist of many Gold Glove winners, including most recently Daulton Varsho, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Andrés Giménez and Myles Straw. Kirk being ranked in MLB.com’s top 10 defensive players while his award-winning teammates missed the cut speaks volumes on the substantial impact the Jays star catcher could bring with his glove. With Kirk in the Blue Jays' defensive mix, Toronto can clearly say they have one of the top defenses in the entire league.