4 Blue Jays who need to come up big to help carry the team into the playoffs

Alejandro Kirk

After having a breakout season last year with the Jays in becoming a first-time All-Star along with capturing his first ever Silver Slugger award, Alejandro Kirk has had quite the disappointing follow-up season this year. His overall numbers have dropped off somewhat from his previous year’s totals, consequently leading to his decrease in playing time as well.

However, back in early September when catching tandem partner Danny Jansen went down what ultimately turned out to be a season-ending injury to his finger. As a result, Kirk was once again thrusted back into the spotlight as he would be relied upon heavily to help carry the load at the catcher position and the entire Jays’ pitching staff down the stretch. With all due respects to Tyler Heineman, Kirk needs to be the difference maker for the Jays for them to have a chance to reach the postseason and beyond.

So far, the results have been underwhelming, as since overtaking as the team’s starting catcher on September 2nd, Kirk has only eight hits in 49 plate appearances, with 11 walks and seven strikeouts and only one RBI to show for prior to Tuesday’s game. As a result, Kirk will definitely need to finally show that he can produce in the biggest moments of the season, like how he finally homered for the first time since July against the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. So hopefully that is his first step towards providing valuable contributions to the team in these final two weeks.