Alejandro Kirk is giving 2022 flashbacks as he continues to swing a hot bat

Alejandro Kirk came into the month of August with an underwhelming slashline of .239/.305/.321 with an OPS of just .626, seemingly approaching the last two months of the season with nothing left to lose. His 2024 campaign was looking like it would be one to forget, as he failed to live up to his previous successes. Over the last month, however, Kirk has swung the bat incredibly well and has Blue Jays fans reminiscing about his career-best performance in 2022.

Kirk's 2022 season gave Blue Jays fans plenty of food for thought about his potential in this league, as he put all other teams on notice of his tremendous skillset behind the plate. On an American League All-Star team that saw six different Jays receive roster spots, Kirk represented Toronto on the biggest stage as the AL's starting catcher for the Midsummer Classic. He brought more than just popularity though, and his stats back that up more than handily.

Sporting a line of .285/.372/.415 with an OPS of nearly .800 in 2022, the Jays' backstop led all qualified AL catchers in virtually all offensive statistics. Oh, and he walked more than he struck out, something that is rarely achieved in the modern state of MLB where swings and misses are at an all-time high. His 10.7% strikeout rate ranked in the 98th percentile of all hitters in 2022, exemplifying his ability to make contact at an amazingly consistent rate. He was rewarded for his outstanding performance at season's end with a Silver Slugger Award at the catcher position, cementing him among the league's best.

In 2024, Kirk similarly ranks in the 95th percentile in strikeout rate at a 13.1% clip and has walked at a rate slightly below that at 9.7%. As mentioned earlier, Kirk's numbers heading into August didn't provide much hope for Jays fans, especially in the standard counting stats. Before August, he only slugged two home runs and drove in a measly 26 runs with only 11 of his 44 hits going for extra bases.

Baseball-Reference notes that Kirk only saw a BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) of .261, well below the league average of approximately .300. This means that he's seeing an unusually high amount of in-play outs than what his average exit velocities and launch angles might indicate for his balls in play. In other words, his batted balls resulted in hits less often than sabermetrics expected them to. Now that you've heard how much he struggled heading into August, let's see what the last month had in store for the young catcher.

Thus far in August, Kirk has improved on his season stats, slashing .243/.329/.405 over 22 games, notching three home runs, three doubles, and 15 RBI over this stretch. This proves to be very positive for the Blue Jays' perspective on what many might consider a 'lost season', especially taking into account the Jays' 14-11 record in August, their first month of the season with more wins than losses. Having Kirk's resurgent bat in the lineup over the last month has proven to be a beacon of success for the Jays, especially following the departure of Danny Jansen in a trade with the Boston Red Sox. Toronto needed a solid backstop and Kirk's given them just that.

It's also important to take a look at what might be Kirk's most valuable asset - his defense. Among players with a minimum of 500 innings worth of defense in 2024, Alejandro ranks 11th league-wide in fielding run value, a metric used by Baseball Savant to put all defenders on the same scale. What's even better is that Kirk only sits behind one other catcher in this category: Patrick Bailey of the San Francisco Giants, who coincidentally leads all of MLB. Kirk also sits above the 81st percentile in blocks above average, runners caught stealing, and pitch framing, and is one of the only catchers in 2024 to rank among the best in all of these statistics.

It's safe to say that despite his early offensive struggles in 2024, Kirk's defense has always been top-notch and a Gold Glove Award might be in his near future. Now that his bat's picked up the slack, he could turn his entire season around with another strong month. This would also put Toronto in a great position heading into a 2025 season in which they see themselves contending for the playoffs. Alejandro Kirk has shown over the last month that it's important to not forget about the potential a player might have and that this team's ceiling is certainly higher than what many might think.