Alejandro Kirk is taking his opportunity as starting catcher and running with it

Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk has been seeing a lot of the field lately, and he’s taking advantage of his increased playing time by going on a heater like we haven’t seen for a while. Since catching partner Danny Jansen was traded to the Boston Red Sox on July 27, Kirk has collected 13 hits in 29 at-bats (.448), with a pair of doubles, a homer, and eight RBI.

It’s just the kind of response the team hoped to get from Kirk, who is in a position to be a mainstay behind the plate for the next several years. The last two weeks mark the first time in his career that Kirk didn’t have Jansen as a teammate, and he is ready for the increased workload.

This hot streak is the opposite of what happened at the beginning of the season when Jansen was still recovering from a fractured finger and missed the first two-plus weeks.  During that stretch, the 25-year-old hit just .200 (10-50), with one extra-base hit while playing the lion’s share of the reps at catcher.

Perhaps he’s feeling less pressure now with the club firmly out of the playoff race and there has been a more relaxed feel to the Jays since the trade deadline. They’ve played some decent baseball of late while keeping an eye on 2025 and players who could help the organization move forward. Joey Loperfido, Ernie Clement, and Spencer Horwitz are in that category. Kirk has improved upon a disappointing season and proved he can be the main guy in a successful catching tandem.

The Blue Jays will look to bring in a veteran in the James McCann mold (or perhaps even Jansen himself) to share the backstop position next season, but Kirk could still receive about 60% of the playing time with a strong finish to 2024. His latest hot streak has brought his overall numbers closer to respectability. The Tijuana native is now sitting at a .245 average with 10 doubles, three home runs, 32 RBI, and a .647 OPS (85 OPS+). He’s also throwing out a career-best 27% of would-be base-stealers.

Those may not look like great numbers, and they’re not, but much better than the .206 average/.587 OPS Kirk had at the end of June. His huge three-run homer was the catalyst in the Jays’ 5-2 win over Baltimore on Tuesday night and his first big fly since June 10. Kirk’s diminishing power has been a storyline over the last few years. After a 4.2 HR% in 2021 (8 HR in 189 plate appearances), Kirk dropped to 2.6 HR% in 2022 (despite a career-high 14 homers), 1.9 in 2023, and 1.3 this season. He may never be a huge power hitter but seeing him hit the ball hard and in the air more often has been a welcome sight for Jays’ fans.