Ranking the top 10 most important young players to the Blue Jays’ future

No. 4 - C Alejandro Kirk

Signed as an international free agent back in 2016 by the Jays, Kirk burst onto the scene with his rapid ascension from Single-A ball in 2019 right into the Jays’ major league roster in 2020. Quickly a fan favourite, Kirk showed great promise in his MLB debut, hitting .375 with an OPS of .983, with four runs scored, one home run and three RBI in just nine games played. From there, he has not looked back and has become a mainstay on the Jays’ roster for the past three years. He boasts a strong .272 average, .770 OPS, and an OPS+ of 118, with a consistent 1:1 walk to strikeout ratio throughout his four-year career with the Jays thus far, demonstrating great plate discipline. Although he has an impressive lifetime .993 fielding percentage as well, he can work on a bit on his defence in terms of catching baserunners, as he has caught only 21% of the basestealers to date.

But more importantly, with the Jays’ top catching prospect Gabriel Moreno being dealt away to the Arizona Diamondbacks this past offseason, along with the on and off struggles of Danny Jansen (who appears to have reverted somewhat back to his form prior to his breakout year in 2022), Kirk will be even more heavily relied upon to help the Jays’ team to success in the near future from the catching position. This hopefully will hold true despite his current struggles this season, as to put it into perspective, catching help won’t be coming any time soon as the Jays next closest top catching prospect in their organization is Luis Meza, who is only 18-years-old and is playing in Rookie Ball. So look for Kirk to be firmly planted in the catching position in tandem with Jansen for the Jays for at least the upcoming years.