What Should We Expect from Alejandro Kirk in the 2025 Season?

 February is here and after a long offseason that means just one thing, spring training is here. Players start to report to camp and get back into the swing of things. However one Blue Jay spent the majority of his offseason at the Blue Jays player development complex in Dunedin. That player? Alejandro Kirk who usually spends the offseason at home in Mexico. 

Alejandro Kirk had an all star season in 2022, a season in which he would also win the silver slugger for catchers and cement himself as a key part in a Blue Jay catching duo of himself and Danny Jansen. However Kirk has struggled since the 2022 season and hasn't posted an OPS over 700 since his breakout season. However with Danny Jansen getting traded at the 2024 deadline and the Blue Jays not signing another catcher in free agency Kirk finds himself in a position to start 120+ games behind the plate. 

Kirk has always been a great defensive catcher, in the 2022 and 2023 seasons Kirk was above the 90th percentile on Baseball Savant for blocks above average, meaning he was really good at blocking balls in the dirt. While that number did go down a lot in 2024, into the 63rd percentile, theres no reason to believe this couldn't get better for Kirk because he's been great in the past. Kirk is also one of the best pitch framers in the game, Kirk is so good at framing pitches that he got future hall of fame pitcher Max Scherzer to challenge a pitch a foot below the zone. Kirk was also in the 97th percentile for caught stealing above average in 2024 a big improvement from the previous 2022 and 2023 seasons. In short Kirk is elite behind the plate.

Yes Kirk can catch at a high level, but I think most, if not all, people who watch Jays games knew that. The real question for a Jays line up that still feels desperate for offense, is what will Kirk do with the bat?

 While Kirk didn't have a great 2024 season there is some optimism to be found from the 2nd half after Danny Jansen was traded and Kirk found himself in a more permanent role his ops was over 700. Kirk like the previous 2 seasons also did't whiff or strikeout a lot which provides optimism because in the 2022 season where he posted a 127 OPS+ a lot of his hits were singles due to making a lot of contact. 

Yes in 2022 Kirk made harder contact that he did in 2023 and 2024, which is probably one of the main reasons he hasn't been able to have seasons similar to 2022. Kirk spent his offseason in Dunedin, at the Blue Jays player development complex, with access to the Blue Jays staff to help him progress. Kirk does look a bit slimmer and looks to have gotten stronger.  In fact in the Blue Jays first spring training game Kirk had the two hardest batted ball with one being 110.4 MPH and the other 109.6 MPH. While that was just one game in the Jays second game ha had two battered balls right around 100mph. This is really positive for Kirk and while yes, the blue jays have just played 5 spring training games, of which Kirk has played in 3, the early returns look positive. 

If Kirk continues to be great behind the dish in 2025 and the early hard hit balls aren't just flukes he's in for a big 2025 season. Kirk could very well make his second all star team, and around the deadline the Blue Jays are still in the playoff race he definitely would be having an amazing season with the bat, and if they aren't? The Jays could get a huge haul for him in a trade.