A look at Alejandro’s 2024 season.
When Alejandro Kirk was coming up to the majors, we were told he was a bat-first catcher. He was solid with the bat but less solid with the glove.
In 2022, his first full season with the team, he had a .285/.372/.415 batting line, picking up a Silver Slugger, seemingly proving the ‘solid with the bat’ part, but it seems like, with each season, his defensive ability has improved. His bat, on the other hand, hasn’t always been great.
This year?
| Age | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 103 | 386 | 340 | 23 | 86 | 19 | 1 | 5 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 51 | .253 | .319 | .359 | .677 | 94 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
Baseball Reference has him at a 2.1 WAR (1.9 last year), FanGraphs at 2.8 (last year 2.3), and his value to the team at $22.4 million.
He had a .297 wOBA and a 94 wRC+ (last year .308 and a 96).
Alejandro’s BABIP was .276 (up from .265 last year).
His walk rate was 9.1% (down slightly from 10.0%). The strikeout rate was up, 13.2% from 10.7.
Kirk’s line-drive rate was up from last year (21.8% from 19.8). Ground ball rate down (45.3% from 50.2). The flyball rate was up (32.9% from 30.1). Fewer of his fly balls left the park (5.1% from 8.1).
Kirk’s soft contact was down slightly (16.1% from 16.7), and hard contact was up (34.2% from 30.7).
Kirk hit with more power against LHP (.228/.290/.402) but had a better batting average vs. RHP (.262/.329/.343).
He was much better at home (.262/.330/.401) than on the road (.244/.308/.316) for the second year in a row.
Kirk was better in the second half (.269/.328/.390) than in the first half (.234/.308/.323). He had the exact same BA in both the first half and second half as last year, which is a huge coincidence.
Kirk by month:
- April: .194/.282/354 with 1 home run, 9 walks and 11 strikeouts in 21 games.
- May: .286/.355/.393 with 0 home runs, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts in 9 games.
- June: .167/.256/.306/ with 1 home run, 4 walks and 7 strikeouts in 14 games.
- July: .321/.344/.377 with 0 home runs, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts in 15 games.
- August: .244/.330/.402/ with 3 home runs, 11 walks and 11 strikeouts in 24 games.
- September: .297/.342/.405 with 0 home runs, 5 walks and 11 strikeouts in 20 games.
It hit .252/.322/.369 with RISP.
Defensively?
He caught in 93 games and DHed in 6.
He had 7 errors for a .991 FA (league average .993).
Kirk threw out 31% of base stealers, which is much better than the league average of 22% (and better than his 18% of last year).
He was out there for 17 wild pitches and 7 passed balls (and countless one-knee rants). The Jays had the second-fewest wild pitches in the AL, one more than the Rays. He was sixth out of 27 catchers with 700 innings caught in framing. Three of the six ahead of him caught many more innings. He was 15 fielding runs above average, putting him second in the AL among catchers.
Baseball Savant had him fifth in baseball in framing (two Yankees catchers ahead of him). He was a plus 3 in ‘blocks above average’.
As a baserunner, Kirk was a -3.5 runs, which is 21st from the bottom among the 241 MLB hitters with more than 350 PA.
Where he hit in the order in games he started:
- 4th: 17 games
- 5th: 17 games.
- 6th: 32 games.
- 7th: 17 games.
- 8th: 10 games.
- 9th: 1 game.
The team was 42-52 in games he started. His longest hitting streak was 18 games, longest on base streak was 20 games. The longest he went without a home run was 26 games.
We must be impressed with the amount of work Alejandro has done to become one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. The Jays’ coaching staff deserves credit, too.
Our pitchers had a 4.12 ERA (in 766 innings) with Kirk behind the plate. With Jansen we had a 4.69 ERA (in 443 innings). With Serven a 4.15 ERA (182 innings). Heineman a 2.00 ERA (in 36 innings).
I’d like to think his hitting will improve. Sometimes, catchers spend too much time on the defensive side and have to spend much time in pitching conferences.
We do spend too much time on his lack of speed. Players all have weaknesses. One of his is speed.
I’m curious to see how his career progresses. I’d like to think his batting improves, but I don’t know how much more his defense can improve, but he seems like a hard worker.
We asked:
- If the over/under on Kirk’s games played is 115: 54% were right saying under.
- If the over/under on Kirk’s home runs is 12: 22% were right taking the under.
- Who catches more innings: Kirk or Jansen? 49% were right taking Kirk, but then Jansen was traded.