Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk is underrated and underappreciated by baseball fans.

It seems the consensus with a lot of Blue Jays fans is that Alejandro Kirk is out of shape, a 'barrel with arms and legs' I've heard some ignorant fans say. Or that he is short and slow and hits into too many double plays because of his lack of speed.

While the fact that he is slow is true, I've got news for those fans, there are a lot of catchers that run slow or for average speed at best.

The truth is in a 166 at bats this year Kirk is hitting .301 with 50 hits, 3 home runs, 23 RBI and an OPS of .736. Those are solid offensive numbers so far in 2025.

He is having his best season offensively since he was an All-Star and Silver Slugger in 2022.

Alejandro Kirk is one of baseball's best defensive catchers. He's tied with San Francisco Giants backstop Patrick Bailey atop Baseball Savant's fielding run value at plus-eight.

He's among the top 10 percentile in catcher blocking, caught stealing and framing.

But if you ask Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, there's an aspect of Kirk's defensive game that doesn't get enough love.

The issue with game-calling evaluation is it's impossible to quantify.

Baseball's defensive metrics have come a long way in the last decade, but we still can't capture a catcher's ability to deviate from preset game plans, read batters' swings and earn the trust of pitchers.

Toronto's second catcher, Tyler Heineman, said he looks at ERA and strikeout-to-walk ratios with catchers behind the plate to evaluate game calling but laments the lack of a definitive metric.

Really, those numbers speak more to the talent of a pitching staff than the calling of a catcher.

Internally, the Jays assess game calling with «after-action reports,» manager John Schneider said, going back over pitch choices to understand why calls were made and whether they were justified.

Kirk's catcher ERA is 3.99, just below the Blue Jays' overall ERA. Kirk has posted a catcher ERA below Toronto's team norm in each of the last four seasons, but Heineman notices his teammate's game-calling improvements in other ways.

More and more, Kirk will step out in front of the plate to give «signs» when he's really just giving his pitcher a needed breather.

He's also getting faster at deciding on pitch choices with a clock counting down, Heineman said, and finding spots for mound visits.

For Gausman, the improvement manifests when Kirk turns to the PitchCom transmitter on his knee.

Kirk has caught 367 games for the Jays over the last five years, with Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berrios as rotation staples for most of his career.

Familiarity with those three helped Kirk learn when his pitchers' offerings are especially locked and when he's got to alter the plan.

This is why the Blue Jays front office made it a priority to lock up Alejandro Kirk to a five-year $85 million contract extension.

Do you think it was smart for the Blue Jays to lock up Alejandro Kirk for the next five years?

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