TORONTO -- How could you not love Alejandro Kirk? All of Toronto already does, but after his performance in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday, the rest of the baseball world is about to climb on board.
Even as a two-time All-Star and one of the best catchers in the Majors, Kirk has too long been viewed as more of a curiosity than a catcher. At a glance, Kirk looks unlike any other player in the big leagues. He’s a mystery, even to some of his own teammates, rarely raising his voice above a murmur, rarely letting us see an ounce of emotion.
Well, here he is. When you launch two home runs to help beat the Yankees and give the Blue Jays their first postseason win since 2016, that’s all over. Kirk, who might just be the hottest hitter on the planet right now, feels like the postseason star who can push this entire organization over the top. He joined José Bautista (2, 2015 AL Championship Series Game 6), Danny Jansen (2, 2020 AL Wild Card Game 2) and Teoscar Hernández (2, 2022 AL Wild Card Game 2) as the only Blue Jays to log multi-HR games in the postseason.
Sitting at the podium following Toronto’s 10-1 win at Rogers Centre, even Kirk, always so reserved, cracked a smile thinking about what this meant to him.
“Huge, huge. This means a lot to me,” Kirk said through a club interpreter. “To my teammates, to my family, and I believe, as an organization, it was a great victory. I feel like we really need this victory tonight.”
Kirk is one of the best development stories in Blue Jays history, a catcher found in Mexico by scouts who were there to watch someone else entirely. He was signed for just $30,000 -- pennies compared to what the top signings get -- and player development staff and coaches have stretched to explain Kirk as a baseball player every step of the way. Sure, he doesn’t look like Aaron Judge, but just watch this kid play.
Kirk is a cult hero in Canada, beloved by fans who love an unlikely hero and by teammates who have slowly gotten to know the 26-year-old who doesn’t seem to have a heartbeat. When Kirk was rounding the bases on each of his home runs on Saturday, 44,655 fans screaming around him, his heart rate wouldn’t have budged. Kirk has what even this game’s great players dream of, which is an ability to breathe and control everything around him.
“He’s lights-out,” Nathan Lukes said. “It's what he's doing just from that Tampa Bay series on, that's just unheard of. But he's rolling. I’m glad he's rolling, and we're in a good spot.”
Make it five home runs in the past three games for Kirk, who also launched two in the Blue Jays’ 13-4 win over the Rays in Game 162 to clinch the AL East. That was the biggest game of Kirk’s career ... until the next one.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still the face of this Toronto franchise and the importance of George Springer’s renaissance cannot be overstated, but Kirk is part of the concrete foundation here. Without Kirk, the Blue Jays just aren’t the Blue Jays.
This is the exact type of offense the Blue Jays need to roll with, too, as they face life without Bo Bichette (left knee sprain) for at least the ALDS. It’s all hands on deck, and Saturday night, Kirk was holding on tight.
“That's how we've done it all year,” manager John Schneider said. “You get to the postseason, you never know who it's going to be. You circle big names, and a lot of times it's guys that are just steady and they continue to do what they've done all year, but that was kind of the blueprint of what we've done all year.”
Success on this stage is new to nearly everyone on this roster outside of Springer. This win was the biggest moment of both Guerrero’s and Kirk’s careers, but almost by default, given that neither had been part of a postseason win before.
More lies ahead, though, if Kirk keeps playing like this, and if he keeps doing this against the Yankees, the baseball world will learn quickly that Kirk is one of the most important players left in this postseason.