Blue Jays' Alejandro Kirk out to prove his worth beyond the batter's box

Time to learn some things about Alejandro Kirk. Time to see if everyone’s favourite cannonball catcher can not only barrel pitches all over the yard, not only operate with an ultra-marathoner’s resting heart rate under the extreme pressure of MLB competition, not only win hearts and minds with each smooth, bad-bodied swing that incredibly, impossibly, crosses the plate on plane, with pure force and balance, making big-league pitching look astonishingly unchallenging to square up. Time to learn what kind of career he could have.

Because we know he can hit. At least we believe he can. How could you believe anything else? How could you not buy in? Yes, last season’s .983 OPS was produced from a microscopic 25 plate-appearance sample. Yes, those were his only 25 occasions standing in a batter’s box above high-A. Yes, he doesn’t even have a full minor-league season to his name, having topped out at 92 games and 372 plate appearances in 2019, when he hit .290/.403/.465 with 55 walks versus 39 strikeouts against A-ball pitching. Yes, his track record is minute.

But if you’ve watched him play, you know. That’s all there is to it. There’s something different about young Kirk — something unique and unexplainable. And if his play doesn’t arouse hope in your heart then maybe being a baseball fan just isn’t for you.

Thing is, there’s so much more to big-league catching — which is why Kirk’s 2021 season ought to be so enlightening. Having won a Toronto Blue Jays roster spot outright with an undeniable spring training, the 22-year-old will be asked to regularly handle pitchers at a higher level of competition than he ever has before. To guide arms through challenging circumstances, velocity fluctuations, command inconsistency, physical maladies, uncooperative umpiring — and get them out the other side so they can continue cashing big-league cheques. To game-plan, game-call and game-manage for a team with post-season designs. To communicate effectively with pitchers, coaches and umpires in his second language. To pitch frame, block balls, control baserunners, save runs. To prove that his dart player’s physique — listed at 5-8, 265 pounds — can withstand the rigours of 162.

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“Kirky, in a short amount of time, has improved. The conversations that we have are solid. He asks good questions. He’s very composed and he’s very confident — which is great. And the language barrier has decreased,” Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker said prior to his team’s 3-1 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s kind of a work in progress for Kirky. But his confidence is growing. And that helps a lot when you’re calling a major-league game. When you’re struggling mentally, not sure, there’s some uncertainty — that can lead to some issues back there.”

And to that end, Sunday provided Kirk with his first true test. A regular-season debut. A rubber match in the Bronx coming off a pair of games that felt more like late September contests than early April ones. A pitcher on the mound in 25-year-old right-hander TJ Zeuch who, like Kirk, won himself a roster spot with an impressive spring, but, like Kirk, carried plenty of question marks into the day.

Zeuch is a throwback in today’s high-spin, high-velocity, high-strikeout era, predominantly featuring a low-90s sinker meant to find bats rather than miss them and produce soft, groundball contact as a result. It’s a fine formula when you’re locating, but a dangerous one if you’re up in the zone — particularly at a homer-happy offensive environment like Yankee Stadium, and particularly against a super-charged lineup like New York’s. When you aren’t out-stuffing anyone, confidence, trust and conviction are everything. And like Walker said, that begins with the guy behind the plate calling your pitches.

“I think any time you come to the big leagues, pitchers have a tendency to shy away from the aggressiveness and try to miss bats. And I think with (Zeuch), with the action on the ball, it’s a matter of trusting it and trusting the sink,” Walker said. “It’s tough to pitch in Yankee Stadium, there’s no doubt. But the big leagues are the big leagues. And the sooner you can get over that hump, the better.”

It was Kirk’s job to guide that process and who could deny the results? Zeuch scattered three hits and a walk over four innings Sunday, dodging some solid contact, watching some plays get made behind him and coming away from his outing without a run crossing the plate.

Kirk kept Zeuch moving quickly and unpredictably, starting the game’s first two batters with sinkers, its third with a changeup, its fourth with a cutter, its fifth with a sinker, its sixth with a cutter and its seventh with a sinker.

That carried Zeuch through two innings unscathed and into the third when he faced trouble for the first time, surrendering consecutive one-out singles. In that moment, Aaron Judge walking to the plate was the last sight anyone wanted to see. But Kirk and Zeuch followed a first-pitch sinker down and in with a well-located cutter up and away to get the imposing Yankees designated hitter to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

“We wanted to use the sinker on the extension side of the plate a lot because a lot of these guys like to hit the ball that’s coming down and in. But I think some of the bigger guys, you can get under their hands,” Zeuch said.

“And I think in that situation, two guys on, one out, big spot for a ground ball — that was the approach. Get in and then get away from him so he hits it off the end of his bat. And it worked out well for us and the defence did a great job turning the double play.”

Zeuch threw plenty of sinkers on the day, as he does, mixing in cutters and sliders to right-handed hitters, while deploying the odd changeup against lefties. His misses trended off the plate rather than over the heart of it, which is what you want. And considering the importance of working toward the bottom of the zone for a pitcher of his profile, Zeuch can come away from the afternoon satisfied with his pitch chart:

It’s always difficult to discern just how much credit a catcher is due for a fine pitching performance, but it’s safe to say Kirk is owed something here. Zeuch certainly wasn’t shaking Kirk off very often, and that he ran up seven swinging strikes on only 63 pitches speaks to a smart gameplan and keen in-game decision making from a young battery facing one of baseball’s most unforgiving lineups. Never mind the fact Kirk saved a run blocking a spiked Trent Thornton curveball with a runner on third in the fifth. Nor that he helped guide four Blue Jays relievers through 3.2 innings of scoreless relief behind Thornton

“Kirk’s great back there. Everything he put down, we were on the same page. If I did shake him off, he knew what I wanted to go to right away,” Zeuch said. “The way we talk to each other in dugout, the way we communicate — it’s great to just build confidence.”

Remember, that’s supposed to be the hard part for Kirk. That’s supposed to be where he’s behind. So, an 0-for-3 day with a walk while standing next to the plate is all well and good when considering the sound job Kirk did while crouched behind it.

As he stepped in for his first plate appearance in the top of the second, the Blue Jays had already taken Yankees starter Domingo German deep twice in the inning — first, a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opposite-field solo shot; second, a two-run Randal Grichuk bomb wrapped around the left field foul pole. If he was eager to join the party, Kirk didn’t show it. He patiently worked a 3-1 count, took what should have been ball four for a called strike, and then took another pitch off the plate to claim his six-pitch walk.

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His next time up, already facing a new pitcher in Yankees reliever Michael King, Kirk saw four more pitches and flew out to right. In his third trip, and his second look at King, he bounced out on the first pitch he saw. In his final plate appearance, facing King again in the ninth, Kirk got jammed and popped out on the infield.

Hey, not every day’s going to be a laser show. Those will come, you can bet. If you’ve watched him play, you know. What’s most important over the next six months is learning some new things about Kirk. About what he can do behind the plate, about how he can handle pitchers, about how far he’s come. About what kind of career he could have.

“Obviously, we know he can swing the bat, right? I mean, everybody’s seen that,” Walker said. “But I think defensively he’s improved on calling a game. He’s working well with our pitchers. All the things you need to see to add someone to the roster and to (have confidence in) giving you quality innings at the major-league level. It’s apparent with him. He’s checked the boxes up to this point.”

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