The Toronto Blue Jays have signed catcher Alejandro Kirk to a five-year, $58-million US extension, the team announced Tuesday.
The 26-year-old from Tijuana, Mexico, hit .253 last season with five home runs and 54 runs batted in. Twenty-eight of his RBI came over the last two months of the season.
Defensively, threw out a career-high 27 attempted base stealers, fifth-most among catchers in Major League Baseball.
Kirk is due to make $4.6 million this season. Per MLB.com, this extension will buy out his final year of arbitration in 2026 and the four seasons that follow.
Kirk, 26, was due to hit free agency following the 2026 season.
“Kirky has elite mental attributes. Elite,” Blue Jays president and CEO Mark
Shapiro said. “He slows the game down as well as anybody I’ve seen. He reminds me of other great players I’ve seen. There’s almost nobody I can imagine I’d want to catch a [wicked] slider in the ninth inning with the tying run on third base or be up at the plate. He’s just going to be [steady].”
Kirk was an all-star and a Silver Slugger in 2022 when he batted .285 with 14 home runs and 63 RBI.
The Jays signed Kirk as a free agent out of Mexico in 2016 at the age of 17. He made his major league debut in 2020.
Kirk, considered an excellent pitch framer, was a Gold Glove finalist in 2023. Since 2022, Kirk leads all major-league catchers with 39 defensive runs saved while also amassing 25 catcher framing runs.
He has a career .264 average with 64 doubles, 36 home runs and 187 RBI in 434 total games.
