Alejandro Kirk’s Return May Cost One Blue Jays Catcher a Roster Spot
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Anybody who is following baseball this season is well aware of the riddled injury season that the Toronto Blue Jays are having, as seemingly no piece to the roster has been spared from the dreaded injured list.
There have been many that the Jays have been without since Opening Day, while others have been missing a long while, like the team's field general and man behind the plate, Alejandro Kirk.
Kirk is sitting on the 60-Day IL after he fractured his thumb back on April 3.
Now, Kirk won't be eligible to rejoin Toronto until June 4, but his progress is right on track, and he could be suiting up for some rehab games in the next week. This means a hard decision is coming as the team won't be housing three catchers.
Brandon Valenzuela is currently rocking a 112 wRC+ with a 12.3% walk rate to go along with the second highest fWAR on the team (1.1)... and that's on his "weakest" side of the ball.
— Damon (@Damon98_) May 29, 2026
THIS, is where he makes up most of his insanely valuable production from.
An absolute bazooka. pic.twitter.com/YqOsAeWfoH
Right now, a rookie and a veteran have been splitting catching duties as Brandon Valenzuela received his call-up to the majors when the Kirk news broke, joining Tyler Heineman on the roster, and who Toronto decides to move holds more power than some might think.
Valenzuela, on one hand, is thriving at the plate and is solid defensively, but is lacking in experience. Heineman is nowhere near the threat as an offensive weapon, but he can't be optioned to the minors, meaning the team would have to designate him for assignment.
Heineman and Valenzuela This Season
Offensively on the year, Valenzuela has a clear upper hand as he is hitting nearly .245 with an OPS of .737 compared to Heineman's under .150 batting average and an eye sore of an OPS. On top of that, Valenzuela is getting better and better as time goes on.
In the last month, Valenzuela's batting average has grown to nearly .280 to complement a .426 slugging percentage, while Heineman is trending in the opposite direction as the rookie with a slash line of .087/.160/.217 as he has two hits in 10 games.
Time and time again, both have shown off their arms to catch runners trying to steal, but Heineman, being an easy out for other teams when he is up to bat, is incredibly hard to ignore, especially with a team that is struggling to score runs.
It isn't going to be an easy call to make, but unless some sort of astronomical downhill slide happens for Valenzuela happens, or one of the two ends up with an injury that puts them on IL, it seems that it should be the rookie who stays when Kirk comes back.
The problem isn't here quite yet, but it is rapidly approaching.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.