Context: Just How Good Has Alejandro Kirk Been?

Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo is running out of good things to say about Alejandro Kirk. Choose a positive superlative, and the Toronto skipper has described Kirk as that this year.

The Blue Jays catcher has been one of the best backstops in baseball in 2022, slamming hanging pitches, cashing All-Star votes, and climbing Toronto's franchise leaderboards.

To put into context just how good Kirk has been almost halfway through 2022, we broke down how he compares to his positional peers and where his season ranks next to the best catching season in Blue Jays history:

Relative To His 2022 Peers

Here are just a few of the many statistics Kirk currently leads all MLB catchers in: fWAR, batting average, on-base percentage, strikeout rate, win-probability added, and wRC+.

His blistering 60-game stretch isn't some unsustainable aberration either, as the expected stats back up the on-field results. Kirk’s .321 expected batting average (the best in baseball among catchers) is actually higher than his current mark of .307 and he's inching closer to that xBA after starting the season on the schneid.

Kirk hit .245 without a single extra-base hit in April, but in the last month only Yordan Alvarez has posted a higher wRC+ or WAR amongst all AL hitters. Kirk's .370 batting average in the last 30 days is the sixth-best in baseball and one of three Blue Jay hitters ranking in the top 20 (Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Teoscar Hernández).

Kirk has played in 60 of the 69 games for Toronto this season. If he continues that pace of play and production for the remainder of the year, he’ll finish with the 17th highest fWAR in Major League Baseball. The only other catcher on pace for over 5.0 fWAR is Chicago’s Wilson Contreras and the next-best AL backstop, Jose Trevino, is on pace for 4.6. Below are top catchers by fWAR pace, this season:

The offensive production is undeniable, and puts him in a category with some of the best Blue Jay catchers ever (more on that later), but Kirk has also made significant defensive strides, too.

Kirk is top three in baseball in defensive runs saved and in catcher framing metrics, and one of just four backstops to catch at least 300 innings this year without a passed ball. His caught-stealing rate is the best of his career and 10% better than average and his catcher ERA is tops on the Blue Jays.

While 19 of Kirk's 54 starts have come at designated hitter this year, it's more a strategy to save his legs and keep the bat in the lineup than an inditement on defense. Regardless of what stats you choose to fit your narrative, Kirk has been a complete catcher in 2022, and probably the best in baseball.

Relative To Blue Jays Historical Catchers

Kirk could not play a game for the rest of the season and he'd already have the 12th-best season by a Toronto catcher in fWAR, ever. There isn't the longest history of bat-first backstops in Blue Jays lore, but Kirk's 2022 season, so far, blows away any offensive season from a Toronto catcher we've ever seen.

Using wRC+, an offensive run production stat that adjusts for ballpark and era, we can see that Kirk has been 23% better than any other hitting catcher in Blue Jays history so far this season. Take into account defense and total value, and Kirk's season relative to his Toronto peers looks even better.

Kirk probably won't reach 141 games played, but even if he sits at 110 (30 fewer than his current pace) he's still en route to post the best fWAR season by a catcher in franchise history.

Only three Blue Jays catchers ever have posted over 3.0 fWAR in a season, and Kirk is already a half-win away from besting that mark. Kirk's value in the last 30 days alone (1.9 fWAR) would be a top 20 catching season in Toronto franchise history.

There's a lot of baseball left to be played, but Kirk's name will be at the top of Toronto's single-season catching record books at the end of this season. The only question at this point is how high.