As if there aren’t enough gadgets in Baseball Savant’s tool belt already, now there’s a new toy for baseball nerds to play with. MLB unveiled their Bat-Tracking Leaderboard yesterday, and many were quick to notice how the Toronto Blue Jays ranked against their competitors.
Over the years, analysts have developed new metrics to evaluate player performance, including defence. Let’s review some of these new-ish catcher-related metrics and assess Toronto’s catchers’ performance in 2023 and 2024.
It’s time to discuss Alejandro Kirk… again. After a great performance on Sunday, where he went 3-3 with his first home run of the season, the Blue Jays’ catcher is now slashing .206/.297/.270 with two extra-base hits in 74 plate appearances, along with a 12.2 BB% and a 13.5 K% for a 70 wRC+.
Maybe the Baby Blue jerseys are the answer to all the Blue Jays’ problems. On Sunday afternoon, the Blue Jays salvaged the final game of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, defeating the Shohei Ohtani-led team 3-1.
Similar to the starting pitching situation, the Toronto Blue Jays run-back the same catching duo in 2024 with Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk. The performance
TORONTO — Perhaps it was a bit ironic, and also apropos, that catcher Alejandro Kirk had arguably the best overall game of his season on the same night his backstop counterpart, Danny Jansen, was finally reinstated from the injured list.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Toronto Blue Jays have been hot and cold in hitting with runners-in-scoring-position. That was a key deficiency with last year’s offence, which finished tied for 12th in AVG (.260) and 14th in wRC+ (102) but 23rd in SLG (.390) across the majors.
It looks like the Toronto Blue Jays will soon be getting some reinforcements to their active roster. According to TSN’s Scott Mitchell, relievers Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson are expected to pitch for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Thursday.
Back home and back in the win column. On Monday evening, the Blue Jays played their first home game of the season, hosting the Seattle Mariners and defeating them 5-2.
After being no-hit and one-hit in a matter of three days last week, the Blue Jays hoped to find a little more success in the Bronx over the weekend. A tie-breaking and ultimately game-winning home run from Ernie Clement led them to a victory on Friday, but the final two games of the series were filled with “There it goes!
Bad news, the Blue Jays lost the rubber match against the Yankees. Good news, the road trip from hell is over. The Blue Jays played their 10th and final game on the road to start the year against the Yankees, falling 8-3 to the Bronx Bombers.
Toronto, we have a problem. On Wednesday evening, the Blue Jays played the rubber match of the three game series against the Houston Astros, and it didn’t go great, as Toronto fell 8-0.
The Blue Jays split their first series of the year, right on par with expectations. Not great. Not terrible. There were shining moments, like Toronto’s clutch hitting (hallelujah!).
Thursday was a great day for the Blue Jays. The same cannot be said for Friday. In the second game of a four-game series, the Toronto Blue Jays lost 8-2 to the Tampa Bay Rays, bringing their record to 1-1.
For the second straight day, the Blue Jays blew a lead leading to a loss. On Wednesday afternoon, the Blue Jays headed North Port, Florida to take on the Atlanta Braves.
The Baltimore Orioles have once again picked up another win over the Toronto Blue Jays. On Tuesday afternoon, the Orioles defeated the Blue Jays 13-8, leaving the Blue Jays with an 11-12 record with two ties during Spring Training.
The Blue Jays have endured a complicated few weeks. On one hand, the overall dullness surrounding the team’s unspectacular offseason has been levied by the Joey Votto show – a homer here, a quip there – and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s epic spring showing (1.186 OPS).
For the second straight Sunday, the Toronto Blue Jays had a split-squad game. Unlike last Sunday, the Blue Jays won one of the games, while the other game was a tie.
That’s now two straight wins for the Toronto Blue Jays! On Tuesday afternoon, the Jays hosted the New York Yankees in Dunedin, defeating their division rival 8-1.
Kirk took a Jon Gray fastball off his hand during Sunday's loss to the Rangers. He came out of the game, with Danny Jansen hopping in behind the plate.
The ability to put a quality backup behind the plate can be a big boost for MLB teams. Here are the teams with the best catching situations heading into the 2023 season.
Entering the offseason, there were several high-profile catchers available for teams seeking upgrades — and the list of teams in search of an upgrade was quite long.
Blackburn said he noticed while on the mound that Kirk of the (his battery mate for the day) was calling for nothing but inside fastballs with Pujols at the plate.
Kirk exited the Blue Jays’ game on May 1 early after apparently sustaining the injury while running down the line after hitting a ball that narrowly went foul.
Rival teams have taken notice of Kirk, with the Pirates and Indians both trying to acquire the catcher within the last 14 months.
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