{"id":667291,"date":"2026-04-06T23:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/667291\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:47:19","slug":"blue-jays-catcher-alejandro-kirk-to-have-surgery-on-thumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/667291\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk to have surgery on thumb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk<\/a> will undergo surgery to repair a fractured thumb on his left hand, the team announced Monday.<\/p>\n

Kirk suffered the injury on a foul tip in Toronto’s loss to the Chicago White Sox<\/a> on Friday. He was placed on the 10-day injured list before visiting with a hand specialist, who determined Monday that the catcher would need surgery.<\/p>\n

Manager John Schneider didn’t have a definitive timeline for Kirk’s return, saying “it could be three to four [weeks], it could be four to six,” according to the Toronto Sun<\/a>. Schneider added that the team will know more after the surgery.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirk, 27, served as the Blue Jays’ catcher as they made their run to a Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in the World Series. Last season, he hit .282 with 15 homers and earned his second All-Star appearance.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays will rely on backup catcher Tyler Heineman<\/a> as well as rookie Brandon Valenzuela<\/a> in Kirk’s absence. Both players are switch-hitters.<\/p>\n

“The biggest thing is I’ve told [both catchers] that you are not Alejandro Kirk,” Schneider said, according to the Sun. “You are your own people, and you have to do what you’re good at. It’s tough [replacing Kirk] for sure, but we have to have guys step up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk will undergo surgery to repair a fractured thumb on his left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303],"class_list":{"0":"post-667291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-playoffs","13":"tag-mlb-postseason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116360436617929716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}