{"id":681405,"date":"2026-04-22T23:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681405\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:30:21","slug":"former-mlb-prospect-found-dead-on-church-roof-after-tragic-accident-rip-to-brian-kirby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681405\/","title":{"rendered":"Former MLB Prospect Found Dead on Church Roof After ‘Tragic Accident’: RIP to Brian Kirby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian Photo by G Fiume\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Brian Kirby, a former Minor League Baseball player and two-time MLB draft pick, died Wednesday in a tragic accident in North Little Rock, Arkansas. He was 46.<\/p>\n

Kirby was working as an HVAC technician on the roof of a local church when the incident occurred, as relayed by the Christian Post<\/a>. Authorities say deputies were called to the scene around 11:20 a.m. and found him unresponsive. A drone was used to locate his body near two air conditioning units on the roof.<\/p>\n

The exact cause of the accident remains unclear, and the situation is still under review.<\/p>\n

Graves Memorial Baptist Church, where Kirby was working at the time, shared the news in a statement, describing him as more than just an employee.<\/p>\n

“He was part of our family and our community,” the church said, asking for prayers for Kirby’s loved ones and those impacted.<\/p>\n

Kirby had a background in professional baseball, having been drafted by the Cincinnati Reds<\/a> in 1997 and later by the Cleveland Guardians organization in 2001. He reached the Triple-A level during his career, the highest level of the minors, though he did not appear in a Major League game.<\/p>\n

Members of the church community and others who knew Kirby shared messages of support for his family as news of his death spread.<\/p>\n

For those close to him, the loss goes far beyond baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by G Fiume\/Getty Images Brian Kirby, a former Minor League Baseball player and two-time MLB draft pick,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,50,2291,4,1586,3537],"class_list":{"0":"post-681405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati-reds","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-draft","13":"tag-mlb-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116450968508470952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681405","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=681405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}