{"id":709816,"date":"2026-04-07T00:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/709816\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:16:18","slug":"blue-jays-catcher-alejandro-kirk-to-have-surgery-on-thumb-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/709816\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk to have surgery on thumb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-clubhouse-guid=\"0151aed9-9f11-ceae-195d-180ca603b64a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/tor\/toronto-blue-jays\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> All-Star catcher <a data-player-guid=\"d2b9338a-54bd-8be2-de03-84d64964e8fb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/42081\/alejandro-kirk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alejandro Kirk<\/a> will undergo surgery to repair a fractured thumb on his left hand, the team announced Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk suffered the injury on a foul tip in Toronto&#8217;s loss to the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"8f4800c6-3c05-b3d5-8186-9750cd72a3c2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/chw\/chicago-white-sox\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p>Manager John Schneider didn&#8217;t have a definitive timeline for Kirk&#8217;s return, saying &#8220;it could be three to four [weeks], it could be four to six,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/sports\/baseball\/toronto-blue-jays\/thumb-surgery-for-alejandro-kirk-means-an-extensive-absence-for-blue-jays-star-catcher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to the Toronto Sun<\/a>. Schneider added that the team will know more after the surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/48395146\/blue-jays-place-alejandro-kirk-10-day-il-thumb-fracture\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775520978_4_r1136423_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Kirk, 27, served as the Blue Jays&#8217; catcher as they made their run to a Game 7 loss to the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"fb7cf413-5156-9fc2-abe0-2273b89f70db\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/lad\/los-angeles-dodgers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p>The Blue Jays will rely on backup catcher <a data-player-guid=\"beaa82fc-2c13-dc81-4c16-0dd43b48efc1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/33142\/tyler-heineman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyler Heineman<\/a> as well as rookie <a data-player-guid=\"e346a6dd-2f9d-3b58-9a8b-e0b8267e206e\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/4918248\/brandon-valenzuela\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brandon Valenzuela<\/a> in Kirk&#8217;s absence. Both players are switch-hitters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The biggest thing is I&#8217;ve told [both catchers] that you are not Alejandro Kirk,&#8221; Schneider said, according to the Sun. &#8220;You are your own people, and you have to do what you&#8217;re good at. It&#8217;s tough [replacing Kirk] for sure, but we have to have guys step up.&#8221;<\/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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":709690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-709816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116360549961016122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}