{"id":709984,"date":"2026-04-07T02:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/709984\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T02:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:02:12","slug":"alejandro-kirk-to-undergo-thumb-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/709984\/","title":{"rendered":"Alejandro Kirk To Undergo Thumb Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Jays catcher\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kirkal01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alejandro Kirk<\/a><\/strong> will undergo surgery on his broken left thumb, manager John Schneider told reporters (including <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/sports\/baseball\/toronto-blue-jays\/thumb-surgery-for-alejandro-kirk-means-an-extensive-absence-for-blue-jays-star-catcher\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rob Longley of The Toronto Sun<\/a>). Schneider said the return timetable is dependent on whether doctors will need to insert a pin in Kirk\u2019s thumb, which won\u2019t be known until the operation is underway.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, it\u2019ll be more than a minimal 10-day injured list stint. The manager loosely floated a potential 3-4 week or 4-6 week recovery range depending on the procedure. It seems safe to rule Kirk out into May. The two-time All-Star was injured on Friday when he was struck by a foul tip.<\/p>\n<p>A glove hand injury could obviously be problematic for a catcher. The Jays have used\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/springe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">George Springer<\/a><\/strong> as a full-time designated hitter this year. Even if Kirk\u2019s bat proves ahead of his glove in the recovery process, the Jays probably won\u2019t activate him until he\u2019s ready for regular work behind the plate.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/heinety01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tyler Heineman<\/a><\/strong> and rookie <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valenbr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brandon Valenzuela<\/a><\/strong> are handling the catching duties until Kirk returns. Heineman did a nice job in the backup role a year ago, hitting .289\/.361\/.416 with strong receiving grades over 64 games. He entered tonight\u2019s game with a 4-10 start to the season offensively, but he had a few ill-timed miscues in the immediate aftermath of Kirk\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n<p>Heineman had a throwing error to allow the tying run to score with two outs in the tenth inning of an eventual loss to the White Sox on Friday. He had a baserunning gaffe and another throwing error that cost two runs in a 6-3 loss on Saturday. The Jays turned to Valenzuela for his MLB debut in the series finale, usual practice for a Sunday matinee. Heineman is back behind the plate tonight for the start of a World Series rematch against the Dodgers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Jays catcher\u00a0Alejandro Kirk will undergo surgery on his broken left thumb, manager John Schneider told reporters (including&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":709985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[22895,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-709984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alejandro-kirk","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116360966692627663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709984","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=709984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}