“It’s one of the best scouting stories that I have ever been a part of…This is actually like the diamond in the rough.”
Convincing your boss to take a risk is one thing.
But convincing them to gamble on someone who looks completely wrong for the job? That’s a different feeling.
And it’s exactly the spot Dean Decillis found himself in after watching a Mexican League baseball showcase down in Tijuana.
The veteran Toronto Blue Jays scout had just watched a 17-year-old kid who knocked his socks off.
But there was just one problem.
He pulled out his phone and called his boss, Andrew Tinnish, the Jays’ VP of international scouting.
“Look, this guy is big,” he said.
“He’s going to walk into a professional complex and people are going to be like, ‘What is going on? Who is this guy?’ But I’m telling you he can hit, and I’m telling you he can catch.”
According to those inside the organization, Decillis carried an “iron-clad reputation”. But this prospect wasn’t the easiest sell.
For starters, Decillis wasn’t even there to look at this guy. He was supposed to be scouting a different catcher on Toronto’s watchlist.
That all changed when the ballgame started. His attention quickly shifted to the other team’s catcher – a kid who was only 5’7” and weighed “well over” 200 pounds.
He knew nothing about him besides his name: Alejandro Kirk.
“It started to be, ‘I like Kirk’s swing better than the guy that I’m here to see,’” Decillis said.
“And then it started to be, ‘I think Kirk throws better than the guy that I’m here to see.’ And then, by about the fourth inning, it was, ‘I think he actually catches better than the guy that I’m here to see.’”
Most would’ve dismissed him for his physique alone. But Decillis saw beyond it.
While the other players were jumpy – nervous to be playing in front of so many scouts – Kirk displayed exceptional composure for a teenager.
He was ice-cold at the plate. So calm that you might’ve thought he was playing wiffle ball in his backyard.
He called a great game behind the plate, too, controlling baserunners and blocking every errant pitch.
Still, Decillis was realistic.
“I really didn’t know if we were going to sign him,” he said.
“Andrew [Tinnish] could have blown me off and said, ‘I don’t want to sign a guy who is five-seven and 260 and we haven’t seen him.’ So, when the day was over, there really wasn’t [any celebration].”
The player development guys wouldn’t like what they saw physically, Decillis warned, but this kid could really play.
When he got home, he showed Tinnish a video from the game.
“To be candid, when I saw him, I was like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s not great,’” Tinnish remembered.
“The first thing you notice is the body, and that’s not your prototypical body. Not that catchers aren’t shorter and thicker — they are — but he was just shorter and thicker than most of them.”
But Tinnish couldn’t deny that the kid’s swing jumped off the screen. Even when he took pitches, he showed the approach of a future big leaguer.
No other MLB teams were in on Kirk, so the Jays were able to strike a $30,000 deal to sign him away from his Mexican League team, Toros de Tijuana. Only $7,500 went to Kirk – the rest went to the Toros to acquire his rights.
At the time, the contract was a lottery ticket. Looking back now, it was a bargain.
“I didn’t even know they went to see someone else in the showcase,” Kirk said. “I did the best I could, and eventually they signed me. I guess they liked what I did.”
A few months later, Andrew Tinnish was at the Blue Jays complex in the Dominican Republic.
He spotted a guy half a football field away wearing a team uniform.
“Who is that?” Tinnish asked a colleague. “Is that a player? One of our coach’s kids?”
Then it hit him. It was Alejandro Kirk.
The 5’7” catcher had arrived. He got his foot in the door. Decillis and Tinnish were a big part of that.
But what happened next, Decillis said, is “all him.”
“If you played any sport, you’ve probably been told along the way, ‘Play hard, because you never know who’s looking.’ High-school kids are told that. ‘There could be a college coach here that’s looking for somebody else, and you’ll stand out.’”
“In Kirk’s case, that kind of thing you’ve been told since you were a little kid actually happened.”
Alejandro started playing baseball at 3 years old, but didn’t start catching until he was 12.
His childhood team needed a catcher, and his dad nudged him to suit up. It wasn’t a hard decision because his older brother, Juan, played the position too.
“I wanted to follow his steps,” Kirk told The Athletic.
Growing up, coaches were surprised by how athletic he was, especially at his height and weight. Still, he had to work hard to shake off those rocky first impressions.
“My physique, obviously, I wanted to be taller. I wanted to have better tools. But this is what God gave me. I never was upset about this,” Kirk told MLB.com.
“I am very happy with what I have. I actually used my physique to push myself. I made myself get better. I wouldn’t use it as an excuse that I was different from the other guys and their physiques. I wasn’t going to give this up. It made me push myself harder than anybody else.”
Up until the Blue Jays signed him, he’d always been an afterthought. The guy scouts would ask to catch bullpens for top-flight pitchers. Always the supporting cast, never the leading role.
“I always had the dream to sign pro. At that time, I also realized there were a lot of players, even in Mexico, with better tools than I had,” he said.
“Physically…they looked better. I kept working out and kept believing, but then one day, my bat started talking for me.”
Even in the minor leagues, where he was generously listed at 5’9” and 265 pounds, his teammates couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“I was just really impressed with how much feel he has for calling a game,” said pitcher Julian Merryweather.
“I think I threw four innings to him, and I shook him off maybe a couple times. I told him what I wanted to do going in, and he was able to just retain all that and apply it right to the game, which I thought was impressive for a guy in A-ball at the time.”
Once an under-the-radar prospect, Kirk made quick work of the minor leagues. He hit .354 with a .443 on-base percentage in his first season of rookie ball.
Then, after a great 2019 across Low and High-A, he went from unranked to Baseball America’s #4 overall prospect for the Blue Jays.
He got his first taste of big league action in 2020, where, as a 21-year-old facing MLB pitching for the first time, he hit .375 with a homer in 9 games.
For most fans, it was their first time seeing Kirk play. Who was this oddly-built catcher for the Blue Jays?
One internet commenter summed it up nicely:
“He is Toronto’s answer to ‘Where’s the Beef’? Seriously, this kid makes Vlad [Guerrero Jr.] look like a string bean…But it doesn’t matter…The boy can hit and throw big time.”
Over his first six major league seasons, Alejandro Kirk put together a .345 on-base percentage while slugging 51 homers, 82 doubles, and one triple (yes, a triple).
Baseball Savant ranked him as one of the game’s best defensive catchers in terms of pitch framing and blocking.
Blue Jays fans have fallen in love with their two-time All-Star catcher, cheering his every move – from the walk-off hits to the baserunning stumbles.
In March 2025, he signed a $58 million extension that keeps him in Toronto through 2030. A long way from the few thousand dollars he originally signed for.
Kirk’s become a shining example for kids – of all backgrounds and body types – that if you’re good at what you do, you can break through.
“There really aren’t a lot of comps for the way he’s built,” said Toronto’s former catching coordinator, Ken Huckaby.
“Sometimes players come along that just break the mold. You can’t explain it. They can just do it. And that’s the way I look at him. He can do everything you ask, even though it looks like he probably shouldn’t be able to.”
Outside of his physical talents, how has Kirk thrived among a sea of doubters? Pitcher Alek Manoah shared an anecdote that describes his mindset.
“There was a TikTok (recently) with somebody making fun of his size,” Manoah said.
“The guy was like, ‘I can’t believe this guy is a major league baseball player.’ And (Kirk) was in the locker room, kind of laughing about it. He was like, ‘I’m still here. I’m still working hard and doing good, so I don’t think any of that other stuff really matters.’”
Critics will always be there. And Alejandro Kirk will always tune them out.
“I remember talking to my dad one day…saying, ‘I’m going to prove everyone wrong. I am going to silence all of these people.’ That day, my dad gave me great advice. He told me to forget the people, to do it for myself. Everything, for myself. Everything that I accomplish is for me.”
“I never think about my height or my weight,’’ he said. “But if that can inspire a lot of kids, it would be awesome for them to keep working hard and accomplish their dreams.’’
