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Toronto Blue Jays Alejandro Kirk has one man to thank for this turn around
Over the past couple of weeks, the Toronto Blue Jays have been evaluating Alejandra Kirk's game and notice that his power in hitting the ball has grown stronger this season.
This is a noticeable change compared to what he normally has done as he has not had the ability to command his offence and hit the ball with power.
Kirk's offense has turned some heads in Blue Jays coaching staff
So far this spring, the ball has been leaping off his bat a little bit more. Kirk has already hit four balls at least 108 m.p.h., a threshold he cleared just six times during the entire 2024 season. Nick Ashbourne
The Blue Jays are hoping that this change in his offence along with other surprises within spring training could bode well for the organization as they had attempted to sign another bat in the offseason which failed to materialize.
So far this spring training, Kirk has had 20 at bats, hitting an average of .350 with one home run and six RBI's along with an OPS of .940.
Despite just being spring training, his 2024 numbers were far lower when he had 340 at bats, hitting an average of .253 with five home runs and 54 RBI's with an OPS of .678. Kirk has played his entire career with the Toronto Blue Jays which began in 2020.
Blue Jays continuing to prepare for Opening Day
The Blue Jays had hoped that their offense has a different look when it comes to command and power as the Jays had hired former Major League Baseball hitter David Popkins as their new hitting coach who is
well known throughout the league for turning offences around.
well known throughout the league for turning offences around.
Popkins pushes his saying that he loves damage and that he wants his Blue Jays to attack the ball more aggressively at the plate rather than being passive and not amounting any offence whatsoever.
«If we started ranking players by importance, you'd get to Kirk pretty soon It is a big year for him, and he looks well set up to thrive.»
There seems to be some evidence that the Blue Jays are listening to Popkins, and it remains to be seen on how well the Blue Jays offence will do this year unless general manager Ross Atkins can make a trade or two during the season to help improve the situation.
In the end, the Blue Jays will have to work with what they have and hope that players like Kirk can find their offence and be very effective as there is only a few weeks left of Spring Training.
Source: Sportsnet
Four intriguing trends from Blue Jays spring training
Four intriguing trends from Blue Jays spring training
| POLL | ||
MARS 9 | 310 ANSWERS Toronto Blue Jays Alejandro Kirk has one man to thank for this turn around Do you think David Popkins coaching is improving Alejandro Kirk's game? | ||
| Yes | 253 | 81.6 % |
| No | 57 | 18.4 % |
| List of polls | ||