Why Alejandro Kirk Deserved the Gold Glove (and Possibly Another)

[Simon Li]

Alejandro Kirk was a bat-first player when he arrived in the big leagues. The diminutive but stocky catcher soared through the minors off the strength of his bat, and at just 21 years old, debuted in the big leagues in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He produced a 165 wRC+ in 25 plate appearances but had a -1.2 FanGraphs Def with a -2 Fielding Run Value.

In 2021, Kirk dealt with a hip flexor strain early in the season that shortened his year, but he was still able to catch 338 innings and remained below average as a framer and backstop in general, with -3 Defensive Runs Saved and a -3 Fielding Run Value. He still was an above-average hitter during the 60 games he played, with a 106 wRC+, but at this point in his career, Kirk would be known as a player who only played catcher because he couldn’t play anywhere else.

That would change in 2022, when Kirk had his breakout season, winning his first Silver Slugger and making his first All-Star appearance, hitting .285/.372/.415 for a 129 wRC+. The offensive numbers were spectacular and gaudy, but the most interesting thing about his season was not that he could hit, as he had already proved that throughout his short professional career up to that point, but that his defense took a massive leap forward. His Fielding Run Value jumped to 11, and he showed above-average abilities in blocking the ball with his athleticism and great positioning. He also became a great framer, with eight framing runs according to Statcast. Although Kirk wasn’t the best fielding catcher in the AL, he established himself in the upper echelons as a defender.

The following year, he proved it wasn’t a fluke, almost repeating the same performance defensively in 2023, with a slightly lower fielding run value, although he caught over 100 more innings. The bat, however, took a step back, as he was a slightly below-average hitter. His woes on the hitting end continued in 2024, but his glove continued to trend upwards, as his framing improved again (12 framing runs), and he had a career high four throwing runs, according to Statcast. Although Cal Raleigh won the AL Gold Glove Award at catcher, as well as the Platinum Glove, some metrics pointed to Alejandro Kirk as the better defender that year. Kirk was a better defender according to Statcast’s Fielding Run Value, with 17 to Raleigh’s 14, but DRS preferred Raleigh over Kirk. The metrics being mixed as to who was better made the snub sting a little less, but Kirk should have won the award that year as well. 

In addition to voting, Rawlings uses a metric known as the SABR Defensive Index for awarding Gold Gloves. According to Rawlings, the SABR Defensive Index combines six different defensive data sources and includes factors such as arm strength & accuracy and range & sure-handedness, along with the number of “excellent” and “poor” fielding plays a fielder makes. For catchers, fielding bunts, blocking balls in the dirt, and stolen bases/caught stealing are included. There is one glaring part of catching that is missing from that list: Framing. 

Framing is 100% the most important part of a catcher’s defense. The highest number of stolen base attempts on any catcher this season was 89 on Yainer Diaz, which means that on only 89 plays did Diaz’s arm make any sort of direct impact. And sometimes, based on the runner or the pitcher, a catcher actually has zero impact on a base-stealing play. That’s why Statcast uses Caught Stealing Above Average, which translates to Catcher Stealing Runs. The best catcher in 2025 at throwing out runners was Luis Torrens with 12 CS above average. That equates to 8 Catcher Stealing Runs. On the other hand, the catcher who caught the most pitches this season was J.T. Realmuto with 9,714. Around 4,000 of those pitches were caught in the Chase/Waste areas, which are so far from the zone that framing makes minimal impact, and around 1,000 of those pitches were in the heart of the zone. Still, that leaves a few thousand pitches in the shadow of the zone. Not only do catchers need to help pitchers turn pitches one or two inches out of the zone into strikes, but they also help to ensure that pitches just one or two inches inside the zone are called strikes as well. 

One strike or ball call can make the difference between an 0-1 count or a 1-0 count, and each count has an assigned run value. Baseball Savant's Catcher Framing Runs converts strikes into runs on a .125 run/strike basis, taking park and pitcher adjustments into account. The best catcher in all of baseball in this metric was Patrick Bailey, who had a 47.7 shadow strike percentage, which converted to 25 Catcher Framing Runs. Kirk lagged behind with a 47.1 shadow strike percent, which made for “only” 16 Catcher Framing Runs. However, that shows the difference in the importance of each role a catcher plays. The best guy at throwing out runners only contributed half as many runs as the second-best framer in baseball. Defensive metrics are not a perfect science and are still improving every year, but the sheer volume of pitches a catcher receives makes the value of excellent framing outweigh a slightly stronger arm. 

When the 2025 season concluded, Alejandro Kirk stood at the peak of almost every catching metric: first in the AL in Statcast Catcher Framing Runs with 16 and first in the league in Blocking Runs with five, albeit with zero Throwing Runs. Still, he was easily the second-best catcher in the league in total Fielding Run Value at 22.

DRS was lower on Kirk, but he still finished tied for eighth in DRS among catchers with 9, just below Carlos Narvaez among the finalists for the Gold Glove. Although, I’m not a fan of DRS because it uses catcher’s ERA as a component, which dinged Kirk for a -4. Catcher’s ERA is extremely misleading as a statistic, and although I would love to dive into why I think it is a poor metric, I’ve already rambled on long enough. Despite Kirk getting dinged on that front, he still finished ahead of the winner Dillon Dingler, who only had six Defensive Runs Saved.

Dingler is an incredible catcher, and being the second or third best catcher in the AL is no small feat, but he was not better than Kirk. He was better at throwing out runners, and his 30% CS rate did dwarf Kirk’s 17%. However, he was a worse blocker by a significant amount and a worse framer by an even bigger amount. Dingler finished with a 12 FRV to Kirk’s 22. The stats were not comparable, and Kirk’s body of work showed why he should have won the award. Unfortunately, flaws within the voting system and the metrics used to determine the winner have now prevented Kirk from winning not one, but two Gold Gloves, and this loss was easily the more egregious of the two. 

Lastly, human beings are inherently biased. The way that we are brought up, the conventional wisdom of the past and what we consider common sense all play a part in how we view people and evaluate athletes. I have no idea what precisely led to Kirk’s unfortunate Gold Glove snub; it may have been SDI being a flawed metric, but it also may have been the coaches who vote not respecting his ability as a defensive catcher, despite him constantly proving himself as one of the best in the game.

Kirk is unconventionally sized as a professional athlete, and the inherent biases of managers and coaches could have given Dingler a leg up in the voting. Even now, with a magnitude of evidence showcasing that one-knee catching is more effective than catching with two knees down, our beloved commentators like Buck Martinez cannot help themselves from sticking with tradition and thinking a worse method is better. What I implore people to do is move past what we think is right and instead look at the empirical evidence and see that this teapot-shaped looking fellow is, in fact, the best defensive catcher in the entire American League, and it isn’t even close. 

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