{"id":582197,"date":"2026-04-04T18:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582197\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:11:07","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-alejandro-kirk-lands-on-il-with-fractured-thumb-brandon-valenzuela-recalled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582197\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 Alejandro Kirk lands on IL with fractured thumb, Brandon Valenzuela recalled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/toronto-blue-jays\/238\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/toronto-blue-jays\/238\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> catcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/alejandro-kirk\/1071614\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/alejandro-kirk\/1071614\" target=\"_blank\">Alejandro Kirk<\/a> has a fractured left thumb and will be hitting the injured list, according to MLB.com\u2019s Keegan Matheson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In his absence, the team has called up catcher Brandon Valenzuela.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">News: Alejandro Kirk has a fractured left thumb. <\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s going to the IL. Brandon Valenzuela up. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#BlueJays<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KeeganMatheson\/status\/2040449159015104863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Kirk was struck on the thumb of his glove (left) hand on a foul tip off the bat of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/chicago-white-sox\/228\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/chicago-white-sox\/228\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago White Sox<\/a> outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/austin-hays\/874219\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/austin-hays\/874219\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Hays<\/a> in the 10th inning of Friday\u2019s series opener. The ball bounced behind home plate and ricocheted with heavy spin, hitting his hand area. The Blue Jays training staff raced onto the field and Kirk walked off with them, holding the injured hand, after removing himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In 20 at bats in 2026, the 27-year-old has three hits, one home run, and two RBI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Valenzuela, 25, started the season in Triple-A and has been recalled in Kirk\u2019s place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In 113 games across Double-A and Triple-A last season, Valenzuela recorded 94 hits, 15 home runs, with a .224 batting average.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Valenzuela was acquired from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/san-diego-padres\/249\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/san-diego-padres\/249\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Padres<\/a> in July of 2025 in exchange for infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/will-wagner\/1318721\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/will-wagner\/1318721\" target=\"_blank\">Will Wagner<\/a>. He has yet to make his big league debut.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk has a fractured left thumb and will be hitting the injured list,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[222303,49,48,82,75156],"class_list":{"0":"post-582197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alejandro-kirk-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-1071614","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}