baseball

Blue Jays place Alejandro Kirk on IL, recall Brandon Valenzuela, assign Patrick Corbin to Single-A

By MATT CARLSONโ€ขYahoo Sports

CHICAGO (AP) โ€” The Toronto Blue Jays placed two-time All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a dislocated and fractured left thumb and recalled catcher Brandon Valenzuela from Triple-A Buffalo. Kirk was injured in the 10th inning of a 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Friday when Austin Hays fouled a pitch off Kirk's glove. He left the game immediately and went for X-rays.

The Blue Jays also assigned 36-year-old left-hander Patrick Corbin to Single-A Dunedin on Saturday, a day after signing him to a one-year contract. Manager John Schneider didn't have a timeline for Kirk's return but said before Saturdayโ€™s game in Chicago that the 27-year-old would see Dr. Thomas Graham, a hand specialist in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Monday to determine the next steps.

โ€œ(The thumb) was dislocated,โ€ Schneider said. "They put it back in last night, as well as a fracture. So tough news for us and I think for Kirky for sure.

โ€œThey're going to see if they need to do any kind of surgical intervention or pin or something like that. We'll know that on Monday, and then kind of determine the timeline after that. โ€ As an All-Star in 2025, Kirk batted .

282 with 15 homers and 76 RBIs in 130 games for AL champion Toronto. He played in all 18 of the Blue Jays' postseason games and hit . 308 with two homers and six RBIs in seven World Series games against the Dodgers.