Alex Kirilloff, 1B/OF
Things have been rough lately for Alex Kirilloff, which is even more of a bummer given how well the year started out for him. It seemed he couldn’t stop hitting triples and extra base hits out of the gate but he’s fallen back a bit recently and has joined the team’s slumping bats in rather frustrating ways.
After starting out the season as one of the lone offensive bright spots, Kirilloff was hitting .145 with a .470 OPS in his last 30 games. That started to change on Friday against the Rangers and hopefully his fourth inning home run was a sign of things to come.
He was hitting .203/.270/.374 with a .644 OPS coming into the series against Texas, which is by far the lowest marks of his career so far and a far cry from what he’s capable of. It’s not just what he did earlier this year; Kirilloff has consistently hit .250 or above in previous seasons and that’s the low-end of what he can do offensively.
Minnesota needs him to start figuring things out not only for his own sake but to help offset struggles by guys like Manuel Margot and Carlos Santana — the latter of whom is getting regular playing time at first base despite hitting worse than Kirilloff this year.
The upside is that Kirilloff can play a few different places defensively and the sooner he gets things right at the plate the easier things will be for everyone. What we saw out of him on Friday is more along the lines of the guy he needs to be, but whether or not he can harness the momentum is yet to be seen.