To see Alex Kirilloff swing a bat, he looks as smooth as ever. Lightning-quick wrists. Silky stroke. Baseballs spraying through minor league ballparks.
The Minnesota Twins, the team that drafted him 15th overall out of Plum High School in 2016, think so highly of Kirilloff that he was promoted from Class A Cedar Rapids, where he was named a Midwest League All-Star after hitting .333 with 13 homers and 56 RBIs, to high Class A Fort Myers, where he's hitting .289 with a homer, 5 doubles and 14 RBIs in 22 games.
Last Sunday, he starred in the Futures Game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. Starting in right field, he went 2 for 2 with a pair of singles and a run scored in helping the United States team defeat the World team, 10-6. His second single started a four-run fourth inning.
“I was shocked when I found out I’d made it,” said Kirilloff, the third-rated prospect in the Twins’ organization. “Excited, but shocked.”
By any measure, it has been an incredible season for Kirilloff, who signed for $2.8 million to play for the Twins.
But what adds even more zest is the fact he had to shut down for 18 months after a left elbow injury required Tommy John Surgery. This caused him to miss all of 2017, which was a bitter reality for a young man who began hitting off a tee at 11 months and grew up training at his father’s indoor hitting facility.
“We tried platelet-rich plasma injections first, but they weren’t working, so we had to go a different route,” Kirilloff said.
Two things, religion and self-belief, enabled Kirilloff to endure the tough times and return to the form that made him one of Western Pennsylvania’s best ever.
“My faith in Jesus Christ helped me,” said Kirilloff, who, at 20, is married and has a home in Fort Myers. “I put all of my trust and confidence in Him, and I know He has a plan for me in my life. I trusted that everything would be taken care of. And I was fortunate because I didn’t have any hiccups during the rehabilitation process. It’s hard to come back after taking a year-and-a-half off, but it was important that I had patience. I’m doing OK now, and I’m looking to build off what I’ve done so far.”
So far, this left-handed right fielder has forged a comeback that is worthy of a top-round pick. He went 8 for 12 with a homer and 6 RBIs in his first three games with Fort Myers. That total included a stat line of 4 for 6 with a homer and 5 RBIs in just his second game there. On July 9 against Palm Beach, Kirilloff had two more hits.
His continual improvement has not been lost on Twins director of minor league operations, Jeremy Zoll.
“Alex is a special hitter,” Zoll said of Kirilloff, the 66th-rated prospect in baseball, per MLB.com. “He didn’t miss a beat with the missed year last year due to injury. His ability to drive the ball to the opposite field and conduct at-bats is special and is going to serve him very well as he progresses through the minor leagues and into the majors.”
Fort Myers manager Ramon Borrego echoed those sentiments.
“The first thing is, he’s healthy,” Borrego said. “We’re really happy for the guy. He made the all-star team for [Cedar Rapids] and he was doing great. ... He was working on his defense, too, so he’s been doing a lot of good stuff, and he is improving.”
In his return to baseball this spring, Kirilloff went 1 for 4 in his debut. By Game 6, he had 8 hits, 2 homers and 10 RBIs, six coming in one contest. He led the Midwest League in batting average, homers, RBI, slugging percentage (.607) and OPS (.999) before being promoted to Fort Myers.
“The goal is to keep progressing in your career,” said Kirilloff, the Post-Gazette Male High School Athlete of the Year in 2016. “But the biggest thing is you have to play hard every day, and that’s what I try to do. Being promoted to the next level is definitely a career milestone and something you look forward to, but the important thing is to keep working hard and focusing on what you can control. Hopefully, at some point, I’ll earn another promotion.”
One of only five players in WPIAL history to be selected in the first round of the MLB draft, Kirilloff quickly made an impact with the Twins. He was named the Appalachian League MVP after hitting .306 with 7 homers and 8 doubles for Elizabethton in 2016.
And even though missing the 2017 season was disappointing, he said it had its benefits. For one, he added 15-20 pounds of muscle. He also became more of a student of the game.
“I saw things from a different perspective, and I learned,” he said.
Asked to put perspective on going from major surgery to the prestigious Futures Game at Nationals Park, Kirilloff said it is humbling.
“It wasn’t even on my radar,” said Kirilloff, who, despite competing for the Plum High baseball team, was educated through the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. “I was first and foremost just happy to be playing again and putting the injury behind me. My biggest goal was — and still is — playing a whole season healthy. But to earn that honor after coming off an injury is definitely a blessing.”
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First Published: July 19, 2018, 11:00 a.m.
