Know your Jays: Kevin Pillar

I'm not going to lie, this is one of the profiles I've been looking most forward to writing. Ever since he jumped into the wall at Camden Yards making a catch on the 4th day of the season, I knew this dude was something special.

Here are but a small sample of the Pillar-related texts I've sent and received over the course of the season:

(Those are all from my buddy Jeff, he's a Pillar fan too)

Does he have Twitter: Yes, he does. And Instagram! Sometimes he reaches near-Josh-Donaldson levels of sassy on his Twitter, and I love it. The Instagram use isn't so frequent, saved mainly for off-days or cute photos with his wife.

Irrelevant Fact(s): He's a sock enthusiast. I am also a sock enthusiast. I applaud his enthusiasm toward socks.

His Wikipedia page is also the first thing that comes up (after the home site) when I type 'wiki' into the address bar on my browser. Is that weird? I don't know what I keep needing to look up...

I asked my dad the other day who his favourite current Blue Jay was, and without even pausing to think he said 'Kevin Pillar, probably'. This was unexpected, because my dad usually loves the power hitters, and Pillar is many things, but he is not a masher. My mom also likes him (and more importantly, knows who he is). He's very popular in my household.

Best Quotes: (When asked if he can fly) "Yes, I can... For a very short amount of time"

(When a reporter compared the Blue Jays to the Royals, in terms of how they never give up)
"We both wear blue also."

What he's good at: Catching ALL THE THINGS!!!
I swear, he must have some kind of baseball magnet (or vacuum?) in his glove. If he hadn't near-missed a catch a few times, I might suspect he was a wizard. (Or maybe he missed those balls to throw us off the scent... hmmm)
But seriously. Even the things he's done while ATTEMPTING to glove a ball - climbing the CF wall in Anaheim and nearly flipping headfirst over it - are amazing feats of acrobatics and strength. Colby Rasmus has got nothing on him.

Also baserunning. Damn, he's fast. The speed definitely helps in the outfield while running to get a ball, but it's most obvious on the basepaths. There have been a few times where a lesser person would have been thrown out at first base on a simple grounder, but Pillar managed to beat the ball to the base. He's been FLYING into bases and home with the help of his 'oven mitt' hand protector. When he does opt to go feetfirst, he slides rather gracefully too, I might add.

What he's not so good at: Obeying the laws of gravity. Teehee.

He can be a bit of a streaky hitter at times. He was great in June and then in July just kind of... lost it. To his credit, he got much more consistent towards the end of the season!

Sometimes he also swings at things he shouldn't. I remember one time there was a pitch so far inside that it was almost at the edge of the PitchTracker box... And he swung at it. Somehow. In fact, he must have been backing away from the ball while swinging at it, otherwise it would have hit him. I don't know how that happened.

I saw that, Kevin. You were thinking about swinging at that ball in the dirt... Good restraint buddy

— Em #JDMVP (@JaysGirlEmily) September 8, 2015

(I'm allowed to make fun, because he's my fave and also I have the following in my Twitter bio)

I even noticed this interesting little bit of shade-throwing in a game program. On a page where they give a sample inning to instruct you on how to keep score:

They have him down as 'KS', which indicates that he struck out swinging. OOH THE SHADE!!

I developed a little saying as a result of this poor habit - "That's so far out of the zone, even Kevin Pillar would know that's a ball!" (Feel free to use this the next time you're mad at an umpire).

He also just can't avoid running into things/people sometimes (it's a good thing the OF walls are padded). September 12th at Yankee Stadium will heretofore be referred to as 'the Chincident' which we're all OK with joking about only now that Tulo has healed. That day spawned not one, but two, Kevin Pillar's Chin parody Twitter accounts.

Questions that nobody is asking: How am I feeling after being attacked by Troy's back? Answer: Sore and still extremely square

— Kevin Pillar's Chin (@PillarsChin) September 15, 2015

And then there was this bizarre collision in the final home game of the season which maybe isn't even a bad thing, because the ball was caught and nobody got hurt, but I know we all cringed - somehow Ben Revere caught the ball and Pillar caught his glove? How does that happen?? (I shouldn't even be questioning this, we all know he's a wizard).

Adding to the craziness was the fact that Josh Donaldson got stepped on by the runner, then was helped up by the umpire, who he gave a friendly pat on the back. This is a hell of a video.

2015 Season highlights: In June, in the first game of what became an 11-game win streak, he hit two home runs off of Nationals ace Max Scherzer. Yes, that Max Scherzer. The one with two no-hitters this season. This was the first two-HR game of not only Pillar's MLB career, but his entire life.
I bet Scherzer's happy they don't play in the same division.

His speedy little feet stole a lot of bases - 25, to be exact - this year. In fact, for the three days between the departure of Jose Reyes and the arrival of Ben Revere, Pillar had the most stolen bases of anyone on the team. He also had a remarkable success rate when stealing, only being caught four times.

I don't know how he avoids all those tags, but it must be some combination of speed and sneakiness. Maybe his oven-mitt sliding thing is lucky? For example, the following video - in which he was called out, but then ruled safe on replay. My favourite part of this is how the other team left the field and he just stayed put at second, like a one-man protest. 'I'm not out! You all need to get back out here!' The announcers found this amusing as well.


There's also, of course, the insanely high number of highlight-reel catches he's made. He was on the MLB highlight shows week after week. Usually near the top of the list, too.

There was little of this:

And some of this:

A pinch of that:

And, of course, one of my favourite plays, and my favourite Buck Martinez call, EVER.

Just bonkers.

After all of this amazing defense, it's really a disappointment he didn't win the Gold Glove. Kevin Kiermaier was definitely amazing and definitely deserving, but if he won the platinum glove, shouldn't that automatically mean the runner-up (Pillar) gets the gold one?! Don't be greedy with the hardware, KK...
This especially irks me considering Pillar was more impressive by FAR than either the LF or RF Gold Glove winners, just judging by the time (~2 months) he spent in left field - and center is tougher than either of those positions. I kind of wish they'd revert to the 3-overall outfield GGs, rather than one per position. That's how they do it in the All-Star Game, after all!

At least unlike certain OTHER incredibly talented AL East center-fielders named Kevin, KP is not afraid of things that fly. In fact, he is one.

(Sorry, Kiermaier)

However, Pillar was not left completely empty-handed, as he did win the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year award. Which is a decent consolation prize, I guess.

Why I love him: See above. He's kind of amazing. I'm in awe every time I watch him play, every time his feet leave the turf. Even his near-misses are spectacular - and in a bizarre twist, they're more surprising than the catches he does make.
In terms of 'wow' factor, he's everything you could possibly want in the outfield - he defies gravity, he crashes into the wall or the ground or whatever's in his way, but he bounces right back up. It's almost as though he's made of rubber.

Here's a great idea for a mattress ad - just remove the ground at the bottom and he's sleeping. #NapTogether

He's also ridiculously dry and sarcastic in interviews. Sarcastic Pillar is just my absolute favourite. There was that one time he asked Barry Davis "Do you know what time the game is tomorrow?" Or that other time he pretended to teach Barry Davis how to catch a fly ball. He's always down to do something on TV - Sportsnet even gave him his own special!

I don't know why, but I'm really fond of the way he runs. He seems to step so lightly. I've never seen anyone else run like that. And he always has the high socks!! Love the socks.

Everyone else loves him too! Look at what my favourite wordsmith R.A. Dickey had to say about him: "He amazes out there, he’s such a hard-nosed player and sells out and you can never fault his effort. Even when he dives for balls and misses them, they’re balls you think nobody has a shot at and he barely misses them. He’s special, I’m glad he’s on our team, he’s saved us a whole bunch of runs that’s for sure." That's high praise! 

Kevin thanked him by giving his hair a beer-bath. 

Another thing I really love and admire about him is his ability to keep his calm. Now we all remember that little hissy fit he had in the dugout in 2014 after getting pulled from a game, which ultimately resulted in his demotion to Buffalo. Well whatever he did there must have worked, because he's been Mr. Zen, nearly impossible to rattle since then.

There have been a few times he's been called out on a strike he shouldn't have been (this is a very rare occurrence, see above about how often he swings at stuff) and is frustrated but keeps his cool. I remember a couple instances (here is one if you want to watch it) where the umpire issued a questionable strike call and seemed like he was trying to bait him, but rather than yelling, KP just went 'come on man' and shrugged at him and shook his head in an 'I'm so very disappointed' way. I'm willing to admit that was more restraint than I would've had.

And look how polite he is when people are rude to him on Twitter!!! This is just one of many examples. I love it so much. A lesser person would have insulted back, or just ignored it, but it seems Kevin's motto might be 'kill them with optimism'!

Good thing we have over a 100 more!! #truth 😃 https://t.co/QKhdc3dJmy

— Kevin Pillar (@KPILLAR4) May 27, 2015

Off-field antics: During spring training, our boy suffered a sneeze so powerful that it caused him to strain an oblique muscle. Yeouch. It's such an odd injury that Jimmy Fallon even made a joke about it.
After this, of course, you kind of can't help but make light of the situation, so that's exactly what he did, making this fabulous shirt that he would then wear to do interviews:

That's quite the tan/hair combination he's got going here.

His celebrations are always fun to watch, especially with his best buddies, Ryan Goins and Chris Colabello.

Swing your partner round and round...

LOOK AT ALL THIS JOY!!!! 

Speaking of Goins, they've done a whole bunch of super-adorable publicity things together this year, many of which involve children. This one in particular was filmed in my hometown, and no one told me. Boo.

And I'm pretty sure he REALLY likes hugging people.

HUGS! I like hugs. I'm jealous. 

Fictional/cartoon character he most resembles: Pick a superhero, pick literally any superhero.
First there was that meme last year where he was photoshopped onto Captain America, which was pretty awesome. Then between all his wall-climbing and diving and running, comparisons have been drawn with Spiderman, Superman, and even The Flash. I'll let you decide. But I'll say this: He looks damn good with a cape.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's SUPER-KEVIN!!! 

BONUS: Here are a ton of hilarious Pillar memes that I've found throughout the season, which I find delightfully amusing and can't get enough of. (I have no idea who to credit for any of them, so if they're yours and you want credit, leave a comment and I will do so k thanks bye)

I would buy this on a shirt. 

(OK this one isn't a meme, but we all need a little more Dancing Pillar in our lives!)

Whoever did this to his Wikipedia page is my hero. 

(GIFs and cape photo from the Blue Jay Hunter)