Now healthy, Plum grad Kirilloff is hitting his stride after year off

Tri-State Sports & News Service

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. 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 “Excited, but