The Blue Jays have agreed to a two-year, $15M cope with Isiah Kiner-Falefa, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports. The deal contains one other $1M in incentives, and it’ll turn out to be official when Kiner-Falefa passes a bodily.
Kiner-Falefa received a Gold Glove because the Rangers’ common third baseman in 2020, however he hasn’t performed a lot time on the scorching nook since as Texas used him primarily at shortstop in 2021 and the Yankees did the identical in 2022. This previous season noticed New York shift IKF throughout the diamond after Anthony Volpe took over because the on a regular basis shortstop, with Kiner-Falefa racking up a variety of taking part in time in heart subject (278 1/3 innings), left subject (248 innings), again at third base (240 1/3 innings), proper subject (40 innings), shortstop (eight innings) and a lone inning as a second baseman. The general public defensive metrics had been blended on his outfield work, however Kiner-Falefa graded fairly nicely as an infielder, notably in his return to 3rd base.
With Matt Chapman a free agent, it could seem to be the Blue Jays may set up Kiner-Falefa as their common third base choice in the meanwhile, giving the membership at the least a glove-first starter if both Chapman indicators elsewhere or if a extra clear-cut starter can’t be discovered. That stated, IKF might be much less of a Chapman alternative than he’s a alternative for Whit Merrifield, one other right-handed hitter who was deployed frequently as a second base and within the outfield. Kiner-Falefa provides much more versatility since Merrifield performed little or no third base and no shortstop.
IKF can also be a greater defensive match at third base than any of Toronto’s incumbent crop of infielders, reminiscent of Cavan Biggio, Davis Schneider, Santiago Espinal or Ernie Clement. Biggio is the one left-handed bat in that group, so it stands to purpose the Jays would possibly commerce one of many righty-swingers now that Kiner-Falefa is on board. Including a extra skilled main leaguer additionally offers the Blue Jays extra flexibility in giving extra minor league analysis time to high prospects Orelvis Martinez or Addison Barger, who ought to each be within the large leagues sooner or later in 2024 and will issue into the infield image (notably at third base).
Whereas Kiner-Falefa may match from a depth and glovework perspective, nevertheless, he doesn’t characterize a lot or any assist to the Blue Jays’ bigger want for offense. Kiner-Falefa hit .242/.306/.340 over 361 plate appearances with the Yankees final season, primarily matching his .261/.314/.346 slash line over 2415 profession PA on the large league stage. This interprets to an 81 wRC+ — tied for the fourth-lowest complete of any participant with greater than 2000 PA for the reason that begin of the 2018 season.
The shortage of offense has restricted Kiner-Falefa to three.8 fWAR over his six main league seasons, regardless of his defensive contributions. He hardly ever strikes out, but this contact-hitting strategy hardly ever yields exhausting contact, and he has little energy to talk of with solely 26 profession dwelling runs.
A two-year, $15M contract looks like a fairly good rating for Kiner-Falefa with this lack of offense in thoughts, but there was nonetheless fairly a little bit of curiosity within the utilityman on the open market. The Brewers, Dodgers, Marlins and Yankees had been all linked to Kiner-Falefa on the rumor mill, and Toronto’s personal curiosity in IKF was first cited by Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi earlier this month.
Between Kiner-Falefa and Kevin Kiermaier, the Blue Jays have sprung into motion after a quite quiet offseason attributable to the crew’s deal with chasing Shohei Ohtani. The Jays remained at the least speculatively linked to a variety of different gamers moreover Ohtani, after all, as GM Ross Atkins’ entrance workplace routinely checks in on mainly each accessible free agent or commerce goal as a matter of due diligence. Whereas Kiner-Falefa and Kiermaier ought to assist protect the Jays’ wonderful protection from 2023, some offensive pop appears vital, whether or not at DH or to additional bolster the infield or outfield image.
As per Roster Resource, the Jays’ 2024 payroll tasks to be simply shy of the $230M mark with Kiner-Falefa now on the books. This leaves a little bit of house remaining earlier than Toronto hits the $237M luxurious tax threshold, although that isn’t actually a barrier contemplating that the Blue Jays exceeded the tax line (for the primary time in franchise historical past) final season.
