The Yankees and shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $6MM deal, per Robert Murray of FanSided.
The Yankees were expected to be big players in last year’s free agent shortstop sweepstakes, for fairly logical reasons. First of all, they had given up on Gleyber Torres taking over the position, bumping him to second base. Secondly, there was a huge crop of exciting free agents, which included Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, Javier Baez and Marcus Semien. However, reports indicated that the Yanks liked their shortstop prospects and just wanted to find a placeholder for 2022.
To that end, they acquired Kiner-Falefa, a defensive specialist with a below-average bat and two years of arbitration control remaining. The idea went according to plan, to a degree. Kiner-Falefa posted 10 Defensive Runs Saved at short as the club vastly improved its overall defense, at least by that metric. Their 129 DRS was easily the best in baseball, as the Dodgers came second with 84. Outs Above Average and Ultimate Zone Rating were a bit less enthusiastic about the work of Kiner-Falefa and the team as a whole, but they still achieved their goal of being better at run prevention. Their 3.5 runs allowed per game was their lowest since 1981.
IKF’s bat was still below league average, as he hit .261/.314/.327 for a wRC+ of 85. That’s 15% below league average but roughly in line with his previous work. The Yanks surely would have loved for him to take a step forward but they probably didn’t expect him to suddenly become a middle-of-the-order slugger.
Nonetheless, there were some reasons to think that a non-tender or a trade would be possible. For one thing, those aforementioned prospects that IKF was a placeholder for, they got one year closer to taking over. Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe were considered the two prime candidates to be the shortstop of the future in the Bronx, but they still needed more time coming into 2022. Peraza had only played eight Triple-A games coming into the year, but he added another 99 this year and also got into 18 MLB games. Volpe finished 2021 at High-A but got into 110 Double-A games in 2022 and then was promoted to Triple-A for 22 more contests. Adding to the crowded dance floor, Oswaldo Cabrera cracked the majors and played well in 44 games. He bounced around and seems ticketed for a utility role, but that’s another shortstop option in the mix.
Kiner-Falefa also seemed to fall out of favor with the club in the postseason, as a few defensive miscues led to a decrease in playing time. He was also due for a raise on his $4.7MM salary, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a bump to $6.5MM. Given those factors, it seemed within the realm of possibility that IKF could have been non-tendered or traded but he’ll instead stick around.
Keeping IKF also has its merits, even with all the kids seeming ready to take over at shortstop. The Yankee infield is broadly uncertain, though at least Anthony Rizzo is now re-signed and locked in at first base. Torres is still lined up to play second base, but his $9.8MM projected salary makes him a trade candidate. Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu are question marks after the former had a disappointing season and the latter finished the year on the IL. Kiner-Falefa is capable of playing multiple positions and could be bounced around based on how all the other situations play out. But agreeing to a salary also does nothing to prevent the Yanks from working out a trade in the months to come.
Noice
He’d be good on the bench. Pinch run, pinch hit in the right spot, maybe play some third base. Might even have some trade value.
If he’s the first guy off the bench, your infield is in good shape.
A lot of teams would do well with this guy at short. Sadly the Yankees seem to want to dump this guy on someone else. They’re the Yankees, so they need to waste money on a high end underachiever. Correa? who knows.
Hopefully, they play one of the kids at SS and they can dump Gleyber.
Still think he could be traded. Might make sense in Atlanta if Dansby leaves. IKF is worth a shot as a bridge to Grissom.
grissom will be the starter shortstop if DS doesn’t return..IKF is an avg player at best. yanks can keep him.
I thought he’d be a non-tender candidate.
3 WAR players tend to get tendered if they only cost $6 million.
That 3 bwar is so hugely predicated on his defense, which was extremely polarizing. Drs, which bwar uses, loved him. No other metric did, which is why he was worth only 1.3 fwar. But maybe another team can be duped into a trade.
…and?
“And” teams will undoubtedly be asking themselves what value the rest of the industry prescribes to a theoretically glove-first player with a weak arm and questionable glove. Many teams have a comparable option to IKF sitting in their system for far less than 6 million
For a team that wants consistency (of mediocrity on offense), $6MM is highly palatable. He was always a stop-gap. If the kids take a step forward during ST, then IKF becomes a very tradeable asset.
I could ask that question again. And?
I guess you’re suggesting he should be non-tendered. The Yankees, however, are purchasing flexibility and coverage with IKF as they look at trades, a 3B’man who aged out, another player in LeMahieu who still has questions about his foot, a 2nd baseman in Torres they might be looking to trade, and two rookie infielders to break in. Peraza will be starting at SS (unless he’s traded) and Volpe should be up by mid year. IKF provides them flexibility at this time as they look to build their 2023 roster, so they negotiated a contract for next season. Fans think he won’t be on the team next year. It’s possible, but more likely he’s coverage on multiple infield positions.
If that was true, then IKF would be out of work nonetheless a starting SS for a big market team. Do you know of one for $5M cash considerations that would interest Cashman? He can trade IKF and buy another and save a $1M.
I hope not. He was bad enough, he would think the Yankees would’ve seen that and had enough of him already. After all he was benched in the playoff, there’s a reason for that. That’s all we need ,move him around the infield ,so he doesn’t know where he’s playing, making him worse potentially. There is certainly better options out there than a shortstop who can’t field the position.
So they’re trading one of the infield prospects?
No. They’re simply signing IKF to a contract. His role on the team, if he remains on the team, is TBD.
Yes that is correct to be determined. That is the problem. Trust in Cashman and the Yankees to make the right decision about it is a mistake. It is a bench player fine. But if he’s a regular, we don’t need a repeat of this year‘s performance next year with a guy can’t field the position that he’s playing.
thanks for pointing that out… with all the weird metrics and stats they come out with in the age of analytics (dWAR, oWAR, DRS, Rtot, Rdrs, lgRFG, BAbip) I was stuck wondering for 2 days what TBD was.
That’s way to much for a utility player.
He’s one of the pretty good utility players though. Plus, it’s the New York Yankees, they should spend money.
Phew. One less thing to worry about.
Sounds like an affordable trade acquisition for another team in need of a gold glove 3rd baseman or an atrocious shortstop.
I still speculate that they’ll eat most of Donaldson’s salary and move him.
He has better oWAR & dWAR than Donaldson
My grandmother has better oWAR & dWAR than Donaldson, a trade that never seemed logical
Balls
Cashman in the trash can again
Call him Brian Trashman
IKF was signed for a couple of reasons, one the young SS might not be ready, two he is a good back up for Donaldson, and three DJ is still hurting and might need surgery.
If the young upcoming short stops or not ready, there are better options than I KF and his shortstop blunders. And below average hitting. I’m sure the young shortstops could do better than he has this year. They should be given a chance finally.
Way too much money for a utility guy who wasn’t a good fielder last year, hopefully they can find a team that will take him in a trade.
They would’ve just non-tendered him if that were the case
Looks like they are bringing the same gang back. LOL
On a one year, 6 mil deal….he’s a tradable asset to another team. I’m sure Cash already has suitors lined up or he would have been DFA’d.
If he’s starting again next year, Cash isn’t doing his job. He’s clearly NOT an every day player. Noodle for an arm and a ground ball machine.
I just saw the Angels traded for Gio Urschela to be their stop gap SS. Ironic. Should have just had him do it for the Yankees instead of taking on Donaldson’s stupid contract to get the below average IKF!
So the Yanks dumped Gio a year ago, and now a year later the Twins have also dumped Gio.
Perhaps he’s not what you think?
B-Ref thinks he was worth 3.1 WAR, and with a .285 BA and 121 OPS+, perhaps they’re right. He sure beat the heck out of Donaldson, especially in clutch stats.
Well the Angels do love the former Yankees
Ha ha ha ha. Yes I’m sure they’re lining up to get IKF. Not. Baseball executives I’m not that stupid, they can see the guy can’t play shortstop. And his below league average.
He’d be a very serviceable bench player, enough to justify the salary. But I think he might also be a hedge against either Peraza or Volpe flopping. If that were to happen and IKF ended up starting at shortstop again, that would be bad. If he replaced Donaldson at third though, that’d be at least a slight upgrade.
Another thought: if the seemingly fanciful rumors of the Yankees being interested in one of the top-tier free agent shortstops have a basis in fact, locking down IKF could conceivably be aimed at making them seem slightly less needy, for negotiation purposes. But that’d be a stretch, because if he’s your starting shortstop, you’re needy.
I doubt they have the capacity for that much forsight I can’t or acumen.It’s always about the money with the Yankees, and how to play around with it. They don’t want to lose IKF for nothing, although God knows why, and they signed him to a small contract thinking perhaps they can either use him or trade him. Hopefully they don’t use him, so we can avoid his errors in pivotal situation. It’s
Unfortunately the same was done with Sanchez, who they re-signed also, and they should’ve just released him, probably thinking wrongly ,they could trade him for at least something. resulted in the debacle of the donaldson and IKF deal in the first place. Since nobody wanted Sanchez to begin with.