Yankees infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been at the center of plenty of speculation this spring. That’s both revolved around whether he’d hold onto the starting shortstop job with youngsters Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe on the horizon and whether he could be traded to an infield-needy team like the Dodgers or Rockies. Now, Kiner-Falefa’s role for the Yankees may be coming into focus as he has begun taking reps in center field, as noted by MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.
Kiner-Falefa doesn’t offer much with the bat, as demonstrated by his career 82 wRC+, indicating he’s been roughly 18% worse than league average for his career. Despite that, he’s still been a valuable player throughout his career due to his defense. In the infield, he’s won a Gold Glove at third base while also playing a quality shortstop and the occasional second base. He even caught 586 innings for the Rangers early in his career and now could add center field to his positional versatility.
For a Yankees team already utilizing versatile players such as DJ LeMahieu and Oswaldo Cabrera, Kiner-Falefa seems poised to provide yet another versatile bench piece in the Bronx, allowing manager Aaron Boone to mix and match as he sees fit in his infield. The Yankees lost center fielder Harrison Bader to an oblique strain last week. It’s generally expected that Aaron Judge will slide over from right field until Bader returns, but Kiner-Falefa taking well to center field would give Boone some additional flexibility if he wanted to slide Judge back to the corner on certain days.
More from the Yankees…
- Boone tells reporters, including Jon Heyman of the New York Post, that Volpe is “definitely in the mix” to be the starting shortstop this season. Volpe, a consensus top 15 prospect in the game, is regarded as the best hitter of the options available to the Yankees at shortstop, and a capable defender (though fellow youngster Peraza grades out better defensively at the position). Volpe split last season between the top two minor league levels, hitting .249/.342/.460 with 21 home runs in 132 games. He only played 22 of those contests at the Triple-A level, while Peraza got into 99 Triple-A contests before playing in his first 18 MLB games.
- Boone tells reporters, including Hoch, that catcher Jose Trevino has been out of action with a right wrist sprain recently. Boone notes that while Trevino is expected to resume play sometime this week, an injection is still possible to speed up his recovery. Regardless, Boone says Trevino is expected to be ready for Opening Day. Trevino was a breakout player for the Yankees in 2022, making an All Star appearance and winning a Gold Glove while playing in 115 games as the primary catcher in the Bronx. In the event that Trevino ends up missing time, Kyle Higashioka figures to be in line for more work behind the plate.
IKF for Eddie Rosario. Braves eat the $3 million difference. Why? Because.
I’d rather have Rosario. I see it as fair comparing the value but at the end of the day Rosario is capable of hitting 30hr and IKF is not close to that potential production at the plate. I see Grissom and Arcia as better hitters and Arcia was once a great fielding SS so I have to believe he’s been working hard this off-season with the spot available. Last year was simply injury for Rosario. In no world is he a bad hitter. He has hit at least league average practically every year for like a decade. This guy had 15 triples in 450 ab as a rookie. Had a year with 27 hr, 32 hr. Had 13 hr in 210 ab in 2020 and hit 7 hr in 106 pa for ATL in 2021 before dominating most of the playoffs. He is pretty good
In comparison IKF has never even had a 700 OPS.
Grissom is more bat less defense. Arcia is a backup at best. I like Rosario, but IKF would be a perfect stopgap ss. Arcia should never start for a playoff team. Having IKF can also backup Riley at times. Rosario isn’t needed.
He won’t hit 30hrs again. Also Braves aren’t lacking in the power dept. if Rosario isn’t hitting 280+ his obp is below average. Don’t need that in a lineup with Ozuna at DH.
Ozuna is not the teams DH. If he is it will only be against lefties.i don’t see why Rosario can’t hit 30hr again when he is 31 and was on pace for 40 in 2020(regression aside he was likely gonna hit near 30hr that year). “If Rosario isn’t hitting 280” yes but every stat besides his OBP is always above average. It remains to be seen about Grissom defensively. He has been working a lot on it and the reviews are good. I would argue that Arcia is a good backup and wasn’t given a lot of chances in Milwaukee really. The second he had a down stretch he was out of the starting spot. The main point tho is how is Rosario not needed? Are you proposing Ozuna play left? If the Braves wanted a player like IKF they could have gotten one but they clearly would rather go with Grissom. Ron Washington is arguably the best infield instructor in baseball. I have seen the difference in players like Riley and Swanson. If the Braves were concerned at short they would have had at least some interest in Andrus as a stopgap. He was cheap. He would have been at least nearly as good as IKF in an everyday role (IKF is really more valuable as a utility guy). I could see why they would take the trade but I’d rather they not. I’d give the young guy with more potential a chance instead.
Nor should IKF be starting for a playoff team.
Rosario got hot and led the team to a world series. In no world is that kinda thing possible with IKF.
I do take back what I said about Arcia not getting a good lol in Milwaukee but what I meant was he started struggling age 23-24. Many people aren’t even in MLB at that age
IKF, contrary to this articles opinion, hasn’t the arm for SS as evidenced by his 15 errors last season.
Fake news here. A mostly useless player.
Exactly correct.
A backup utility guy who is best suited sitting on the bench.
Glad you agree with yourself.
Sorry, anyone that uses the term “fake news” automatically loses all credibility.
IKF brings nothing to the Braves that Ehire Adrianza doesn’t already give them.
Well he is better than Adrianza
Rosario could hit 45 pull home runs there and nobody would be surprised.
Keeping an eye on him for sure THIS year, I have seen him be a deadly pull hitter in the past.
Only a Yankee can hit .249 and still be considered a Top 15 prospect in the game. I will take a kid like Colson Montgomery over Volpe all day.
Montgomery is a terrific player and more of a power bat than Volpe. They were both 1st round picks. Volpe has a better glove…foot speed…and versatility. Not as clear cut a decision as you suggest.
I can’t believe it’s 2023 and people still put this much weight into batting average
BA is still a useful stat if used in the proper context – either in a slash line or when used in Statcast hit data. Good examples are in 2018, JD Martinez over Giancarlo Stanton or 2022 Freddie Freeman over Matt Olson. The 2022 batting champions weren’t good hitters since neither hit the ball with strong contact and didn’t draw many walks.
Wow, it took two commenters to complain about batting average, usually that is the first comment. A for originality, dude.
If you’re going off batting average – no idea why but okay sure I guess it’s 1989 – Montgomery batted .146 at AA last year. Volpe batted .251. So clearly based off this arbitrary pointless shallow analysis, Volpe is going to a lot better than Montgomery at hitting baseballs.
Volpe had a slow start and then hit something like .280+ the last three months of the season last year. Combine that with an average of basically 25/40 on HR/SBs the last two years… yeah, people get extremely excited about that. Oh yeah, don’t forget he’s only 21 still.
I am not a Yankees fan by any stretch of the imagination, but Volpe has absolutely earned his elite prospect status.
@Very Barry- Okay you take Montgomery or whatever his name is and I’ll stick with Volpe, and we’ll see who will be a better major leaguer. You really think Montgomery makes his big league club this season? Have fun waiting…
You missed his point. The key wasn’t “batting average”; it was “only a Yankee”. There was an opportunity for him to post a favorite grievance, and he seized it.
He was only 20 last year and had a slow start at AA. He adjusted and then hit very well there and got a promotion to AAA which brought his BA down some more.
I’m fine with the way the Yankees are bringing him along. It’s aggressive but he’s showing he’s capable of adapting and getting better. He’s being challenged but not completely overmatched.
What you didn’t mention is he hit 21 home runs, drew walks at a very respectable rate, stole 50 bases and played a good SS. A kid doing that in AA/AAA at age 20 is a very exciting prospect. He’s looked great in ST as well.
Defensive metrics for CF seem to be even worse than the other positions… of course they’re looking for someone other than Judge that can handle the position.
What about Estevan Florial?
what about him? can he hit?
Yes. Florial had an OPS of .850 over 101 games at AAA last year.
Florial is not exactly proving himself this spring, and that’s against inconsistent pitching. Maybe Florial still has potential, but he’s highly unlikely to fulfill it with the Yankees. Ortega has a track record of being better than replacement level at the ML level, and is a better fit as a roster bandaid for a team with championship pretensions this year. Yankees should do Florial a favor and release him.
Someone quick with good instincts. With a high quality defensive CF and Judge in right they could easily cover for a defensively challenged but hard hitting left fielder, who would balance out any bat issues.
florial has had 2,500 minor league at-bats to lower his k rate and hasn’t done it. i love him but it might be time to lower expectations
Good points. Although he did hit a blast in the game today. Ironically enough, I had just turned to my kid and said, “Florial’s up, so it’s HR or K.” His MLB at-bats remind me very much of Gallo.
I’m a Florial fan, so I was in favor of giving him the OF nod last season and riding with the results, but he has no options, he hasn’t improved his approach, and he’s competing with Hicks which is a feat in itself.
His swing path is his biggest issue at the big league level, imho. His swing is too long and he isn’t fast enough to compensate for it.
Don’t forget that Kiner-Falefa also knows how to play catcher too. If he plays the outfield well, he’d be among the rarest players that could be a plus defender at every position on the field.
That makes up for the bat for sure.
I find it hard to judge personally how valuable his versatility actually is. It depends on what team he is on. If he is on a team with a good infield already with a solid backup at one of the 3 of SS,2B,3B then he really isn’t very valuable is he? If he was on a team with a weak infield and was the primary backup and/or a starter then he has a good bit of value. But the value is always questionable because he can’t hit. So situations have to open up for his versatility to be a factor for him to have a lot of value. Most teams have a better player than him at the positions he plays. He is far more valuable in a utility role but how much will he actually play in that role. It depends on the health of the starters and the depth the team has.
I’m the same way if he is on a light hitting team he has much less value than if he’s on a good hitting one. Value for this particular type of player has to be in a certain context imo. We want it to be simpler and just have a number but it’s not that simple, despite stats like WAR doing a good job approximating value (works better for some players than others…utility players that can’t hit but play good defense are a complex matter which has to be taken in context)
With JD, DJL, Stanton, and Hicks aging and Rizzo and his balky back, I expect them to miss games. If he makes a successful conversion to CF, IKF’s versatility is valuable as the Yankees aren’t likely to go over the next threshold in a trade. They also have Calhoun and Ortega in AAA but that would obv. require rostering them on the 40-man and DFA’ing someone.
Unless they sign Benjamin Buttons to play CF all players are aging.
Benjamin Buttons……thats fuuny. Thanks for the chuckle.
OAA >>> DRS
IKF’s glove nearly cost the Yankees the ALDS. DRS says that Gleyber is a good 2B while OAA says he’s terrible.
I’d stick IKF back behind the plate and see if he’s serviceable still. That would really make him a super utilityman.
IKF is the infield version of JBJ
Jbj once upon a time could hit. From 2015 to 2020 he put up every year what would be IKF’s career high OPS.
I always find it interesting that the front offices who use their own Advanced metrics rarely pay much for players that are glove only. But we stat heads insist they have a good bit of value. Teams rarely seem to let a glove only player play every day. Only when they have no alternative.
Hitting is most important. Run prevention and deep BPs with openers are a poor team’s strat. 2023 Twins are a great example of this. The reason teams don’t pay much for glove first players is that they aren’t hard to find. Value is determined by scarcity and demand. Not many elite hitter are available since they get extended ASAP.
Catchers and shortstops tend to get overvalued and frequently overrated. That Trevino made the ASG over Sean Murphy was a disgrace. The Yankees got off to a great start last year partly due to over the head performances on offense with Trevino and IKF. Trevino is one of the worst hitters in MLB ans was an automatic out during the second half. Moreover, he was slow in getting the ball to 2B which will be agrandized with the new rules in effect.
Everyone wants to run IKF and his 6 million dollar contract out of town. Josh Donaldson is a 25 million dollar problem. Would much rather have IKF playing third. I would pay 30 million for Donaldson to play anywhere else.