Blue Jays Listening To Trade Offers On Isiah Kiner-Falefa

Blue Jays infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been on the 10-day injured list since the start of July due to a a left knee sprain, but he started a rehab assignment yesterday and could perhaps be traded prior to Tuesday’s deadline. Even if he’s not reinstated by then, trades of players on the IL are allowed and the Jays are willing to listen to offers, per both Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet on X and Robert Murray of FanSided.

Kiner-Falefa, 29, has long been a glove-first utility man. In his career, he has received strong grades for his work at the three infield spots to the left of first base. He’s also played all three outfield slots with some passable marks out there. Through the end of 2023, he had hit just .261/.314/.346 for a wRC+ of 81 but had stolen 74 bases in 98 tries.

The Jays signed him in the offseason to a two-year deal that paid him $15MM plus $1MM in incentives and he was having the best offensive showing of his career prior to the knee injury. He had seven home runs in 83 games, which isn’t a massive total but a nice jump for IKF personally as his career high is eight. He was only drawing walks at a 4.6% clip but also limited strikeouts to a 13.2% rate. His current .292/.338/.420 batting line translates to a 116 wRC+ in this year’s offensive environment.

Kiner-Falefa has close to 3,000 innings at shortstop in his career with 27 Defensive Runs Saved in that time. Outs Above Average has him at -5, but most of that is due to a -6 tally back in 2021. In almost 1500 innings at third base, he has 24 DRS and 24 OAA. His second base track record is barely over 400 innings but has nonetheless translated to 8 DRS and 2 OAA, while his over 500 innings in the outfield have been just a bit below par.

The Blue Jays are clear sellers but have mostly been focused on moving rental players. They’ve already traded Yimi García to the Mariners, Danny Jansen to the Red Sox and could look to flip Yusei Kikuchi, Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier and Trevor Richards in the coming days. While they are reportedly not trying to move core controllable guys like Bo Bichette or Vladimir Guerrero Jr., they are clearly at least willing to entertain moving some non-rental guys. They recently traded Nate Pearson to the Cubs despite Pearson having two extra seasons of control beyond this one.

Kiner-Falefa could perhaps garner interest due to the lack of other infielders that are available, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently examined in a piece of Front Office subscribers. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is already off the board after being acquired by the Yankees. Brandon Drury and Paul DeJong are having underwhelming seasons.

There are a few guys out there, such as Luis Rengifo of the Angels. The Rays have Amed Rosario and are probably open to offers on Brandon Lowe and Isaac Paredes, though the prices on the latter two should be pretty notable. The Reds might listen on Jonathan India but it’s unclear how available he really is. Ditto for Nico Hoerner of the Cubs.

Even after getting Chisholm, the Yankees are still looking for help at third base. Clubs like the Rangers, Astros, Dodgers, Red Sox, Mariners, Atlanta and the Pirates could be looking for infield upgrades in the coming days. Perhaps the imbalance between supply and demand will lead to the Jays getting some interesting calls. They could always keep Kiner-Falefa for the second year of his deal but their infield mix has also changed since they signed him.

Ernie Clement has essentially been performing the role IKF was brought in for, providing quality defense at multiple spots with a contact-based approach at the plate. Spencer Horwitz moved from first base to second base due to Guerrero being locked in at first. Horwitz has been hitting well while seemingly performing capable enough at the keystone. Leo Jiménez is covering shortstop with Bichette on the injured list. Orelvis Martinez will be back in the mix after he serves his 80-game PED suspension. Guys like Addison Barger and Davis Schneider are also capable of playing some infield. On the outfield, even without Kiermaier next year, the Jays currently project to have George Springer and Daulton Varsho with Barger and Schneider in play, as well as Jonatan Clase, recently acquired in the Garcia trade.

Perhaps IKF is more useful to them at this point as a trade chip than as a part of their 2025 plans. IKF’s contract has a $7.5MM competitive balance tax hit for the year but an acquiring club would only be taking on about a third of that by trading for him now. It’s also possible the Jays could look to eat some of the money owed to him in order to facilitate a deal.