When the Yankees and Blue Jays went through pregame introductions on Friday for Yankee Stadium’s home opener, Isiah Kiner-Falefa received a nice surprise.
Yankees fans cheered for the utility man, now a member of the Jays. Kiner-Falefa spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons in pinstripes, but he didn’t expect an ovation.
“It was fun,” he told the Daily News. “It was good closure. It was an awesome moment, and I was really excited about it. It’s something I’ll remember forever. I love the Yankee fans for that.
“I think I got booed last Opening Day — on the home team — so it felt really, really good to get that.”
As “IKF” alluded to, he had a rocky relationship with Yankees fans during his time in New York. He grew up one of them in Hawaii, but Kiner-Falefa’s poor play as the Bombers’ starting shortstop turned the Bronx faithful against him in 2022.
It got to the point where he had to avoid social media, but things changed last season with Kiner-Falefa in a utility role, a better fit for the light hitter.
When asked to learn the outfield two springs ago, he embraced it. Kiner-Falefa ultimately played every position except for catcher and first base last year. He even logged four innings on the mound – he allowed just one earned run – when the Yankees’ needed a mop-up man.
Kiner Falefa’s willingness to do whatever was asked of him endeared him to Yankees fans, who changed their tune a year after his struggles at short.
“You get character reveals all the time in this game, because you’re gonna face rough waters, you’re gonna face adversity,” Aaron Boone said last year. “It reveals itself, and what it’s revealed is a guy that wants to go out and be part of a team, and be part of a winning team, and be part of it here and stick his nose in there and get better all the time.”
While Kiner-Falefa’s second season with the Yankees went better than the first, he ended up signing a two-year, $15 million deal with Toronto in December.
The 29-year-old said that the Blue Jays’ facilities and the way the organization treats players and their families made the Canadian club an “enticing” destination. The chance for regular at-bats also attracted him.
Third baseman Matt Chapman and utilityman Whit Merrifield both left the Blue Jays over the winter. That opened “two windows of opportunity” for Kiner-Falefa, who won a Gold Glove at the hot corner in 2020.
At the time of his signing, it would have been hard for Kiner-Falefa to expect regular playing time with the Yankees. DJ LeMahieu was supposed to be their everyday third baseman, and Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera were among the team’s versatile bench options.
However, Peraza seemed to be facing an uphill battle to make the Opening Day roster in spring training before a shoulder strain put him on the shelf. LeMahieu is also on the injured list with a nondisplaced fracture in his right foot.
The Yankees made multiple attempts to sign experienced utilitymen like Kiké Hernández and Amed Rosario. After those efforts failed, they traded for Jon Berti.
“It just didn’t fit [at the time],” Kiner-Falefa said. “I know now with the way it looks, it would have worked, but at the same time, it took injuries. When you make a decision like that, if there’s four other guys that can do what you do, there’s not really a point.”
Still, Kiner-Falefa said that he paid close attention to the Yankees’ offseason. He initially thought that Jasson Domínguez’s UCL injury could lead to a role in the outfield, but he realized the “writing was on the wall” when the Yankees acquired Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham.
Both of those moves happened before Kiner-Falefa signed with Toronto.
Now bearded and playing North of the border, Kiner-Falefa is a division rival. However, his time with the Yankees is still something he cherishes.
“I played here for two years,” he said. “I loved my time here. I’m always cheering for those guys over there. It’s a good team. A lot of my friends.”
