Who is he and where did he come from?
He’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The former Ranger also spent time with the Yankees before signing a 2-year, $15 million deal with the Blue Jays in 2024, who then traded him to the Pirates at that year’s trade deadline, only to take him back a year later after he was cut by Pittsburgh. He’s best known as the man who failed to take a secondary lead and got picked off at the plate as a pinch runner in the World Series. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because I conditionally passed on him on a smash or pass piece back in November. In that article, I pleaded for Craig Breslow to get the Alex Bregman deal done to avoid having to resort to players like IKF. No such deal came to fruition, and, now, after months of questions about who will be playing second base this season, Kiner-Falefa, who turns 31 in March, joins the Red Sox as a right-handed bat to balance a lefty-heavy lineup and add some defensive versatility.
Kiner-Falefa is a serviceable player in this league, depending what you’re looking for. He committed just nine errors in 2025 and is versatile in the field, playing second, third and short. He was a Gold Glover in 2020, even though many may say that season doesn’t really count, does it?
What IKF brings to the club in defense, though, he lacks profoundly at the plate, which is discouraging given that he’s being pencilled into an infield that held one (or, really, two) All-Star caliber players twelve months ago. Kiner-Falefa was in the lowest tenth percentile in slugging percentage, exit velocity, barrel rate and walk rate last year. When he does hit the ball, there’s not much thump to it, as he had an isolated power of .072 in 2025. He also doesn’t walk much, being in the lowest second percentile there. He’s slashed.262/.311/.349 for his career.
Tl;dr, just give me his 2025 stats.
138 G, 9 E, .262/.297/.334, 2 HR, 77 K, 17 BB
Show me a cool highlight.
Kiner-Falefa is quick in the field and can get to the ball, such as when he made this play at third to prevent a surefire hit.
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
Maybe he just sacrificed a guy over? He likely wasn’t celebrating after hitting an extra base hit, that’s for sure.
What’s his role on the 2026 Red Sox?
It’s hard not to be upset at a scenario wherein the Red Sox lineup, already near the bottom half of baseball in power at the plate, loses both Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman while gaining a guy who has hit only 36 home runs in about a thousand career games. And that’s even with the addition of Willson Contreras to compete with Triston Casas, who’s far from a sure thing. But Kiner-Falefa can be used at three positions and is defensively sound at all of them, which gives the team some added lineup flexibility. Errors have been a liability for this team for a long time, and IKF will undeniably help there. Depending on how he’s used (i.e., not that much), this could be a good depth move, but it feels like a half-measure right now.
