It’s safe to say the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t enter the off-season with ‘multi-positional glove-first guy’ atop their list of needs, which made the signing of Isiah Kiner-Falefa a bit of a puzzler.
Although run prevention is theoretically as valuable as run scoring, the team already has a near-complete pitching staff and signed Gold Glover Kevin Kiermaier the day before bringing Kiner-Falefa into the fold.
From a big-picture perspective, Kiner-Falefa seems to be a bit of a tweener whose salary is steep for a role player and light for a starter. He’s a floor raiser rather than a player likely to radically change the trajectory of the franchise in either of the next two seasons.
Although that is not something most fans are going to get too excited about, one person who is probably delighted by the acquisition is manager John Schneider. Kiner-Falefa may not be a star, but his rare versatility gives the skipper plenty of tactical options.
While Schneider isn’t likely to call on Kiner-Falefa’s bat in high-leverage situations, the fact that he is capable of playing literally any position on the field — with the possible exception of first base — opens up plenty of avenues for in-game maneuvering.
Below is a summary of the practical applications afforded by Kiner-Falefa’s versatility.
The three CF defence
With Kiermaier and Daulton Varsho already in the building the Blue Jays will consistently have most of their outfield covered by legit centre fielders. George Springer played plenty of centre as recently as 2022, but he’ll turn 35 before next season is over, and there’s a case to be made that Kiner-Falefa is the team’s third-best outfielder.
The 28-year-old played more innings in centre than any other position in 2023, and took to patrolling the outfield after sticking to the infield in the first five years of his career.
Kiner-Falefa graded out as an approximately-average centre fielder in his 41 games there and he has potential to improve in the outfield with more experience. The veteran ranked second in the majors in reaction time among outfielders — meaning he was elite in the first 1.5 seconds after the ball came off the bat. The rest of his jump was approximately average, but it’s not hard to imagine his routes improving with more reps.
A trio of Kiermaier, Varsho, and Kiner-Falefa may not become as iconic as the famous three-CF setup the 2015 Royals would deploy late in games with Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon, and Jarrod Dyson — but it could help the Blue Jays preserve some leads, and give Springer a few innings of rest.
A third baseman for the southpaws and groundballers
The Blue Jays’ third base situation lacks clarity at the moment, but it seems likely that Kiner-Falefa will be the team’s best defensive option at the position. That’s where the utility man won his Gold Glove back in 2020 and major metrics are in agreement that he’s been excellent at the hot corner over the course of his career (+6.7 UZR/+19 DRS/+22 OAA).
That makes him an excellent option to play the position when left-handed starters are on the mound and opponents are stacking the lineup with righty bats. As it stands, that just applies to Yusei Kikuchi, but Ricky Tiedemann could find his way up at some point in 2024, and in-season transactions might shake up the rotation.
In late-game situations, the Blue Jays project to have two southpaws — Tim Mayza and Genésis Cabrera — who could benefit from Kiner-Falefa’s presence.
Mayza is a particularly strong candidate to consider matching with Kiner-Falefa as the veteran reliever has run a groundball rate above 57 per cent in each of the last three seasons. The three-batter rule also makes avoiding right-handed hitters entirely an impossibility for the lefty.
A base-stealing option
Kiner-Falefa is no base-running specialist, but if the season started today he would be the Blue Jays’ best threat to swipe a bag off the bench.
Over the last three seasons Kiner-Falefa has stolen 56 bases and been caught just 14 times, good for a solid 80 per cent success rate. He isn’t a burner, but he’s developed a good instinct for thievery.
Kiner-Falefa doesn’t fit the Terrance Gore/Dalton Pompey/Cam Eden mould as a player capable of consistently stealing despite the fact the defence is completely aware of his intentions. But he is a credible pinch runner who might travel an extra 90 feet in an important spot from time to time.
The Zack Collins role
When Varsho first came to the Blue Jays much was made about his ability to play catcher occasionally because it could theoretically clear the team to deploy Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen simultaneously without concerns of an in-game injury throwing the team into disarray.
That contingency is one the team has taken seriously in the past as it rostered a third catcher in Collins for weeks at a time in 2022 with virtually no game action. Varsho didn’t catch at all last year — even in Grapefruit League games — and served as a true emergency catcher, albeit an overqualified one.
Kiner-Falefa has logged 586 big-league innings behind the plate. He is no one’s idea of a defensive ace back there, but the Blue Jays can be confident in his ability to strap on some padding in a pinch.
Toronto would be reluctant to have Varsho catch unless the situation was dire thanks to his importance to the Blue Jays in the long term. Kiner-Falefa could take that possibility off the table.
Eating a couple of innings
Kiner-Falefa dabbled in pitching for the first time in 2023, and the results were surprisingly solid.
While he’s a guy who can be called upon during blowouts rather than any semblance of a two-way player, the veteran could help spare the Blue Jays bullpen at some point over the next couple of seasons.
In his four appearances last season, Kiner-Falefa logged four innings of one-run ball and conceded just four base runners. He even struck out Eugenio Suárez on a grim June night for the New York Yankees.
There’s nothing special about his stuff as he tops out in the low 80s, but he mixes speeds and locates competently. He even broke out a sub-40 m.p.h. eephus pitch a couple of times.
Kiner-Falefa’s acumen on the mound doesn’t provide significant value, but it puts him at the top of Toronto’s position-player pitching depth chart from the moment he arrives at camp.
Those are all small ways Kiner-Falefa can be used, but they give a glimpse of what makes his versatility attractive to the Blue Jays.
He’s also the best backup shortstop option the team has had in the Bo Bichette era considering he started 286 games at the position between 2022 and 2023. He doesn’t have much MLB experience at second base (19 starts), but based on his skill set, it’s fair to assume he would do well there, too.
None of that means that Kiner-Falefa is Toronto’s missing piece, or a radically undervalued guy the team stole from under other teams’ noses on the free-agent market. Ultimately he’s still a player who’s never topped 1.6 fWAR in a season despite getting multiple shots as a full-time starter.
He should be interesting to watch, though. Or at the very least it should be intriguing to see how the Blue Jays use him. Kiner-Falefa’s versatility creates plenty of possibilities when it comes to in-game tactics, and his presence will put his manager’s creativity to the test.
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