Isiah Kiner-Falefa

BIOGRAPHY

Isiah Kiner-Falefa was born March 23, 1995, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a third baseman in the MLB.

He was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the fourth round of the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft. He made his professional debut with the AZL Rangers and spent all of 2013 there, batting .322 with 11 RBIs and 12 stolen bases in 41 games. In 2014, he played for the AZL Rangers, Hickory Crawdads, and Spokane Indians where he batted .246 with 16 RBIs in 79 games, and in 2015, he played with Hickory and the High Desert Mavericks, where he batted .296 with 40 RBIs in 98 games. Kiner-Falefa spent 2016 with the Frisco RoughRiders where he compiled a .256 batting average with 27 RBIs in 108 games.

Kiner-Falefa has played numerous positions in the Rangers organization, including shortstop, second base, third baseman and catcher. He played in 2017 with Frisco where he batted .288 with five home runs and 48 RBIs in 129 games. The Rangers added him to their 40-man roster after the 2017 season. He opened the 2018 season with the Round Rock Express, appearing in five games before being recalled to the major leagues for the rest of the season.

Kiner-Falefa made his Major League debut against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 10, 2018. On April 14, against the Houston Astros, he hit his first career home run. Kiner-Falefa appeared in 111 games during his rookie season of 2018, hitting .261/.325/.357/.682 with 4 home runs and 34 RBI, while playing games at catcher, third base, shortstop, and second base. He opened the 2019 season with Rangers in a catching tandem with veteran Jeff Mathis.

On March 12, 2022, Texas traded Kiner-Falefa, along with pitcher Ronny Henríquez, to the Minnesota Twins for Mitch Garver. One day later, Minnesota traded Kiner-Falefa, along with Ben Rortvedt and Josh Donaldson, to the New York Yankees for Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela.

During spring training in 2023, Kiner-Falefa competed with Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza to be the Yankees starting shortstop. Volpe won the starting shortstop job, as the Yankees turned Kiner-Falefa into a utility player. On April 13, 2023, Kiner-Falefa made his pitching debut in the ninth inning during an 11-2 loss for the Yankees against the Minnesota Twins. His second pitch on the mound, 38 MPH "Eephus" pitch, was the slowest tracked pitch in Yankees history. On June 14, during the Subway Series against the New York Mets, Kiner-Falefa stole home off pitcher Brooks Raley. He became the first Yankee player since Didi Gregorius on August 27, 2016 to steal home. On June 22, Kiner-Falefa was sent out for his third career pitching appearance in the top of the ninth inning of a 10–0 blowout loss against the Seattle Mariners. In the bottom of the ninth, he became the first Yankees position player to pitch three times in a season. He pitched a scoreless inning, recording his first strikeout (Eugenio Suarez). He was called to bat as the pitcher in the lineup, which resulted in a 2-run home run against reliever Chris Flexen. Kiner-Falefa became the first Yankee to hit a home run as a pitcher since Lindy McDaniel did so on September 28, 1972, the last season before the American League's adoption of the designated hitter rule. He became a free agent following the season.

Falefa signed with the Toronto Blue Jays during the winter of 2023.