And people thought teams were breaking down the door to trade for him and Cherington just ignored them. I’d rather they do what they did for him and waive him so he can go to a contender rather than trade him and get a AA prospect that wont make it past AAA and be released in a few years
I think this is a little harsh on IKF he is a serviceable player. Im no expert but I dont think the guy’s pro career is over.
Two things.
First, the idea that in a 7 game series or even a single 11 inning game 7 that any one person or action lost the whole thing is absurd. The Blue Jays left 9 runners on base in Game 7 and left 10 runners on in Game 6. They had multiple innings with wasted lead off doubles or runners on 3rd with less than 2 outs. In fact, IKF got one of those runners to third with a hell of a bunt in the same game. When you play 7 games, two of which go to extra innings, and you end up losing by 1 run in the 7th game pretty much every single thing that went wrong could be described as the one thing that cost you the series. But it’s a team game and a team effort. Hell, if they win Game 3, the crazy 18 inning game, there probably isn’t even a reason to come back to Toronto!
Second, I want to push back on the secondary lead thing. I think it was earlier in this game we saw a Jay doubled off on a line drive caught by a drawn in infield. Game 6 ended when someone took an aggressive secondary lead thinking he wanted to score the tying run on a hit and he got doubled off. For all we know they were all making a conscious effort to not let that happen again. If he had taken the lead you wanted him to take and then the batter lines it to the third baseman he’s double off, inning over. And then we’d all be here saying “IKF cost his team trying to be the hero!” or some such nonsense.
Anyway, he didn’t have a great series at the plate. He’s a very average player in general. But he is not the sole reason they lost the game or the series.
Not so sure saying he cost them the World Series is entirely accurate. Could he have lead off a little more, sure. But we have no idea the instruction he was given. You could also point to like 10 other instances and say that player lost the game for that reason. He also came off the bench to lay down a perfect bunt.
To be fair, Blue Jays baserunning was trash all series.
Thrown out at home on a stand up double? Fricking run.
IKF and all the Blue Jays were instructed by coaches to take short leads.
IKF (per The Athletic) had a sprint speed of 28.2 ft/s on that play, which was in the top 10% of World Series sprint speeds.
The caption in the picture is flat out wrong.
The Pirates helped him learn to lose
Haha, people just want to point fingers. Apparently his lead at 3rd was shorter than it could’ve been by a foot. Could’ve taken that or head-first slid & maybe gotten in. Whatever, that’s baseball. He played solid all playoffs for them.
My gripe was Springer moving out of the way of a pitch that would’ve hit him in the 10th. Instead, he struck out.
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Toronto’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa only needed to beat it out to win the Jays the Trophy. But Kiner-Falefa took a tiny lead off third base, worried about the highly unlikely event of getting doubled up on a lineout to third. (Daulton Varsho, a lefty, had not lined out to the left side of the infield all season.) Kiner-Falefa wound up being out by approximately three inches, after deciding not to run through the plate but to slow himself down by sliding on a force play. If he’d done any of that differently, the Dodgers would have been toast.
10 comments
And people thought teams were breaking down the door to trade for him and Cherington just ignored them. I’d rather they do what they did for him and waive him so he can go to a contender rather than trade him and get a AA prospect that wont make it past AAA and be released in a few years
I think this is a little harsh on IKF he is a serviceable player. Im no expert but I dont think the guy’s pro career is over.
Two things.
First, the idea that in a 7 game series or even a single 11 inning game 7 that any one person or action lost the whole thing is absurd. The Blue Jays left 9 runners on base in Game 7 and left 10 runners on in Game 6. They had multiple innings with wasted lead off doubles or runners on 3rd with less than 2 outs. In fact, IKF got one of those runners to third with a hell of a bunt in the same game. When you play 7 games, two of which go to extra innings, and you end up losing by 1 run in the 7th game pretty much every single thing that went wrong could be described as the one thing that cost you the series. But it’s a team game and a team effort. Hell, if they win Game 3, the crazy 18 inning game, there probably isn’t even a reason to come back to Toronto!
Second, I want to push back on the secondary lead thing. I think it was earlier in this game we saw a Jay doubled off on a line drive caught by a drawn in infield. Game 6 ended when someone took an aggressive secondary lead thinking he wanted to score the tying run on a hit and he got doubled off. For all we know they were all making a conscious effort to not let that happen again. If he had taken the lead you wanted him to take and then the batter lines it to the third baseman he’s double off, inning over. And then we’d all be here saying “IKF cost his team trying to be the hero!” or some such nonsense.
Anyway, he didn’t have a great series at the plate. He’s a very average player in general. But he is not the sole reason they lost the game or the series.
Not so sure saying he cost them the World Series is entirely accurate. Could he have lead off a little more, sure. But we have no idea the instruction he was given. You could also point to like 10 other instances and say that player lost the game for that reason. He also came off the bench to lay down a perfect bunt.
To be fair, Blue Jays baserunning was trash all series.
Thrown out at home on a stand up double? Fricking run.
IKF and all the Blue Jays were instructed by coaches to take short leads.
IKF (per The Athletic) had a sprint speed of 28.2 ft/s on that play, which was in the top 10% of World Series sprint speeds.
The caption in the picture is flat out wrong.
The Pirates helped him learn to lose
Haha, people just want to point fingers. Apparently his lead at 3rd was shorter than it could’ve been by a foot. Could’ve taken that or head-first slid & maybe gotten in. Whatever, that’s baseball. He played solid all playoffs for them.
My gripe was Springer moving out of the way of a pitch that would’ve hit him in the 10th. Instead, he struck out.
You’re wrong so, uh, have a nice day.
I’ve been waiting for this. From a Buccos fan at [Slate](https://slate.com/culture/2025/11/world-series-2025-game-7-la-dodgers-win-vs-toronto-blue-jays-mlb.html) yesterday:
>
Toronto’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa only needed to beat it out to win the Jays the Trophy. But Kiner-Falefa took a tiny lead off third base, worried about the highly unlikely event of getting doubled up on a lineout to third. (Daulton Varsho, a lefty, had not lined out to the left side of the infield all season.) Kiner-Falefa wound up being out by approximately three inches, after deciding not to run through the plate but to slow himself down by sliding on a force play. If he’d done any of that differently, the Dodgers would have been toast.