The Red Sox doubled down on their \u2018run prevention and defense-first\u2019 approach to roster construction Wednesday night when they agreed to a one-year contract with veteran infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa.<\/p>\n
The signing, as first reported by MassLive\u2019s Chris Cotillo, adds an experienced glove to a disorganized Boston infield. Kiner-Falefa has played 450 games at shortstop, 234 at third base, and 90 at second in his eight-year career with the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, and Pittsburgh Pirates. He\u00a0has 12 Defensive Runs Saved in 573.2 career innings at second, 29 DRS in 1,818 innings at third, and 32 DRS in 3,838 innings at shortstop.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox have Trevor Story as their starting shortstop, but second and third are up for grabs. Kiner-Falefa, who turns 31 on March 23, joins a list of infield options that includes Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, Romy Gonzalez, David Hamilton and Nick Sogard. Kiner-Falefa and Mayer are the presumed top candidates for starting jobs.<\/p>\n
Kiner-Falefa\u2019s righty bat helps balance the lefty-heavy lineup, though his plate discipline is something of a mixed bag. He ranked in the 77th percentile in strikeout rate (K%) and 91st percentile in whiff rate last season, but in the second percentile in walk rate (BB%).<\/p>\n
Yet to a Red Sox lineup in need of some \u2018pop,\u2019 as chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has reiterated since the offseason began, Kiner-Falefa offers virtually no power potential: a lifetime .262\/.311\/.349 line and 36 home runs in 918 career games, never more than eight in a single season. He ranked in the fifth percentile in Batting Run Value last season, and homered twice in 138 games between the Pirates and Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox 40-man roster was at 39, so no corresponding move is required.<\/p>\n
The deal is pending a physical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox doubled down on their \u2018run prevention and defense-first\u2019 approach to roster construction Wednesday night when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,48,2057,4,62,149,151,1567,69,3240,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-555193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston-red-sox","10":"tag-isiah-kiner-falefa","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-rangers","14":"tag-spring-training","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-rangers","17":"tag-texasrangers","18":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116015251049715150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}