It's catch as catch can for IKF
TAMPA — With a week left before Opening Day, Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s role with the Yankees is as cloudy as ever.
“Whatever happens, happens,’’ Kiner-Falefa said Wednesday. “I just want to win. That’s all I’m worried about right now. I am ready for whatever I need to do.”
That includes working out as a catcher for the first time in four years.
The last time he wore catcher’s equipment was 2019, when he started 31 games behind the plate for the Rangers.
But Wednesday, he was trying on his newly arrived tools of ignorance at his locker at Steinbrenner Field, where he planned to do his first work behind the plate as a Yankee.
Kiner-Falefa knows he won’t be the Yankees’ starting shortstop, so he’s attempting to make himself as versatile as possible in an effort to secure a bench role in The Bronx.
“I think they expected me to bring it up when I did,’’ Kiner-Falefa said of the team’s reaction when he mentioned doing some catching drills. “If I’m gonna do this, I want to be the best utility player I can be. I don’t want to do it halfway.”
The Yankees have a shortage of catchers — with Jose Trevino battling a wrist injury, Kyle Higashioka yet to return from the WBC, and prospects Ben Rortvedt and Austin Wells also hurt.
“I looked at it as a good opportunity,’’ Kiner-Falefa said.
Aaron Boone said there are no plans to get him in a game before the end of spring training at the new position.
“Not necessarily,’’ Boone said before the Yankees lost to Washington, 5-2, in West Palm Beach. “The biggest thing is just [for him to] catch some [bull]pens. Obviously, he’s the emergency guy, but I don’t want to just throw him back there.”
Kiner-Falefa also spent part of Wednesday’s workout in center field, where he said he feels “very, very comfortable.”
So far, his experience in left field has been “a little weird. The angles are tougher to deal with. In center, it’s more about being an athlete.”
He’s also relying on his athleticism at catcher, a position he first played at Double-A in 2016, when he was losing at-bats in the infield to other prospects in the Rangers organization.
He became an All-Star at Double-A, and after getting called up to Texas for the first time in 2018 as an infielder due to injuries to Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor, he switched back to catcher when they returned.
Kiner-Falefa started 35 games at catcher in 2018, 31 in ’19 and has played nothing but the infield since then.
In that time, how the position is played has changed, with pitch-framing put at a much higher premium.
“Now, instead of blocking [pitches], I’ll be on one knee and you pick it,’’ Kiner-Falefa said of balls in the dirt. “I feel like that will be a strength for me being an infielder with good hands.”
And he also understands that if he does catch, it will likely be in an emergency.
“I’m not gonna be expected to frame pitches,’’ Kiner-Falefa said. “I just want to get the job done.”