BRONX — Isiah Kiner-Falefa starting in center field for the Yankees wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card at the start of spring training, but there he was in game No. 3 of the season. Sunday marked a bit of a milestone for the 28-year-old, who was playing the outfield for the first time in his major league career, and showed that Yankees manager Aaron Boone wasn’t afraid to get a little creative with who he deployed.
The Yankees had been trying to groom Kiner-Falefa to be more of a utility player late in the spring as it became more apparent that Anthony Volpe or Oswald Perazza would be the starting shortstop this season.
“I understood there’s two great shortstop prospects that could help the team and for me being the older guy I definitely saw that,” Kiner-Falefa said before Sunday’s game. “Instead of battling it out, I wanted to give myself an opportunity to stick on the team. I felt like them giving me that opportunity to play the outfield allowed me to still be here.”
Kiner-Falefa said that the decision was a mutual decision between himself and Boone and that he found out on Saturday that he would be patrolling center in the final game between the Yanks and San Francisco Giants. The lifelong infielder added before the game that he was comfortable after getting some work out there during the spring and that his time playing safety and defensive back in football while growing up helped him in the outfield.
“The footwork is almost the same and I just kind of take that and I applied it out there. That’s a big help of playing two sports,” Kiner-Falefa said.
The infielder-turned-outfielder was tested early by the Giants. Michael Conforto hit a lined blooper into center that forced Kiner Falefa to come charging in to make the catch in the first inning.
The decision to play IKF in the outfield on Sunday did raise some questions though with Boone opting for the inexperienced center fielder over someone like Aaron Hicks.
Hicks hasn’t been in the starting lineup yet this season and told The Athletic before the game that he wasn’t sure of his role. Boone said that it was a little bit of everything and that he would get playing time.
“Today was just not necessarily the match-up I love,” Boone said. “So I would probably expect him to be in there the next couple of days. But I thought he had a good at-bat coming in off the bench. Worked the walk. Didn’t get rewarded with a call with it, but you know, a little bit of everything. He’ll play even though he hasn’t been in the lineup these first few. Kind of the last two days I don’t love that matchup, but likely in there probably the next few days.”
The Yankees face the Philadelphia Phillies over the next three games at Yankee Stadium.
