Matchups are real in October, even if players rarely admit it publicly. However, former New York Yankees infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s recent comments are just ridiculous, speaking about how the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse viewed their postseason path last year.
Speaking on Tuesday, Kiner-Falefa said that Toronto players were looking at potential opponents and had a clear preference between New York and the Boston Red Sox.
“I don’t know if people were expecting Boston to get in last year. But I know in Toronto we were happy they lost because we weren’t ready for (Garrett) Crochet and all those guys,” Kiner-Falefa said, per Lauren Campbell of MassLive.com.
I have my thoughts on why this was ridiculous, but I’ll be fair and look at it from a baseball standpoint, too.
The quote immediately shows the respect Boston’s pitching staff, mainly ace Garrett Crochet. It’s important to note that Kiner-Falefa is on the Red Sox now, but Crochet is a frontline starter and can win the Red Sox a game or two in a series every single playoff series.
The issue, however, is that this comment was more than just talking about Crochet, whether he wants to admit it or not.
“One-hundred percent,” he answered when asked again. “We thought it was a better matchup for us the other way. We were watching Crochet just dice up. ... We definitely felt like it was a tougher matchup for us. So, once we saw the other team (win), we were a lot happier. It was definitely a topic.”
From Toronto’s perspective, avoiding Crochet meant not having to face a left-handed power arm capable of genuinely beating them twice in a series. His swing-and-miss stuff, paired with Boston’s decent pitching depth, and some above-average bats, could’ve gotten hot in the postseason.
My issue, though, is that Kiner-Falefa is like the 1,000th ex-Yankees player to come out and throw shade at the team. We get it. Most players who have struggled in New York. Maybe he didn’t like being booed off the field, but that’s baseball in New York City.
We’ll see how he likes Boston when he doesn’t do much offensively or doesn’t take a secondary lead in a big moment.