Yankees shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Wednesday’s 13-inning loss to the Mariners, dropping his season OPS to a lowly .626.
For context, that mark is only five points higher than the .621 OPS Joey Gallo provided during his time with the Yanks in 2022.
Kiner-Falefa has become a bit of an enigma among the Yankee fanbase, with some praising his ability to make contact and limit strikeouts, while another contingent criticizes his absence of power, quality contact, and seemingly over-valued defensive ability. Now, his offensive numbers are trending toward the player who was widely despised among the fanbase, and eventually shipped out at the deadline in Gallo.
As the Twitter account Yankeesource noted Wednesday morning, when looking at other advanced metrics, Kiner-Falefa is still right on line with Gallo’s 2022 numbers in New York. His OPS+ is at 81 after last night’s hitless performance, just above Gallo’s 78 OPS+ during his time in pinstripes this season.
Of course, the one glaring difference is the batting average, with Kiner-Falefa hitting .268 compared to Gallo’s miserable .159. but even the on-base percentages aren’t that far off (.282 for Gallo, .312 for Kiner-Falefa), a result of Kiner-Falefa walking half the amount that Gallo did for the Yanks before being traded. But add it all up into a more all-encompassing stat like wRC+, a measure of runs per plate appearance, the two are nearly identical this season, (79 for Kiner-Falefa, or 21 percent below league average, and 80 for Gallo).
Sure, Kiner-Falefa’s strikeout rate is less than half of Gallo’s this season (though so is his walk rate), but even if he’s in the 99th percentile in whiff rate, he’s in the bottom one percent in the league in barrel rate (per Statcast), meaning that despite making consistent contact, it’s almost never squared up or hit hard (bottom 10 percent in average exit velocity), meaning much of that contact leads to outs.
This of course is by no means meant to suggest that Gallo didn’t struggle in New York. He never found his way with the Yankees, and was rightfully traded. It is more shedding light on the reality that Kiner-Falefa has been a net negative for the Yankees at a crucial position like shortstop, and could be a detriment to the lineup come playoff time.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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