Isiah Kiner-Falefa is a lucky man.
The team that Kiner-Falefa went to spring training with in February, the Pittsburgh Pirates, played their last game of the 2025 season more than three weeks ago. As the final month of the regular MLB schedule took shape, with little or no warning, Kiner-Falefa was asked to pack up his locker.
One month past the July 31 trade deadline, the National League shortstop-third baseman was a man without teammates. Pittsburgh placed him on outright waivers; for any of the other 29 clubs to sign. On Aug. 29, Kiner-Falefa’s eight-year MLB career was placed on pause.
Then came the Toronto Blue Jays.
Kiner-Falefa’s contract was picked up by Toronto on Aug. 31. He was placed on the club’s 40-man roster, thus making him eligible for postseason play.
Playing mainly at shortstop and third base for the Pirates, the Blue Jays brought Kiner-Falefa into the fold as infield insurance. Blue Jays’ third baseman Ernie Clement had just suffered a hairline fracture in his left middle finger in a game against the Minnesota Twins prior to the Aug. 31 deadline. His availability was the dreaded “day-to-day” prognosis. As talented as any utility infielder on the market, Toronto immediately claimed the veteran Kiner-Falefa.
Going from a club seated in the cellar of the National League Central, who would finish the season at 71–91, to the Blue Jays, and making preparations for playing in his first World Series is nothing less than an unfolding sport’s fairy tale. From last to first just doesn’t happen often often in an MLB season.
Kiner-Falefa, a 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award-winning third baseman, is readying for World Series Game 1 and Game 2, beginning this Friday in Toronto. Blake Snell, on Friday, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Saturday, are the scheduled starters for the National League Champions Los Angeles Dodgers.
When Kiner-Falefa wore a Pirates’ uniform for the last time, he had played 119 games; 94 at shortstop and 25 at third base. He was hitting .264, and was a steady leader among a clubhouse, by and large, laden with young, unproven teammates.
For Toronto, picking up the remainder of Kiner-Falefa’s $7.5 million salary for 2025 seemed like a bargain, given the potential postseason stakes. Ironically, it was prior to the 2024 season that Kiner-Falefa inked a two-year deal with the Blue Jays for $15 million. During the 2024 season, Toronto shipped their utility specialist to the “Steel City.”
During the Blue Jays’ American League Division Series with the New York Yankees and the American League Championship Series that went seven games with the Seattle Mariners, Kiner-Falefa wasn’t a bench jockey for manager John Schneider. Toronto, heading to their first World Series appearance since 1993, made good use of their newest acquisition’s experience in postseason play.
Kiner-Falefa, when with the Yankees in 2022, saw action in the postseason against the Guardians in the ALDS, and opposite the Houston Astros in the ALCS. Now, that experience was being put to use for the Blue Jays.
In the ALCS with the Mariners, Kiner-Falefa was inserted in Schneider’s lineup in all four of the Blue Jays’ victories. He also saw duty in all four of the Blue Jays-Yankees’ ALDS games. During Game 7 in Toronto on Oct. 20 at Rogers Centre, Kiner-Falefa was on the field when Jeff Hoffman nailed the pennant down for the Blue Jays, while striking out the side in the ninth inning. Among the 44,770 fans celebrating Blue Jays success, Kiner-Falefa had to have felt as one of, if not the luckiest man in uniform.
The amazing, and accelerated rise from the depths of baseball for Kiner-Falefa in 2025 with the Pirates, then to a 94–68 record which allowed the Blue Jays to have home field advantage throughout the World Series (Games 3–5 scheduled for Los Angeles, and Games 6–7, if necessary—back in Toronto), this remains one of the on-going “good feels” of the postseason.
Playing in 19 regular season games with Toronto after Aug. 31, Kiner-Falefa appeared comfortable from his first game when joining the club on Sept. 1 in Cincinnati for a three-game series with the hometown Reds.
Kiner-Falefa, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the conclusion of the World Series, could be positioned by Blue Jays’ skipper Schneider at more than one position against the Dodgers.
Whether Andres Gimenez remains as shortstop, Kiner-Falefa at second, and Clement is playing the “hot corner” at third base, or if Bo Bichette is back in the lineup, Toronto has many infield options for the scheduled upcoming seven-games series. Bichette, Toronto’s regular shortstop, has been out of action since injuring a knee on September 6 in a game against the Yankees. Bichette was left off Toronto’s ALCS roster.
For a guy that wasn’t projected to be playing ball deep into October this season, Kiner-Falefa continues to make his presence known to opposing clubs. Wherever Schneider plugs him into his lineup against the Dodgers, confidence remains high that Kiner-Falefa gets the job done—and the fairy tale continues.
