Isiah Kiner-Falefa responds to potential Pirates contract incentive drama

Mere days after the Pittsburgh Pirates came under public scrutiny for screwing Rowdy Tellez out of a $200,000 performance bonus, it appeared that they were trying to pull the same nonsense on another one of their veteran infielders.

Ahead of Sunday's season finale against the New York Yankees, Isiah Kiner-Falefa was just four plate appearances away from securing a $250,000 performance bonus of his own – the amount of which would be split between the Pirates and the Toronto Blue Jays, where the utility infielder started the season before being traded to Pittsburgh at the deadline. We'll let you draw your own conclusions as to whose name was conveniently left off of the Pirates' starting lineup for Sunday's game.

After what the penny-pinching Pirates did to Tellez, could they really have the audacity to do it again, less than a week later, to a different player? On Sunday's episode of his weekly radio show, general manager Ben Cherington took the opportunity to clarify what he called “certainly not usually a topic we would talk about, but [something to address] because there is some question around it in the public sphere.”

Well, yeah. And, for that, Cherington has no one to blame but himself.

“He told us he was comfortable and made the choice that, no, for today’s last game that other guys were going to play and he was comfortable with that,” Cherington explained. “He ultimately made that choice. Boy, how much we respect him. Just another example of how happy we are to have IKF on our team.”

Ben Cherington's comments on Pirates' Isiah Kiner-Falefa reek of insincerity

Cherington claimed that it was Kiner-Falefa's choice to remain out of the lineup for Sunday's game; but was it really?

“Last night, got the lineup and I wasn't in there,” Kiner-Falefa said (via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com). “I had no problem with it, I didn't fight it. It is what it is."

Yeah. Cherington calling it "his choice" feels like a bit of a stretch.

Giving credit where it's due, Pirates manager Derek Shelton did make an effort to make things right once he learned about the performance bonus. But it begs the question: did he make the offer in earnest, or was he pressured to do so by Cherington so as to avoid more public embarrassment after the Tellez situation?

Kiner-Falefa handled the situation with class and professionalism, as anyone would expect from him. But he also gave the Pirates organization more credit than it deserved and let Cherington and company get off far too easily. He was only offered the opportunity to play after Sunday's lineup had already been made; had he accepted said opportunity, he would have come across as greedy, selfish and a poor teammate for robbing a younger player of a chance to play September baseball. Of course he wasn't going to be that guy.

Also, per Kiner-Falefa's comments, he was only presented with the opportunity to be in the lineup an hour before first pitch. Not only does that make the offer seem disingenuous; it also shows a blatant disregard for player safety, as Kiner-Falefa has already been told he wouldn't be playing and likely didn't have the chance to go through the same warm-up routines he otherwise would.

So, spare us the insincere platitudes about the "respect" this organization has for Kiner-Falefa – or any of its players, for that matter. Creating the illusion of "choice" for Kiner-Falefa was merely a face-saving tactic for a club that recently learned the hard way what happens when they get caught trying to pull one over on a player (and the fans).

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