Isiah Kiner-Falefa stoked tensions in the heated American League East by taking a shot at his former team.
A week after signing a one-year deal with the Red Sox, the ex-Yankees utilityman said he and his former Blue Jays teammates were rooting for New York to beat Boston in last year’s wild-card round to receive an “easier matchup” in the Division Series, according to the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey.
“We thought it was a better matchup for us the other way [facing the Yankees],” Kiner-Falefa told reporters Tuesday.
Kiner-Falefa, 30, spent two polarizing seasons in New York — particularly his first in 2022, when he served as the team’s everyday shortstop before transitioning to a super-utility role behind Anthony Volpe.
After spending parts of the 2024 and 2025 campaigns with the Blue Jays and Pirates, he returned to Toronto ahead of its first push to the World Series since 1993.
While Toronto and New York tied for the top record in the American League in 2025, the Blue Jays owned the tiebreaker after wiping the floor with their division rival during the regular season.
They wanted a chance to go back to the well, which is exactly what they got after the Bronx Bombers stormed back from a Game 1 loss to beat the arch-rival Red Sox in three games.
The Jays laughed off the popular notion — “be careful what you wish for” — and completed a gentleman’s sweep of the Yankees, outscoring them 34-19 in the ALDS.
Kiner-Falefa, who hit .162 with a pair of RBIs across 15 postseason games, is the latest ex-Yankee to send an errant shot at the team after joining their greatest foe.
In December, newly acquired starting pitcher Sonny Gray explained that he was happy to be in “a place where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”
Not long before, reigning AL Reliever of the Year Aroldis Chapman emphasized that he would never return to The Bronx — “Not even dead.”
Tension between the two rivals continues to escalate before Opening Day, with the Yankees and Red Sox slated to meet for the first time this season from April 21-23 at Fenway Park.
