An adage of Bill James was to evaluate a player by what he can do, rather than what he can’t do well. If you look at Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the thing he does well offensively is collect hits. He’s not a great offensive batter, his OBP and slugging percentages are low. He does hit however, collecting 172 hits in 158 games in 2021. Combine that with him playing 2022 as a 27-year-old, peak age for a player, and the Yankees saw someone they could use, a decent hitter at the bottom of the order.

That ability to hit paid off the the Yankees Saturday as Kiner-Falefa singled in the Yankees first run in the fifth inning, doubled in the tying run in the ninth inning, then came around to score the game winner when Gleyber Torres delivered a pinch-hit single. Kiner-Falefa is not hitting .298 on the season with fourteen hits in fourteen games. So far, he’s looking like a very useful pickup for the Yankees.

The Yankees beat the Guardians 5-4.