Texas Rangers’ Kiner-Falefa finds ‘the right place’ with dad’s help at home in Hawaii
Isiah Kiner-Falefa went back to where he came from to be the kind of hitter he hoped to be.
The Texas Rangers infielder leads the team with four home runs in 12 spring games. He has only five career homers in 176 major league games.
Off-season work with father Fili back home in Hawaii helped him alter his stance. He no longer stands wide open at the plate and now stands square to the pitcher.
“I always felt I could hit but it was a lot harder to time the ball when I was open,” said Kiner-Falefa, who also leads the team with 11 hits and nine runs, and has eight RBIs (only Rougned Odor with nine has more). “We worked hard in the off-season to be square to the pitcher so now I am able to use my legs.”
Back in Honolulu during the off-season, he worked with his dad, who coached him growing up. “I took all the tools I learned from the hitting coach and took them home,” Kiner-Falefa said. “He wanted me to get better and I needed to get better.”
When Kiner-Falefa was called up early in 2018 his biggest concern was learning to play catcher at the big league level and learning the pitching staff. Hitting took a back seat. And he felt pulled in different directions at times when trying to improve at the plate.
The Rangers decided to return him to a full-time infielder role last season.
“People forgot who I was, who I am,” he said. “He needs to do this, he needs to do that, without realizing what I was doing [at the plate]. I was catching for the first time my whole career and I was doing it at the highest level.
“People didn’t realize the toll it takes mentally and physically. I felt after last year my window shrunk as far as being the player I want to be and I’m trying to open it back up.”
After his first season in the majors, he stayed in Texas and hit in cages during the off-season. This winter, back home, he hit outside with his dad and hometown friends.
“I would work out in the morning, eat lunch and then go to the park and hit outside for three hours,” he said. “There was no fence, so I would hit them, then go walk and pick them up so we wouldn’t lose any.”
Rangers manager Chris Woodward is hoping to use Kiner-Falefa as a bench infielder when the season begins March 26. After Kiner-Falefa started 0 for 10 in his first four spring games, Woodward, along with hitting coach Luis Ortiz, told him to loosen up. That meant a lot to Kiner-Falefa. He homered that day and is 11 of 19 in his next eight games.
“It’s hard to put into words how impressed I am,” Woodward said. “Obviously, he was putting a lot of pressure on himself. You can see he is a completely different player because, in the beginning, he was a little stressed out trying to make the team with the first at-bat. He wasn’t getting the results.
“I wouldn’t say he was panicking but I just stressed to him, ‘relax, let all that work you put in show and shine.’”
So far, that’s what Kiner-Falefa has done.
“I just felt like I have to remind people that I haven’t changed. I’m the same guy when I first got called up, there’s no difference,” said Kiner-Falefa, who turns 25 on March 23. “But at the same time I’m going to get better. I was still a baby.”
His father helped remind him of what he was taught about hitting as a kid.
“Just mentally kind of just ingrained what I learned my whole life. He was always my coach so it was good to have him coach me up again and just remind me where I come from and who I am,” he said.
“I feel like being from Hawaii, it’s a little different. You’re on a rock, you’re away from everything else so sometimes you get misguided and in the wrong direction, so it’s good to get put in the right place. It’s a different speed you don’t ever see. It’s so laid-back that sometimes you come here and it just speeds up so it’s good to put things in perspective.”
Woodward views Kiner-Falefa as an elite defender, “especially at third base.”
“He can play shortstop at a really high level. He can play first base if we needed him too,” Woodward said. “I guarantee you if you put him in center he would look OK. That versatility is huge.
“The bat quality is as good as we have right now. He’s got the total package going. You are getting a pretty good version of the kid now. The talent is coming out but also the grit and the character of who he is, it’s showing now.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
