IKF becomes latest new Red Sox addition to begin career by dumping on Yankees

There have been plenty of recent contenders, but the 2026 Boston Red Sox are the undisputed MLB preseason pandering champions. The latest addition to the group is Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who could not wait to get in front of a microphone and join his teammates in disparaging the Yankees, yearning for a chance to be applauded by a group of howling, clapping seals.

Sonny Gray began it, telling the Boston media in his 2007 World Series hat (which he admitted he'd just purchased) that he'd never wanted to be a Yankee in the first place. That led to an unearthed press conference from 2018 where he stated the exact opposite. Red Sox fans responded by noting that people lie in press conferences all the time. Yes. Yes, for sure. He was lying then, but is not lying now. The thing he said that you like couldn't possibly be a lie. Honest guy.

Then came Willson Contreras with a similar pointed message directed at the Bronx. We don't even know you! Who are you? We've never met you before. Thank goodness he was traded for Hunter Dobbins; the tryhard energy of Contreras and Dobbins' dad in the same locker room might've been combustible.

And now it's Kiner-Falefa, who used his introductory press conference to let Red Sox fans know that he and the rest of the Jays were so glad to play the easy Yankees last postseason instead of Boston. This may be pandering, but knowing the Blue Jays, it's also almost definitely true.

New Red Sox infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa says Blue Jays were psyched to play the Yankees over Boston last October

Buck Martinez agreed.

If Kiner-Falefa were speaking without emotion and an ulterior motive, he probably would've come to a different conclusion, finishing the quote with something like, "We were, of course, wrong, given that the Yankees defeated the Red Sox head-to-head, making Boston comparatively worse at the time."

Regardless, Kiner-Falefa ended last October hoisted by his own petard. He and everyone else in the Blue Jays space loved to roast the Yankees last season for their sloppiness/lack of preparedness. Put some pressure on 'em, as Chris Taylor once said, and they'll "s*** down their legs". Of course, that wasn't untrue; the Yankees had enough defensive gaffes and brainlocks to fill a whole asylum last season and in 2024.

But the Blue Jays weren't immune, either. Kiner-Falefa and Co. ducked the Sox and snuck past the Yankees, but with everything on the line in Game 7 of the World Series, he was too tentative to score on the grounder that could've sent Canada into a frenzy, instructed by his third base coach to stay way too close to the bag. Hmm. Sounds like something that would've happened in an organization with poor fundamental practices and the occasional "paralysis by analysis" lapse. That can't be!

Boston has now assembled an infield featuring IKF and Caleb Durbin, two ex-Yankees who'll hustle the Bronx Bombers to death this season, even if they don't intimidate anybody else. Now would be the perfect time for Jose Caballero to make a leap and for Ryan McMahon to shore up that leaky defense. The less ammunition for Boston and Toronto's quotable troublemakers, the better.