Isiah Kiner-Falefa Turns Down Huge Bonus, Sits Out Finale

It's not often you see a baseball player turn down a bonus in their contract, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa actually declined an offer from his manager to play in the season finale on Sunday, which would have allowed him to reach 500 plate appearances and a $250,000 bonus.

So why did IKF turn down a quarter of a million bonus?

"I feel like I didn't deserve it." He explained it this way:

ICYMI, Isiah Kiner-Falefa declined the Pirates’ offer to play today and hit a performance bonus. Derek Shelton said when he originally set the lineup he didn’t know about the bonus, and then offered Kiner-Falefa a chance to start when he found out.

IKF’s explanation: pic.twitter.com/4qugvHhK2B
— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) September 30, 2024

"Last night, got the lineup and I wasn't in there. I had no problem with it, I didn't fight it. It is what it is," said IKF.

"Today, when I got to the field and they found out (about the bonus he'd be missing out on), they came up to me maybe an hour before the game and they gave me the option (of playing).

"At that point, I kinda already checked out. At this point, I didn't think it was fair to take a spot from Peggy (rookie Liover Peguero, making only his 3rd start), or one of the young guys, an opportunity to play at Yankee Stadium away from them.

"I got hurt this year. I missed a month. If that doesn't happen, or if we're actually in a real race, I crush those incentives by a long shot. So, at the end of the day, I feel like I didn't deserve it from that aspect. It's nothing the team did. They tried to make it right at the end. That meant a lot to me right there".

Kiner-Falefa began his season with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he signed a two-year, $15 million free agent contract. He was acquired by the Pirates at the trade deadline. He still has another year to run with Pittsburgh, at $7.5M.

His manager, Derek Shelton, was impressed at the sacrifice the player made for younger teammates.

“When I did find out about that situation, I called him in and said, ‘Hey, you’re this close. I’ll be more than happy to adjust the lineup,’” Shelton told SportsNet Pittsburgh. “I think that speaks to the leader that he is. He said no. We had multiple conversations about it. I wanted to make sure that he was in a spot that he understood that we would make that adjustment, that I would make that adjustment.”