Isiah Kiner-Falefa meant no Yankees disrespect with honest answer about ALDS preference

FORT MYERS, Fla.— Isiah Kiner-Falefa was a part-time SS (shortstop) by the end of his time with the Yankees, but always a full-time SS (straight shooter).So the more Aaron Boone thought about Kiner-Falefa’s comments earlier this spring — that the Blue Jays preferred to face the Yankees in the ALDS over the Red Sox because they thought it was a better matchup — the more he realized he probably shouldn’t have been surprised.

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.“Because IKF is very honest and real,” Boone said Wednesday.

“And I don’t think he meant any slap at us.I frankly didn’t take it that way.”Kiner-Falefa, the Blue Jay-turned-Red Sox player, confirmed that he did not, in fact, mean it as a jab at his former club, even if it may have quickly endeared him to his new fan base.

But he was asked a question in his introductory news conference here last month and did what he always does.“I just gave the honest answer,” Kiner-Falefa said before the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-0 at JetBlue Park.“It is what it is.

I love the guys over there.I have nothing bad to say about anybody over there.

It was just a matchup thing.[Garrett] Crochet’s an unbelievable pitcher and we did not want to face Crochet after he went eight innings against us [in late September].”Kiner-Falefa did not join the Blue Jays until September, so he was not around to see them bludgeon the Yankees during a pair of series at Rogers Centre over the summer.

But he had heard about their success against them during the season (8-5) and also knew that if the Red Sox had beaten the Yankees in the AL wild-card series, that would have meant having to face Crochet, the AL Cy Young runner-up.“I was just hearing what everybody else was telling me,” said Kiner-Falefa, who signed a one-year, $6 million deal with the Red Sox to serve as a utility player.“Obviously you know y...