Isiah Kiner-Falefa comments on the Pirates not playing him and keeping him from hitting a bonus

«When I got to the field and they found out, they came up to me maybe an hour before the game and they gave me the option [to play],» Kiner-Falefa said. «At that point, I kinda already checked out. At this point, I didn't think it was fair to take a spot from Peggy, 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 important that everybody gets an opportunity to play as much as possible down the stretch, and we're also navigating some health and keeping guys away from maybe turning a little thing into a big thing,» general manager Ben Cherington said on his radio show. «So [manager Derek Shelton] and [bench coach Don] Kelly have been having these conversations every day with our position player group. And it just so happened as we got into this weekend, as we had the conversation with [Kiner-Falefa], that came up.»