Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa narrowly missed out on earning a $200,000 performance bonus this season after he was not in the lineup for the team’s final game against the New York Yankees on Sunday, but the 29-year-old said after the game that he had been given the option to play in the game and decided against it.
Kiner-Falefa’s contract included a clause that would pay him $200,000 if he made at least 500 plate appearances during the season. After batting leadoff in Saturday’s game in the Bronx, he was sitting on 496 plate appearances. If he had been slotted into the same spot in the lineup for Sunday’s season finale, he almost certainly would have gotten the requisite number of plate appearances to earn the bonus. But Kiner-Falefa wasn’t in Sunday’s lineup—partly due to his own choice.
