2:32pm: The Yankees have acquired Stewart in exchange for right-hander George Kontos, reports MLB.com's Bryan Hoch (on Twitter).
Kontos, 26, allowed two runs in six innings for New York last September, his big league debut. He pitched to a 2.62 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 89 1/3 Triple-A innings.
2:13pm: Shea hears that Stewart is being traded to the Yankees, but it is not official and the team hasn't announced anything yet (Twitter link).
1:53pm: The Giants will trade Chris Stewart according to John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter). The deal is pending at the moment. The backstop is out of options.
Stewart, 30, hit .204/.283/.309 in 183 plate appearances with the Giants last season after Buster Posey's injury. A release from the team says the trade will be announced later today. The details are unknown.
Interesting keeping Hector Sanchez as the lone back-up, minimizes him purely as a pinch-hitter
as opposed to what else? he’ll also be Posey’s backup who is said to not catch more than 3-4 games per week to start the season..
With the Giants offensive woes, you need a bench of (at least) average ML hitters. Whiteside/Stewart don’t really meet that need.
Agreed, what’s shocking is Sabean & Bochy usually go with the old veterans; the safe conservative route
Watch out Aubrey Huff, you may be next.
boch said hes happy with his catching skills. He’ll be a better backup catcher than whitedump and no bat stewart
Bochy also pointed out that you don’t need to pinch-hit for him in the later innings (where you would then need to bring in Posey, who would likely be on a needed day off). And Sanchez is a good bat off the bench the rest of the time.
Yeah, shocking that they went this route. Sabean has completely turned a new leaf
Martha is atwitter at the news
Dayton Moore is looking for a AAA catcher, wouldn’t be surprised if he dealt a top prospect for Stewart.
as, mets, cards, and rockies, even though they have options on their roster (most teams could use him as a aaa catcher) i don’t think he should be on a big league roster. the tigers have omir santos as their aaa catcher, he should be the catcher if laird goes on the dl
kinda think it might be tigs with lard messin up his hammy.
dang I thought stewart had potential… or was that Hector Sanchez
probably Hector because I think i was wrong with Stewart
wait I’m confused.
you’re confused.. Hector Sanchez is the strong minor league catcher that hit well this ST. Chris Stewart was called up last season when Posey went down in order to backup Whiteside. Stewart has bounced around the league some (and looks to be bouncing some more). Strong arm, weak bat.
Trading him for what? A bag of baseballs?
somebody out there needs a strong defensive catcher that can throw out runners
Cervelli certainly couldn’t do that. I assume Stewart can? Even if so, Russell Martin does decently well with that too.
Stewart has a strong arm, quick release. But he’s backing up Martin, not replacing him.
What I meant was Russell Martin does well defensively too. I know he’s not replacing him.
Not if Stewart keeps hitting with an OPS under .600
His defense does not make up for such horrendous batting lines. (Consider that another 100 points in OPS would only make him a league average hitter)
Bad move by the Yankees. Kontos could have been a piece in another trade. They might as well let Swisher catch behind the plate.
I really don’t see how Stewart is an upgrade over Cervelli. (well, that’s because he’s not)
yeah.. we know all about his hitting. thanks for Kontos!
Yankees are so confident about their pitching that they’re giving them away for free!!!!
That isn’t true at all. Stop trying to start a flamer here…
One of the Yankee fans here might have the correct number, but don’t they have like 3 rule 5 pitchers they are taking a look at? Maybe 1 is hurt?
Whoosh. It was a joke.
Also, they aren’t looking at anyone. They lost Cabral to the DL and he was the only one the Yankees were considering. (the other rule 5 pitcher, Brad Meyers, is also on the DL)
I’m not sure what any of this has to do with the trade anyway. They traded away a 27 year old reliever with good minor league numbers for a 30 year old backstop who can’t hit at all. (and at 30, he likely won’t get any better)
Anyway you look at it, it was unnecessary.
Only defensively he’s an upgrade because Cervelli was terrible.
And like you, I don’t get why they are giving away Kontos. Yankees could have given away a scrub Single A pitcher for Stewart.
Not even. maybe a Little League bat though.
yeah, a non-approved little league bat, no less.
Why do the Yankees need *another* catcher?
Because the Yankees try to get potential DH’s but always get the best fielding catchers instead
Kontos eh? who is Kontos
Low-grade prospect. Right handed short reliever.
The Yankees must have a reason for this trade. It escapes me at this time. What happens to Cervelli, Romine, etc?
I’m sure they will keep Romine
Cervelli? not so much.
Romine had some back issues during spring training, and cerevelli is horrific behind the plate.
Horrific is too strong, but he’s certainly not as advertised.
isn’t he out of options, so if he going to stay on the roster.
it makes senses (per twitter marc carig) kontos was devastated in the locker room
tweet i read said that Cervelli was devastated at being optioned, nothing on Kontos..
I don’t understand this trade for the Yankees. My only logical guess is that they plan on trading Cervelli to up his trade value for the near future. Kantos has impressive numbers in AAA. Not a good trade for the Yankees
That is if he had any trade value which he doesn’t.
Was gonna add that also.. John Baker (Marlins traded him this past off season after he got back from TJ surgery) could hit really well also, but couldn’t throw and it led to his downfall. Fish got less than 0C on the dollar in exchange it seemed (to me) for a decent hitting catcher, kind of like maybe what Cash was seeing in offers for Cervelli, luckily NY had an option and can stash him at AAA for an emergency at least.
How many times have just wished many backups could throw as awful as Doug Mirabelli could.. Even his average arm would have been perfect for people like cervelli and Baker the way they can hit and make all stars out of them.
This. I mean, I can get sending down Cervelli so that we don’t rush Romine back and so someone experienced can catch the up and comers (and possibly Pineda). But the trade? Kontos still has some upside that I wanted to explore. This guy does not.
Boooo.
I don’t know much about Kontos other than his numbers, but this seems like a pretty good deal for the Giants. They get an arm that is 4 years younger than Stewart and had impressive Triple A numbers last year for a 30 year old career minor league catcher who hits worse than most pitchers. Seems like a steal.
The player to be named later is named today.
I don’t mind, we still have Whiteside on a one year deal, Hector Sanchez is the future back up and maybe starter, if Buster moves over to 1b in near future and we still have Andrew Susac.
From a Giants fan’s perspective, there’s really nothing to dislike about this. The Giants are actually giving youth a chance with Sanchez and actually got something of modest value in return for Stewart. Not to mention they have another bat with power on the bench and some legitimate offense on days that Posey plays 1st. Granted, I’d rather see Stewart(much better defense) in a Giants uniform over Whiteside, but Whiteside can flounder around in AAA in case of an emergency while Stewart was out of options. Hopefully, he never makes another appearance with the club at the Major league level.
cashman must like this guy, this is the third time he picked him up
Stewart can hit LHP a little bit. Defensive replacement and can spot start him against lefty soft tossers. He is a good player. Good deal for the Yanks.
No not really. Kontos has impressive AAA numbers. K’s over 9 per 9 IP, BB’s less than 3 per 9 IP, ERA of 2.62. If they gave away a scrub pitcher I can see that, but Kontos has impressive numbers in his career in the minors.
My only guess is that Brian Cashman has some kind of other trade up his sleeve.
Honestly, a good deal for both teams. The Giants got an arm that has put up decent AAA numbers for a guy who was clearly expendable on their roster. Yanks got a very good defensive backup catcher who works in lineup that’s not going to be brought down by his offensive woes.
Nice to see this happen.
Stewart is a quality backup catcher. Good move by the Yanks.
I think others have said it better, but yeah, Stewart’s bat really sucks. It seems like a pretty poor trade by the Yankees. But, if you’ve ever seen Chris Stewart gun down a runner with his cannon of an arm, then maybe it makes a bit more sense. Great defensive replacement. Is that worth a pitcher with pretty decent AAA numbers? Probably not, but Chris Stewart does have a role that he plays well.
At least the Yankees offense can support an all-D, no hit catcher a hell of a lot better than the Giants. Depending on how much he would play, I see it as a good move for the Yanks. They get a great catcher who can handle a staff and kill the running game. Again, his offense rivals that of the pitchers, but they should have no problem carrying him with that lineup.
Kinda feels like an overpay considering the pitcher they gave up (he looks pretty good based off the stats listed in this post at least, although that’s all I really have to go off of), but it’s not like they gave up a future closer or anything.
All I know is I’ll miss Stewart. It was always fun watching him gun down runners who think they have a free base off Lincecum.
The Yankees made this deal because their AAA catcher, and possible future MLB catcher, Austin Romine has a back issue and will be out for a couple of months, maybe more. They need to add depth at the catcher position in case of injury to Russell Martin. They shipped Cervelli to the minors because he still has an option while Stewart doesn’t have options, so this is the only way they can keep both guys in the organization.
As for the Giants, this is a good deal for them. Kontos has been good in the minors since converting from a starter to a reliever. The Yankees do a good job of developing useful bullpen arms down in the minors who can help in the majors, from Robertson, Aceves, Melancon, etc. Kontos is another one of those guys and will be able to help the Giants at some point this year.
the Yankees dont need a hitting catcher, they need one who can play defence. But i hate giving up George Kontos, i really liked him and have no clue why he wasnt given any chances. Should of been our long man this year. Hes going to have a very nice year with SF, wish him all the best
Why the hell did SF do that?