The Giants have announced that the Pirates have been awarded Giants reliever George Kontos on a waiver claim. The Giants evidently placed Kontos on revocable waivers, as Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets, then gave him up without receiving anything in return. To clear space for Kontos and the newly acquired Sean Rodriguez, the Pirates have designated reliever Jhan Marinez and outfielder Danny Ortiz for assignment.
For the Giants, the move clears a 25-man spot for Chris Stratton, who is set to pitch against the Diamondbacks today, and a more permanent spot in the bullpen for Matt Cain. It also clears a 40-man spot for Pablo Sandoval, who the team recently promoted.
That the Giants would essentially give Kontos away still rates as something of a surprise, since he’s been effective this season. The 32-year-old righty has posted a 3.83 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 47.9 GB%. While Kontos’ exact profile has shifted from year to year (he had a K/9 of just 5.9 last season, for example), he’s been effective since joining the Giants early in the 2012 season and has a 3.05 career ERA, albeit with peripherals that are somewhat less impressive than that.
Kontos will help bolster a Pirates bullpen that has rated as about average this season and that effectively swapped Tony Watson for Joaquin Benoit at the trade deadline. If Kontos performs well for the Pirates, they can keep him beyond this season — he makes just $1.75MM this year, and is not eligible for free agency until after 2019.
The 28-year-old Marinez arrived in Pittsburgh via a waiver claim from the Brewers in May. He posted a 3.18 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 34 innings in the Pirates’ bullpen and has a career 50.7 GB%. He’s struggled with walks in the past, but with his mid-90s fastball and ground-ball-heavy profile, he could attract interest on the waiver wire yet again.
The 27-year-old Ortiz has spent the bulk of the 2017 season with Triple-A Indianapolis, hitting .259/.291/.450 over 342 plate appearances while playing all three outfield spots. The Twins product also collected his first 13 big-league plate appearances this season.
Pirates pirating other players away today.
Finally. He comes into a 1 run game and leaves it a 3 run game. Good luck Pirates.
He’s been solid for the past 4-5 years, solid pickup for anyone, especially with the pirates having searage working with their pitchers
I’m not even looking at it from a Searage perspective. Kontos is a decent and established middle reliever who is essentially replacing Jhan Marinez, who is more of a roster fringe kind of talent. Kontos could also be replacing Benoit in the bullpen pecking order.
wow if that’s the case the yankees should’ve claimed him before trading blake rutherford
Pirates would have priority on a claim. The priority goes to the team in the same league (NL in this case) with the worst record, or if no NL team claimed him, then the AL team with the worst record that claimed him would be awarded the claim. Yankees never had a chance
it’s time for him to go!
They traded Rutherford for more effective relievers,and it’s no big loss. If you’re a Yankee fan why are you lamenting the loss of a prospect who’s losing value and was blocked anyway?
Got yourself a point just thought he could’ve been a prospect for a starter not a reliever but tommy Kahnle has been damn near perfect so no complains
Usually not a good sign when the other team just gives him to you instead of trying to work out a trade for something/anything, but Searage has worked with less.
They didn’t give anything up for him and he has multiple years of team control, so there’s really no downside. If he pitches poorly, then you can get rid of him without having to worry about trying to salvage value like you would if you traded a legit prospect for him.
I agree. So many years of club control make this an intriguing pickup.
It would be hard to be worse than Benoit has been his first two games here, also.
Big fan of this deal. Really helps out Pittsburgh with balancing the bullpen
What in the world are the Giants doing this year?!
Losing. In bunches.
I actually really like this claim for Pittsburgh. Solid middle reliever, inexpensive and obviously the Pirates know what they’re doing with pitchers.
Solid pick up with really no downside…
Why wouldn’t they try and get something for him? The Giants have a pretty lackluster farm so I’d think they be interested in taking a lotto guy at least.
I mean, that .$45M they’re saving in salary will really come in handy. Ya know, compared to the other tens of millions of dead salary they’re tied to going into next season. This move makes zero sense for SF.
Where were the Mets with this one? Worst bullpen in MLB. Could have finally released Salas and upgraded to this guy, but they weren’t interested? Why not?!
I know Kontos isn’t very good, but come on the Giants could of gotten at least a low level prospect for him.
Yeah, I’m disappointed
This is verging on dumbfounding. No value coming back for what … a few hundred thousand in salary relief ? Head scratcher here.
You’re all missing the BIG NEWS…and I mean BIG NEWS…..PANDA IS BACK!!!!!!!!
Surprising that the Giants simply gave away Kontos. Even Jeremy Jeffress and Tony Cingrani brought something in return.
This sounds like Kontos might have been looking at a DFA in the near future. The Giants would have lost him either way.
I don’t follow the Giants much but I know Kontos through reputation so I could be completely off base about the roster situation for him.
But I think it makes a bit of sense that the Giants were going to lose him to a DFA waiver claim or a revocable waiver claim so it didn’t matter much.
The Giants did lose him on a revocable waiver claim, but they chose to lose him for no compensation. If Kontos had an enormous contract it would be one thing, but he’s quite affordable, has a solid track record, and wasn’t really blocking any prospects who I am aware of. This move really makes no sense for the Giants unless there is some other factor we aren’t aware of.
Jay you miss the entire point. No one complained about losing him. On a revocable claim the Pirates would be willing to give something for him and the Giants passed for no reason. Otherwise they could have DFA’d him now but they did not. Makes zero sense
There is nothing not to like about this move from a Pirates perspective. And there seems to be just about no logical reason why the Giants would just give Kontos away.
It’s a small world: the Giants acquired Kontos from the Yankees in exchange for current Bucs backup catcher Chris Stewart.
Very logical reason why the Giants let him go, see my post below. He is terrible when it matters.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have gotten SOMETHING for him a week ago. I don’t even mean a prospect, I’m talking Manny Bajerano. Bottom line, I’d rather have a guy who has a chance (even the absolute slightest chance) over the measley $20k fee.
Thank you Pirates!!! Kontos has been terrible when it counts, his 3.83 ERA is very deceptive.
He’s great when no ones on or only on 1st – 0.99 & 1.04. But when it counts he’s HORRIBLE… His ERA when Loaded 7.71, 1st & 2nd 23.14, 1st & 3rd 19.29, 3rd 13.50, scoring position 10.34, late/close game 8.04.
This is why they let him go.
Precisely this. Kontos was horrible with inherited runners the last two seasons. I’m so glad to see him gone. The Pirates will assume his contract, so Giants lost nothing and gained one less gas can in the bullpen. Giants should do the same with Kontos’ run-giving tag-team partner Josh Osich.
Without major changes to their bullpen, the Giants will continue to struggle! They need to parlay others that are not producing during the off season for young and reliable arms like Mychal Givens-Orioles, Frankie Montas-Oakland, Joe Jimenez-Detoit, Sam Tuivailala-Cardinals or Nick Wittgren-Miami so the Giants will be ready for next year.
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100% correct! Kontos is good with a lead and not inheriting any base runners but relieving with any pressure situation and Kontos would not come through. Working out a trade takes time and the Giants needed to activate Stratton to start tonight’s game and $20K and getting the Pirates to pay the remaining $551K of salary was a good deal for the Giants.
Cain should be the next to go……
NO ONE is claiming him if they have to pay him over $13M.
(remaining $6M± of salary and $7M+ 2018 buyout)