The Yankees will designate right-hander George Kontos for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for righty Luis Cessa, per Newsday’s Erik Boland (Twitter link). He’d only been selected to the MLB roster two days prior.
Kontos, 33, appeared in one game in his reunion with the Yankees — the organization that originally drafted him — tossing 1 2/3 shutout innings with just one hit allowed and a pair of strikeouts. He’s pitched with the Pirates, Indians and Yankees this season, totaling 26 2/3 frames with a 4.39 ERA, 15 strikeouts and seven walks in that time.
Though Kontos has generally delivered respectable bottom-line results so far in 2018, his velocity, swinging-strike rate and overall strikeout rate have dipped substantially from 2017 to 2018. He has a quality track record as a useful middle reliever over the past six seasons with the Giants (and, late in 2017, with the Pirates), though he’s already cleared waivers once this season despite that past success. The Yankees will have a week to trade him or pass him through outright waivers in hopes of retaining him, although Kontos has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
WHY. He pitched GREAT!
Tired of the Luis Cessa era and its hard ceiling.
No Justus for Sheffield! (Yet again)
X, lol, it never ends!!
Don’t know why yanks have such a love affair with Cessa . He’s nothing more than a minor league pitcher.
Another game of musical chairs, since the Yanks have the second best record in baseball they must be doing something right.
Could you pick a smaller sample size?
You’re right… I feel bad, the nature of this business.
No biggie…
Always liked him while he was on the Giants.
Maybe the Mets are rubbing off on them.
That was fast. With that logic, Sonny Gray should’ve been designated a long time ago.
Saw the same thing happen with David Hale. Kontos will be DFA’d and join another team, Yankees will light him up, then he’ll return to the Bronx
Enjoyed Kontos’ cameo more than David Hale’s. Try to make sense of this… Even if one was low-leverage RP who made 1 appearance and the other was a spot starter. For all the flack Cessa gets (serviceable Jekyll / Hyde SP but lacks the high-upside potential, of other SP in farm)
dodgers???
Good luck!
Hell no. As a Dodger fan I enjoyed watching him come in from the bullpen. It felt like we were going to score every time
Only against the Dodgers. I always thought he was solid against other teams. I don’t have any statistics on that, don’t quote me
His stats aren’t terrible if you do the digging on baseball reference to find his stats vs other teams. He shut down Arizona but was about 1 run every 2 games vs. COL, LA, and SD
Should’ve sent Gleyber `down to AAA. He’s been horrible for over a month.
That’s a laugh, Gleyber isn’t going anywhere for a long time!
What about Bird?
Lol, glad you don’t run the team
His first game back (after spending three weeks on the DL) was on July 25th. Today is August 15th. “Horrible for over a month”. You want to try that again and get back to us?
Basic math, it’s a killer.
OK he’s been horrible over his last 30 games. Is that better?
Yes, that’s a much more informed way of putting it. Thank you.
Anyone who says a month+ on 8/15 and then starts going back to 5/26 hasn’t got it all figured out.
Since May 26th he has a .216 .288 .411 .698. I may be wrong, with my basic math, but that seems more than a month to me. 54 games to be exact. Then again…. you guys think that batting line for your catcher is amazing.
If on 8/15 I was trying to go back to 5/26, I would have went with 2+ months. But that’s just me. I think it would have made more sense, it’s how the calendar works. But if that’s what you meant, that’s fine. It’s my bad.
“You guys”? So you generalize all possible Yankee fans into one cohesive agreeable group? We all think the same way?
For the record I don’t care for Sanchez. He pulled the same thing he did the day he was injured back when he was in the minors. That’s a red flag. It’s bad enough not to hustle in the majors, but when you do that in the minors when you’re trying to show your worth, it’s problematic.
I had the audacity to suggest to the “Pope” Francesa that we offer Sanchez to the Marlins for Realmuto and I got my ass handed to me because in the easiest terms to quote, I was an “idiot”. Couldn’t even finish my thought before I got blasted on air.
So again, I misunderstood your initial post and that’s on me. But do me a favor and don’t lump all Yankees fans in the same boat. I just went to the game on Monday, and even though we were rooting for the same team, I was more annoyed at them than some of the Mets fans.
Dude was rushed, he needed more time at AAA, some people just do.
Pirates should grab him, then designate him.
Luis Cessa a is an automatic
Lossa!!
Try another kid already, geeze…
Maybe Freidman will pick him up and LA media will continue calling him a genius.
What’s the record for most teams a player gets a major league appearance in a season? Cuz i think he should go for it. He couldn’t be too far…
I think it’s five and I Oliver drake set it this year. I know the most teams played for over a career is 13.
Correct on both counts, Octavio Dotel is the guy with 13 teams played for. As for Oliver… “Love the Drake”.
Has Cessa ever pitch a good game? I’m tired of the lines…he’s got great stuff….or he’s almost there from Boone and the front office.
Jim,
No, He is one the worst I have ever seen.. He belongs in the trash pile as Gray. Herman, oh, Ex pitcher Larry
Rothschild..Has he ever helped anyone???
Yea, how about looking it up.
Kontos doesn’t strike out a lot of guys, and it seems like a lot of teams aren’t interested in pitchers who don’t strike out a man per inning. The only other issue with Kontos is that he’s going to be more expensive than a less experienced reliever, so teams must figure they can save a couple of bucks and get the same results. If he’s your setup guy like the Pirates experimented with, your bullpen isn’t good, but he’s still a very capable bullpen spare part
The new Yankee modus operandi
Bruh, that is some pure geriatric referring
Sorry stats do lie in this case,long man at best,he will let down in big moments,seen it MANY times.
Perennial 25th man now. Kontos performs better than AAAA type player but gets kicked around like one.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some rules regarding DFAs in future CBAs.
It doesn’t serve the players, in any capacity, to be grabbed for 1-3 games, used in some temp role, then cast aside.
They have rules that state once a player is sent down to the minors, he can’t be brought up for 10 days. Why not require all teams to hold onto a rostered player for a certain amount of days, barring injury?