The Indians announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-handed reliever George Kontos from Triple-A Columbus and placed fellow righty Evan Marshall on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation in his right elbow.
Kontos, 33, was released by the Pirates in late May and signed a minor league pact with Cleveland a few days later. He’s been in the organization for a bit more than two weeks and has tossed 7 2/3 shutout innings in Columbus, allowing seven hits and no walks with six strikeouts and a 61.9 percent ground-ball rate.
That’s encouraging progress for the veteran Kontos, who posted respectable numbers in the Giants’ bullpen from 2012-17 and was terrific for the Pirates late in 2017 before faltering in 2018. Kontos was unable to recover from a dismal start to the year with the Buccos, as he struggled to a 5.03 ERA in 19 2/3 innings before being designated for assignment and released.
More troubling than his ERA was the fact that Kontos, who entered the season with a career 7.4 K/9 mark, managed just nine strikeouts in those 19 2/3 frames (4.1 K/9). His swinging-strike rate was nearly cut in half (from 16.4 percent to 8.5 percent), and his average fastball velocity dipped from 91 mph last season to 89.6 mph in 2018. Unsurprisingly, Kontos’ lack of whiffs translated into more hits, as he averaged a career-worst 10.5 H/9 and 1.8 HR/9 with the Pirates through the season’s first two months.
The Indians will hope that the heartening results Kontos displayed in Columbus can carry over to the Majors and help to stop the bleeding for a porous relief corps. Indians relievers rank 28th in MLB with a 5.42 ERA, and their 4.71 FIP checks in at 29th. No team’s collective bullpen has averaged more than Cleveland’s 1.63 HR/9.
Certainly, the team has missed Andrew Miller, who has been limited to just 14 1/3 innings this season while dealing with injuries. However, virtually every reliever on the Cleveland staff has taken a step back. Zach McAllister (5.40), Dan Otero (6.12), Nick Goody (6.94) and Tyler Olson (7.27) all have ghastly ERAs thus far after functioning as core pieces of a strong bullpen in 2017.
Kontos did a good job last year with the Pirates but gradually got worse this year.I hope that a change of scenery helps him.Sometimes a few weeks in the minor leagues is all it takes to get the skills back if they are still there.
DFA’d by the Giants in 17 ….released by the Bucs in 18…could it be that he’s possibly through?
No, he has a cup and a half of gas left in the tank. Tribe will prob DFA him within a couple weeks once those fumes run out. By that time Repczynski should be ready to walk the plank.
The problem with George is he’s soft. He needs to be tough like his brother …Stelios….Stelios Kontos.
I got the reference and laughed.
Yay! Now sit Dan-O until he’s fixed.
He’s a beast. From a giants fan you guys will love him. Always wondered why he got DFAd since he was one of the better guys in our pen that year. Good luck George.
He was released to save his salary, I believe he was making 4-6 million from the giants in arb and they needed the money for span Melancon etc
He wasn’t released though. He was dfa’d in the middle of the season and got claimed by the pirates, and plus the giants already had span and Melancon in 2017. You’re probably thinking of yusmeiro petit.
Retreads ‘r Us
The indian’s should go for a controllable late inning guy like Blake Trenien from the A’s. He has been lights out this year and could be had. The A’s would probably want some solid prospects though.
The problem is the Tribe doesn’t want to give up any prospects of value for any reliever. As such they’ll have to continue recycling waiver wire fodder for months to come. They let the bullpen go last winter in hopes it would fix itself (never does), and now they’ll have to trade too many prospects to rebuild it (which they won’t do). The good news is the landscape is littered with failed relievers who are more than happy to pass through the revolving door.
They lost Smith and Shaw who priced themselves out of Cleveland. There is no way Cleveland was going to pay them that kind of money.
And, if you look at how Shaw and Smith are doing, it is obvious the Indians were right.
I totally agree they made the right choice in letting both of them walk, but they didn’t sign any reliever to a major league contract except for Belisle. With their window still open they needed to do much more than they did.
What can they give the Jays for Oh and Loup?
Hmmm. Last I looked, they seem to still be in first place, with no competition. They can afford to wait until the deadline and acquire a few rentals cheap then.
Yes but they have obvious holes that need filled. If they didn’t they’d be 20 games up and coasting. Also, waiting until the deadline means some of these prices go up since teams think your desperate.