The Cubs have agreed to a minor-league deal with reliever George Kontos, according to Bruce Levine of 670TheScore.com (via Twitter). The deal comes with an invitation to participate in spring camp as a non-roster player.
Kontos, 33, has a long track record of getting results at the MLB level, though he has rarely flashed truly convincing peripherals. It’s hard to argue with 357 frames of 3.10 ERA pitching in the bigs. At the same time, with an underwhelming combination of 6.7 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, and a 43.7% groundball rate for his career, Kontos carries only a 3.82 FIP, 4.00 xFIP, and 3.76 SIERA.
Generating light contact has been the name of the game for Kontos, who has held opposing hitters to a .265 batting average on balls in play for his career. Despite the unremarkable strikeout totals, he has also carried a strong 11.7% lifetime swinging-strike rate. Most intriguing of all was a 2017 bump in that statistic to an elite 16.4% level, though Kontos did not carry that with him into the ensuing campaign. He ultimately matched his career-worst ERA last year, allowing 4.39 earned runs per nine over 26 2/3 innings while bouncing between three teams.
All said, there’s plenty to like in securing Kontos on a minor-league deal. At worst, he represents a quality depth option to have on hand. And that past whiff rate does still tantalize, particularly since (as Levine notes) Kontos has shown an uptick in his velocity in workouts this winter. His typically low-nineties heater had trended down a bit in 2018.
Stelios Stelios Kontos
*Stelio
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that when I hear his name lol
K.
Silvio silver and gold
and luis
Underrated, and, may actually surprise you.
NYY DFA’d him, despite being good, allowing no runs*
*1 game for NYY, 1 hit in 1.2 IP, while striking out two
He never appeared again in the regular season!! Like this signing, despite the fickleness of relievers and his age (33)
Getting 5 outs and not giving up any runs is about the most meaningless SSS you can ask for.
Yes, it’s not like it’s against major league level.
Also who he was replaced with, that bothered me
spot starter. Luis Cessa? …
Get it, bad sample size for NYY Kontos, but scoreless appearance.. What more could you ask? Great pick up for bullpen, Cubs. Ya never know
Invest in Neck Braces for your Fielders,he will fool ya briefly but it ends quickly,too many Sliders with Bad Location,good luck!
350 games career 3.10 ERA, 0.96 HR/9, on a minor league deal? Done.
“terrible” 2018: 26.2 IP, 4.39 ERA. 3 teams.
Watched up close for years,minor league deal and no more the a long man at best,stats lie and it shows by floating around from team to team,they know
Yeah it’s a nice pickup for Chicago on a minor league deal, I don’t think you will see anyone criticizing this move. But I don’t see how this has anything to do with the Yankees…
Chicago area native
Not just that, grew up a fan of the team. If I recall correctly, his brother owns a bar in Wrigleyville.
Yeah, I actually been to his high school for a track meet. Saw his display in the hallway when he was playing for the SF Giants. Pretty cool.
Dumpster Divin’ Theo!
White Sox inferior to the Cubs unless they put money where their mouth is and sign Harper and/or Machado. Oh… and win a CHAMPIONSHIP ;-) more recently. You talk so much trash after a 100 loss seasonS
Not even a Cubs fan. Kontos fan… Enjoy your weekend.
I already know what you are going to say. It’s “K”
He only says that to me. Now he will do it to you too cause he’s a troll and doesn’t know anything about baseball. I mean he is a Sox fan
K.
downvoted
@clepto
Told y’all. Hello 3rdStrikeLooking ;-)
The Mighty Pale Hose are inferior to no one!
Actually, I take that back. The White Sox are “inferior” to the Cubs the same way the Rebel Alliance is “inferior” to the Empire.
Embarrassing.
Multiple World Series winning Theo
So far he seems to be finding some pretty decent dumpsters. No risk/possible reward for Kontos and Brach.
Kontos especially, since he’s a weak contact specialist now playing with a good defense
George Kontos and Steve Bartman have a personal connection. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kontos
Dang that’s crazy. Didn’t even believe you at first until I looked it up.
Nice pickup for the Cubs. I suppose it seems a little strange he couldn’t get more than a minor league deal given his descent enough career but we’re living in a new time. I’m guessing he’ll see plenty of time in the bigs this year, good depth piece.
A 33 reliever on a minor league contract is a nice pickup? Seriously? Is there ever a move #Cubsdrones don’t like? The Yankees fans get steak. Cubsdrones get tuna and Koolaid.
It’s a reasonable move. Leave it at that.
What’s up, Charlie? OH YEAH!!!!
Pipe down Sox fan – you guys still don’t matter yet.
I agree. These types of moves aren’t terribly sexy, but they are the depth pieces that any contending team will eventually need to rely on during the season. Pretty surprised he didn’t get a major league deal somewhere.
Stelio’s!
Didn’t Theo and Kontos both work as detectives in Manhattan South?
“CROCKER!!!!!”
The Cubs have made an excellent choice…. I am very sorry that the Giants let him go
The algorithms have never accounted for soft contact. That’s why they play the games. Otherwise it would all be on computers by now…..
Stat freaks are getting out of hand. “357 innings and 3.10 ERA, but…..” But what? That is pretty good no matter what your stat tools say. Just like defensive metrics that don’t take everything into consideration, different pitchers can get guys out other than high strikeout rates.
A 3.10 ERA is NOT good for a relief pitcher.
Better than most of them…..
Actually, it IS good for a relief pitcher. It’s not elite, but it’s very good and well above average.
For reference, the average ERA for a reliever in the MLB in 2018 was 4.08, so if 3.10 isn’t considered good, then you’re an idiot.
He’s not big on rational opinions.
He’s said a player who hit .326 with runners in scoring position was the ‘the most unclutch in the league’ and that winning an MVP wasn’t actually an achievement because of RBI.
But true fans don’t actually watch their teams until they’re good, so I suppose he’s been out of the loop for a while…
Average ERA for relievers is irrelevant unless you factor in appearances. You have to look at their splits.
How can you argue something is both not good and irrelevant at the same time? As soon as you strip it of relevancy, good and bad don’t apply…
Unless you got caught stating a falsehood as fact and the second argument is a rather obvious attempt to pivot away from the bad argument you got caught in….
You clearly don’t understand ERA. I’ll make it simple for you. Anything below 4.00 is considered above average for a starter. Anything below 3.00 is considered above average for a reliever. WHIP is just as important, especially for a reliever.
You have to remember relievers don’t always get tagged with runs scored on them too.
I’d rather you supported the argument with data instead of simplifying it.
Not that you ever try, but it would be nice…
Lmao the Cubs could sign Mike Trout to a 10 year 10 million dollar contract and Chisoxcity would say it’s a bad deal.
“But what?”
He just took a minor-league deal.
I discussed both sides of the subject. He is obviously able to get swings and misses and induce poor contact (his low BABIP-against is significant over such a big sample). He probably has figured some things out that aren’t fully accounted for by ERA estimators. Nobody is arguing that he doesn’t deserve what he has accomplished.
That said, teams are obviously skeptical or he’d have received much greater interest.
Read quickly. Thought they had signed George Kottaras. Then realized Kottaras was only two years older than Kontos.
Didn’t think the Ricketts would be cheap
The k and Bb rates for his career don’t seem correct?