SAN FRANCISCO–It’s hard to find a player who was as well-liked and well-respected in the Giants’ clubhouse as George Kontos was.
And that’s what made Saturday a bittersweet day for Kontos, his teammates and the Giants’ coaching staff.
On Saturday morning, Kontos woke up to a phone call from Giants’ general manager Bobby Evans, alerting him that the Pittsburgh Pirates had placed a waiver claim on him and that he would be headed to a new ballclub for the first time since he was traded from the Yankees to San Francisco prior to the 2012 season.
“It did come as a surprise, actually,” Kontos said. “I saw Bobby Evans’ name on my phone and answered the phone and told I was going to Pittsburgh. It was a little bit of a shock, you know, at that moment when I heard I had been traded, it just felt like six years of memories just piled up on my shoulders real quick.”
This year, Kontos has struggled through his worst season in terms of earned run average since 2012, but he’s also been thrown into a significant number of challenging situations with runners on base. His 3.83 ERA is more than a point higher than the ERAs he posted in each of the past four seasons, and with San Francisco hoping to give some of its younger pitchers an opportunity to earn roles heading into 2018, the Giants placed Kontos on waivers.
Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said he spoke with Kontos and that the 32-year-old reliever who led all of San Francisco’s pitchers with 50 appearances this season understood the reality of the situation.
“I talked to George,” Bochy said. “You know, you look at our situation, there’s some young players that are going to get a chance to show what they can do. Crick, Stratton for example is pitching tonight, and I have a veteran who’s done so much for us, who’s been here since I’ve been here, Matt Cain, and he was a pro about it. This goes with the territory of our struggles. We need to find out about some players. See where we’re at.”
Prior to San Francisco’s decision to move starter Matt Cain to the bullpen, Kontos was the longest-tenured reliever on the Giants’ roster, and behind Cain and Madison Bumgarner, he was the third-longest-tenured pitcher on the team.
Kontos played a pivotal role in the Giants’ bullpen in the early 2010s, and on Saturday, he said those teams provided him with some of the greatest memories of his baseball career.
“It’s hard to not have rings one and two, 2012 and 2014, what we did that postseason, six elimination games, being apart of it, that was pretty special,” Kontos said. “Just the friends that I’ve made here, the city, I’ve been pretty out and about in the city, been involved in the community and I’ve made it a home here. It’s been not just a baseball town, it’s been someplace where I’ll always will consider home. So it’s a little bit tough.”
Today is the most difficult day I’ve had in my professional career. The past 6 years of my life… https://t.co/XADZWGysVz
— George Kontos (@G_Kontos) August 6, 2017
Kontos did say the blow of being traded was softened by the fact he was claimed by a team that’s in the hunt for a postseason berth, and by a club that clearly wants his services. The right-hander is scheduled to become a free agent this winter, and had signed a one-year, $1.75 million contract to return to the Giants last offseason.
“I’m grateful that the Pirates reached out and claimed me,” Kontos said. “I’m not exactly sure how the whole August thing works exactly but they obviously liked me enough to claim me on the waiver front and I spoke to their GM this morning and I’m going to go in there and hopefully compete late in their pen and go get some wins and get in their playoffs. It’ll be great.”