The New York Yankees have traded right-handed reliever George Kontos to the San Francisco Giants for catcher Chris Stewart, reports Marc Carig of the Star-Ledger.
Yankees trade Kontos to Giants for Chris Stewart. Cervelli to Triple A.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) April 4, 2012
The 30-year-old Stewart, who was slated to be the third catcher on the Giants' bench, will now serve as Russell Martin's back-up for the Yankees. Because Stewart no longer has any options, Francisco Cervelli has been optioned to Triple-A to make room on the roster.
Stewart played in a career-high 67 games for the Giants last year, hitting .204/.283/.309.
George Kontos, 26, only has six innings of Major League experience under his belt, but pitched well in 89 innings at Triple-A last year, where he put up a 2.62 ERA and struck out 9.2 batters per nine.
Kontos had a 2.81 ERA in 6 1/3 innings pitched this spring after missing the first few weeks of camp with an oblique injury.