Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said Tuesday that Kontos and Michael Feliz would handle most of the high-leverage work in front of closer Felipe Rivero this season, Adam Berry of MLB.com reports.
A waiver pickup for the Pirates last August, Kontos quickly established himself as one of the more dominant setup options upon joining the team and will be called upon to fill a key role out of the bullpen in 2018. With a 3.00 ERA and 1.14 WHIP over his 322 appearances in the majors, Kontos has always been a solid reliever, but the elevated strikeout rate he posted a season ago now puts him on deep-league and NL-only fantasy radars for the first time in his career. Rivero looks to have plenty of security as closer after a superb 2017 campaign, but Kontos could be first in line to handle the ninth-inning role if anything should happen to Rivero.