May 9: The Yankees announced that Cortes has indeed been added to the Major League roster. In order to open space on the 40-man roster, right-hander Dellin Betances was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Betances has already been on the injured list for 44 days, so transferring him to the 60-day injured list at this point is largely a formality.
May 8, 9:52pm: Right-hander Jake Barrett has been optioned to Triple-A, the Yankees announced following tonight’s loss. The team will still need to make a 40-man move to accommodate Cortes.
9:34pm: The Yankees will select the contract of left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, reports Conor Foley of the Scranton Tribune-Times (via Twitter). The team has yet to formally announce the move, though Foley suggests that Cortes and his teammates were already informed of the move. A corresponding 40-man roster move will need to be made.
It’ll be the Yankees debut for Cortes, 24, though it won’t be his Major League debut. The Orioles selected him in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft and carried him on the big league roster for the season’s first couple of weeks before returning him to the Yankees. He tossed 4 2/3 innings in Baltimore and allowed four runs in that brief cup of coffee. Since returning to the Yankees organization last season, the 5’11”, 205-pound Cortes has pitched to a 3.90 ERA with 130 strikeouts against 48 walks and a 35.5 percent ground-ball rate in 145 1/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level.
Cortes won’t start for the Yankees tomorrow — that outing will go to J.A. Happ — but he’ll give the Yankees a fresh arm on the heels of a game in which the bullpen needed to cover five innings of work.
Ken M.
Next Hall of Famer
thecoffinnail
Did you just think of that? Wow! That is so good I am sure quite a few people will steal that from you and beat it to death every time a rookie debuts for the Yankees. You sir are a genius!!!
Matthew Heywood
Actually he might you never know but soft tossing lefties usually figure it out later in their career and not on their first team. Jamie Moyer is a good example it took him years and multiple teams
walls17
Jake Barrett probably gone
nymetsking
MRI scheduled for noon.
jbigz12
He was throwing BP in his brief stint in Baltimore. That 87-88 mph fastball was getting absolutely crushed. Doubt he’s ever effective at the ML level with that heater.
dimitrios in la
Yes unless his location is perfect he gets rocked. Josh Rogers is similar.
jbigz12
Agreed. I don’t think Rogers has much of a future in the big leagues either. I think he ought to be the next 40 man casualty when we need to make an addition. The
On another note I’m pleasantly surprised with Ynoa. I’ve always liked him more than a number of guys we gave numerous shots to and am glad to see him having early success though it may not last.
FOmeOLS
I wish we could have kept Cortes. I thought he had real potential and Buck used him in really unfortunate spots.
mstrchef13
Nice to know that you’re basing your prediction of the future of a 24 year old pitcher on four major league appearances and a month in Norfolk instead of looking at (A) his career K/BB ratio of better than 4, (B) his career WHIP of less than 1.2, and (C) the fact that he’s only 24. Are you even a fan? Maybe the whole rebuild has beaten you into submission. Or maybe you’re one of those guys that would rather have a guy throwing 95 with no control over someone who throws 90 but can put it wherever they want. Were you a Mike Wright fan?
jbigz12
Negative. Josh Rogers has to generate soft contact to be effective. He did an alright job at that in the lower minors. Not anymore. The book is out him and he’s been getting barreled up as evident by his increased HR/9 rate. I apologize on saying he should go next because that distinction goes to Miguel Castro but he shouldn’t be far behind if a spot is needed.
BTW my dislike of Rogers isn’t a sentiment that isn’t shared by nearly every independent prospect evaluator out there who wouldn’t even rank him in our top 30 prospects. I think you’re being blinded by some minor league stats. Im more concerned with how that translates to the majors. Rogers game doesn’t translate well. Maybe as a lefty specialist reliever if he uses his slider more often as that projects as a potential out pitch against left handers.
jbigz12
Rogers has cut the curveball from his arsenal. He’s down to 3 pitches. Soft tossers need a full arsenal of pitches to become effective Starters. Look at Dallas Keuche. He was the king of being effective with less. He had 4 pitches. He used all of them. Rogers has been increasingly reliant on a FB and a changeup. He occasionally mixes in a slider. That’s not going to work. There’s more than just some old bottom line stats to look at a guy. He’s absolutely going to need to use that slider a whole lot more of he’s ever to be effective. Major league hitters will absolutely pepper a guy with a 89 MPH fast and an average 82 mph changeup.
For rogers to be a capable big league starter he’ll need to throw his slider a whole lot more and bring the curveball or develop another pitch. That’s why I don’t like rogers. It’s not because of his stats.
jbigz12
As far as Mike Wright I was a fan of his arm. Not his head though. The way he’d pace around on the back of the mound was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in baseball. He’s actually having some early success in Seattle btw. Though I doubt it will last because when things go bad for him they go very bad. Which I think is more mental than anything else
kenneth cole
Sorta Vidal Nuno-esque
kenneth cole
They can just move Judge to the 60 day
ShieldF123
Or Betances… or Bird for that matter.
Whoever gets moved it’s retro to original placement, correct?
thegreatcerealfamine
He’s trolling.
kenneth cole
I’m not trolling. They had many options for players to be moved over. Neither are coming back anytime soon. Glad to see the collective IQ of people here is less than 50
ShieldF123
Yea not sure how that looked like trolling to him
birdsfan415
He was selected in the 2018 Rule 5 draft
jbigz12
No Steve is correct. I thought it was wrong myself at first but rule 5 drafts take place in December. Which is obviously the calendar year before. That is correct even though it looks wrong.
BaseballBrian
Later in life he may become an empty Nestor
whyhayzee
It seems awful early for the express trains to be running back and forth from the minors with these pitchers. I guess the yankees saw the Red Sox doing it and had to get in on the fun. Anyway, it’s kind of cool for some of these players to get a shot pitching for good teams even if it’s only for a day or two. And you never know, you might find one of them to be good at the major league level.
stedmanslick
Lol you think the red sox came up with that? It’s not an original idea. Plus, they called him up out of necessity because they needed a fresh arm.
whyhayzee
It is an original idea and the Red Sox did invent it. They invented winning the World Series, selling your best players, going eight decades without winning the World Series, coming back from a 3-0 deficit, growing beards, winning twice as many games as you lose and then winning three straight postseason series all in the same year. They invented trading a future hall of farmer for a two month rental relief pitcher, having the player with the longest last name, building a stadium the same year that an ocean liner hits an iceberg and sinks. They also invented Bill Buckner and Bucky Dent.
royhobbs
Aaron Boone?
Melchez
MLBTR should write an article about pine tar and how often it’s used by pitchers. I remember the uproar when Kenny Rogers got caught with it. Now Kukuchi has been caught.
DarkSide830
dang, thats a LOT of pine tar!
spinach
So he was Rule 5 eligible in Dec 2017, Balt picked him but did not keep him on 25 man so was returned to his team, Yanks, and they could keep him in minors through 2018 not on 40 man.
My question is was he Rule 5 eligible again in Dec 2018?
jbigz12
He was. No one selected him.