TODAY: The Yankees officially activated Cortes. Left-hander Nick Ramirez was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.
AUGUST 3: The Yankees are planning to reinstate left-hander Nestor Cortes from the 60-day injured list Saturday, manager Aaron Boone announced to reporters (Twitter link via Greg Joyce of the New York Post). Cortes, who’s been out since late May due to a rotator cuff strain in his left shoulder, will return to the rotation and take the mound against the Astros.
Cortes, 28, returned to the Yankees (who selected him in the 36th round of the 2013 draft) in 2021 after spending a year in Seattle and enjoyed a breakout season that carried over into the 2022 campaign. From 2021-22, the southpaw turned in a sensational 2.61 ERA with a 26.9% strikeout rate, a 6.4% walk rate and just 1.07 homers allowed per nine innings pitched. His 2022 performance was strong enough to secure his first All-Star bid and to nab some down-ballot mentions in Cy Young voting, where he finished eighth.
Thus far, the 2023 season has been a massive departure from that success. Cortes has pitched to a 5.16 ERA while his strikeout, walk, ground-ball, home run and hard-hit rates have all trended in the wrong direction relative last season’s levels. Opponents hit just .189/.241/.313 against Cortes last season but were batting .253/.318/.450 against him in 59 1/3 innings before he was placed on the injured list. Cortes held his opponents scoreless in seven of his 28 starts last year and allowed just one earned run in nine of them. This year, he’s allowed at least one run in all 11 of his starts — and two or more in 10 of his 11 outings.
Glaring as this year’s struggles have been, the return of Cortes could provide a much-needed boost to a struggling Yankees staff. Luis Severino has been one of baseball’s worst starters this year, logging a 7.49 ERA in a dozen starts. Offseason signee Carlos Rodon has pitched to a 6.29 ERA in five starts since making an injury-delayed debut with the team. Domingo German recently entered treatment for alcohol abuse and will not return to the team this season.
As it stands, Gerrit Cole — in his typical Cy Young-caliber form — and Clarke Schmidt are the only two consistent performers on the active roster for Boone. Only time will tell which version of Cortes shows up, but even if he’s not pitching at his 2021-22 levels, he should be an upgrade to the staff. Cortes has made a pair of minor league rehab starts, both in Double-A, and allowed one run on six hits and a walk with nine punchouts in 6 1/3 frames.
Yankees… They’re funny.
27
Jimmy Hendrix was another legend dead at 27. RIP.
What are the Yankees playing for? Smh
It’s right in front of them. – Aaron Boone
See? They have a plan.
In all seriousness you guys should have sold some of your pieces, get some prospects out of them.
I love Gleyber as a player, but I really wonder what they could of gotten from the Marlins as far as prospects. Unless they plan on signing him to an extension in the near future. Doubt it.
I’m sure you heard cap that they asked an excessive amount for him, in excess for what he was actually worth. Something like four highly ranked pitching prospects .Which suggest that Cashman is an ignoramus, or did not really want to trade him. or more likely, a combination of the two.
Yeah doc it was crazy, there was no way they we’re getting 2 starters, plus 2 prospects for Torres. Mixed emotions for Gleyber. I like him as a player, and as a person. I definitely think the pitcher Cabrera, Joey Wendle, and a prospect like Khalil Watson would of been a fair ask from the Marlins, of course the Yankees wanted more though. It makes no sense considering Gleyber most likely won’t be offered an extension. Smh
As a Yankees fan I’ll be optimistic.
When the Yankees went “full tilt analytics” and fired scores of seasoned scouts, coaches and training staff, they became the Ivy League, “swing and miss” NY Yankees.
Some of the chatter you hear from what goes on in that front office, if even some of that is true, Yankees need some housecleaning to do.
When Stick passed away so did all common sense in the front office.
I definitely think you are 100% correct. The Yankees front office was never the same after Gene”Stick” Michael, may he Rest In Peace.
Shocked the Yankees didn’t put Rizzo on the 60 day IL, definitely thinking he’s done for the rest of the year, god bless the Yankees doctors! Smh.
If not the concussion issue, Rizzo would probably start dealing with back spasms so he yes, I agree he might be done this year. If only the Yankees had gotten someone like Cron, at least he’d be able to slot in at 1B.
@acoss13- If the Yankees start winning series, it would make some sense to sign a Trey Mancini or a Luke Voit, right? Any preference right now?
Can’t hurt cap Judge. nothing at all to lose, and would fit right in with a Cashman’s preferences, oft injured and cheap players that strike out a lot.
I’d try both, both are cheap and it both are serviceable at 1B. You guys don’t have any minor league players that can play 1B? Even a Double A guy?
@acoss13- Austin Wells could probably play some lst. He’s actually at AAA. The Yankees are grooming him to be a catcher. My guess he plays leftfield/lst base and does some catching for the Yankees if not this season, then probably next.
acoss some of that has already taken place when they hired Omar Manaya and Brian Sabean. Though we won’t see any results for a couple of years or so. Next step should be to fire Cashman and I say this as someone who defended Cashman until this past offseason.
Cashmans time is passed, it has been apparent for quite a while that he needs to go. He appears to be paralyzed with indecision at times. And when he does make decisions, they are often perplexing or the wrong ones. For example he had years to get a real leftfielder, instead he converts infielders to play the outfield, or career journeyman, has not worked out too well.
Those two have had a lot of success at drafting and signing talented players, at the very least Cashman won’t just have analytically driven front office personnel.
Unfortunately doubt Cashman gets fired, considering that would make the most sense. Nobody is considered more family to the Steinbrenner’s then Cashman. Cash probably leaves on his own terms eventually.
There wasn’t much to sell but apparently the Yankees were asking for a kings ransom for their rental players.
May Nestor work his way through the lineup twice without getting injured or strafed.
Ready for the playoff push. Only 3.5 out of the WC Three more against TB. Three more against Houston and 6 more against Toronto. Should be easy sweeps.
Boone is a magician. Yanks over 500 with judge and basically aaaa lineup.
Cole and meh staff
When Brady Singer is pitching well , yanks no better than royals.
Royals? Where do they play?
thank goodness he’s coming back
he can play first and bat clean-up
This is a question for Yankees fans? What do you think is the biggest issue for the current Yankees? Is it the coaching staff? Scouting/player development? Front office (ie GM or POBO)? A little bit of everything?
The GM put this team together and hired the coaching staff. Fire Cashman!!
Father time. DJL’s falloff was not to be unexpected when they signed him to a 6-year deal. Ditto for Stanton, Donaldson, and Rizzo. It’s all happening sooner than what Cashman expected. That’s four guys in the heart of the lineup. None of his recent trades have worked out with exception of Matt Carpenter. Hal only signs the checks so I’m not going to blame him. They need to take a play out of Cohen’s playback and cut bait soon with Stanton and DJL if they continue to play below replacement level. It’s too bad bc Cole is having a great season. Same for the bullpen. I think it’s time for Cashman to go.
That’s lame.
Donaldson was terrible before he got here. Cash didn’t hold on too long he purchased garbage because he’s a fool and doesn’t know better.
Yah sure about that? He had a .247/.352/.457 – 127 OPS+ season in 2021 with the Twins.
Josh Donaldson was not terrible before he got here. He was actually pretty good. He fell off a cliff when he arrived in NY.
baseball-reference.com/players/d/donaljo02.shtml
It was the pressure of the big city… LOL
I hear you B creatures. but that’s the problem in a nutshell, Cashmans seems to always be blindsided by things that could be predicted by even someone who is not a so-called baseball expert. DJ is 35, how long do you think the guy can go on for. The others are not far behind him and ravaged by injuries just compromises their performance even more. obviously you cannot have an all star at every position, but a competent major-league player would even be in improvement for the Yankees. It would have helped to have a competent major league leftfielder for example, instead of a patchwork of converted in fielders in career minor leaguers. that would help to offset some of the decline of the other players.
100% Hal
He can’t make the hard decisions that need to be made for success. Cashman needed to go a long time ago but he can’t pull the trigger bc of his relationship with him. Good leaders have to make hard, gut wrenching decisions sometimes, like moving on from a lifelong friend bc it’s in the best interest of your franchise. Hal can’t do it yet. Hopefully he finds that next gear though bc if he thinks the cash cow that is the NY Yankees will continue to print money without success he is in for a rude awakening.
Cashman appears to be paralyzed by any decision these days. Will be called analysis paralysis
Hal. He’s a complete dimwit.
Cashman is the worst GM in baseball but an owner who keeps a proven loser obviously gets off on losing.
@emac22- I definitely agree with you here, this is definitely more of Hal’s fault then Cashman’s, because he is the owner. Brian is just a puppet for Hal, nothing more. Hal is no George unfortunately where winning is everything. I don’t feel the Yankees should or have the highest payroll in baseball to have success and win.
How’s that Montas pickup working out?
Like ouch, babe!
I honestly forgot he was even on the team until you mentioned him lol
The storyline that isnt analyzed enough in media…..Yankees paying 5 million per win this season ( # wins/total payroll on Spotrac)….Tampa paying 1.2 million per win….
MLB has efficiency issues translating inputs to outputs in their business model. Mets are worse of course. Would the Cohens and Steinbrenners not have interest in reducing their production costs while exponentially increasing the quality of their product? Why arent they doing it? They are business titans we are told.
OTOH,Tex, Hou, Atl, Phil, LA argue the other direction. Spending on the front end correlates to better product on the backside. But from the perspective of efficiencies and margins, nobody does it better than TB year in and out. What’s the recipe? When do the Steinbrenners et al start looking in a different direction in their business structure?
Come on, use proper English. “Glaring as this year’s struggles have been….” This is missing the word “as” at the start. You can’t just take words out of a sentence. You’re a professional writer, grammar isn’t optional. This Adams guy is a hack.
I knew what he meant and wasn’t the least bit offended
Insulting as your comment may have been…no one cares.
You
Right
Writing.
Bad
Learn English, Melchez.
Cmon, #But It Do. You’re a commenter complaining about grammar on a free website; perhaps you could use a semi-colon where appropriate.
There is no spot where a semicolon would have been more appropriate.
It’s appropriate to use a semicolon, not a comma, between closely related independent clauses.
A comma works there as well.
This team needs new leadership. Why invest in ridiculous contracts for two or three players and field AAAA talent elsewhere? Makes sense if you have great arb controlled players coming up, they do not. The Donaldson trade was putrid. The Bader trade was awful. The Rodon signing was bad then and worse now. Hicks, DJ, Sevy contracts/extensions were all unnecessary and bloat. Picking up Stanton after losing out on Ohtani reeked with desperation. Must be fun to keep your job after repeatedly having the most resources yet fielding subpar talent. Last place, deservingly. I was at the Baltimore game last Sunday where Severino shat the bed in the first, and AGAIN they run him out there. The definition of insanity.
The Yankees need to rebuild the rotation.
Get as many lefty bats into that offense.
Add a couple obp guys and a couple power bats.
Rizzo, judge and Stanton can stay. The rest replace.
Now it’s on!
test
@steve adams … how about todays Reds transactions ???
But Montas is going to sizzle in Sept surely. Right Cashman?
There are no hopes when you have Torres,Stanton,Rizzo,KFC on top of the lineup
KFC… Mmmm original recipe please.
Mr Nasty won’t make it out of the first inning today. Astros will feast on his rustiness.
Welp. Agreed on Nailz though, he’s the man.
I like Cortes, but the way the Yankees are, Nestor is probably a bank robber or a Russian spy.