Nestor Cortes Undergoes Arm Surgery

On the heels of an injury-plagued season, Nestor Cortes announced on social media that he underwent surgery on his throwing arm. Francys Romero reports that the procedure repaired a tendon tear. Cortes, an impending free agent, is expected to resume baseball activities in nine or ten months.

That timeline indicates that the southpaw won’t resume throwing until around the All-Star Break. That raises doubts about his availability for next season. He’d need well over a month of batting practice and bullpen sessions before he’s ready to begin a rehab assignment. Even without any setbacks, he wouldn’t be on a minor league mound until the second half of August. That leaves the door open for a late-season return, probably as a reliever, but interested teams will be looking at him more as a target for the ’27 season.

Cortes was clearly not right for most of this year. Traded from the Yankees to the Brewers in the Devin Williams/Caleb Durbin swap, he gave up five home runs to his former club in his Milwaukee debut. He rebounded to toss six shutout innings against Cincinnati in his second start but went on the injured list with a flexor strain after that appearance. It was his second flexor injury in as many years, as he’d dealt with the same injury late last year in the Bronx.

That wound up as Cortes’ last MLB start with Milwaukee. He was sidelined through the end of July. Cortes began a rehab assignment shortly before the trade deadline, and the Brewers felt they no longer had a rotation spot to offer him. They traded him to San Diego for fifth outfielder Brandon Lockridge.

Cortes didn’t find any more success with the Padres. He took the ball six times, allowing a 5.47 earned run average across 26 1/3 innings. He only completed six innings once and posted below-average strikeout and walk rates. The Padres shut him back down with what was termed a biceps strain in early September.

The 30-year-old was fighting through diminished stuff. His fastball averaged 90.1 MPH, two ticks below its 2022-24 level. Opponents obliterated that pitch for a .351 average and nine home runs in 57 at-bats. While he has never lit up the radar gun, Cortes had generally found success with the fastball behind deceptive life at the top of the zone. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA in three of four seasons between 2021-24. He punched out more than a quarter of opposing hitters each season from 2021-23 and finished eighth in Cy Young balloting during the ’22 campaign.

This obviously isn’t the manner in which Cortes envisioned hitting free agency for the first time. He should still command a major league contract. That could be a backloaded two-year deal or a one-year guarantee with a club option. José Urquidy and John Means, both of whom were rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, signed one-year deals with team options last offseason. They each made $1MM in the first year and had bonuses or escalators that could earn them between $4MM and $7.5MM if they maxed out the option values for the second season. Cortes could get a similar or slightly better deal for his age 31-32 seasons.