Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Nestor Cortes

Brewers Activate Brandon Woodruff

By | at

TODAY: The Brewers have officially activated Woodruff from the injured list and transferred Mitchell to the 60-day IL. Right-hander Chad Patrick was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Woodruff on the active roster.

July 3: Woody’s return is finally almost here. The Brewers have right-hander Brandon Woodruff listed as their probable starter for Sunday’s game against the Marlins. He is currently on the 60-day injured list and will need to be reinstated to the 40-man roster, though that should be as easy as transferring outfielder Garrett Mitchell the other way. Mitchell is currently on the 10-day IL but is out for the season due to shoulder surgery. The Brewers would still need to open an active roster spot.

The start will mark the end of an injury odyssey of almost two years. Woodruff last pitched in a major league game on September 23rd of 2023. Coincidentally, that game was at loanDepot Park, the same venue where Woodruff will take the mound in a few days.

After that start in Miami, Woodruff was sidelined by an injury to his throwing shoulder. Shortly thereafter, he required surgery to repair the anterior capsule in that shoulder. At the time of that procedure, it was expected that Woodruff would miss most or all of the 2024 season.

There’s never a good time for such a surgery but it was particularly awkward since that was slated to be his final arbitration year, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $11.6MM. The Brewers reportedly discussed some trades but ultimately just non-tendered Woodruff, sending him to free agency. The two sides were eventually able to reunite on a backloaded two-year deal. The $17.5MM guarantee was spread out as a $2.5MM salary in 2024, a $5.5MM salary in 2025 and then a $10MM buyout on a $20MM mutual option. That deal allowed the Brewers to hang onto Woodruff for his recovery and eventual return to the mound, while kicking most of the financial commitment down the road.

Woodruff did eventually miss the entire 2024 season. There once seemed to be a chance for him to return to the mound early in 2025, but that path had a few twists and turns. He began a rehab assignment in April but was pulled off of that in May due to right ankle tendinitis. He restarted that rehab but a comebacker struck his throwing elbow in early June, setting him back yet again. He restarted the rehab once more, throwing 82 pitches for Nashville on Sunday.

It’s anyone’s guess what Woodruff can provide after such a long time away, but he had a really strong run prior to the shoulder problems. From 2019 to 2023, he tossed 595 innings with a 2.93 earned run average, 30% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 41.5% ground ball rate.

This year, he has logged 42 minor league innings with a 2.79 ERA. His 20.6% strikeout rate is well down from his pre-surgery form. His fastball is averaging 91.9 miles per hour in his Triple-A starts this year, well down from the 96-97 mph range he was in a few years ago. Perhaps he is still ramping up his strength from the long layoff, with the stop-and-start nature of his rehab presumably not helping.

Time will tell what kind of performance the Brewers get from Woodruff, but he joins an increasingly crowded rotation picture. That’s a remarkable turn of events compared to a few months ago, when the club was scrambling to patch the starting group together.

As of today, the Milwaukee rotation consists of Freddy Peralta, Chad Patrick, Jacob Misiorowski, Jose Quintana and Quinn Priester. Peralta’s strikeout rate is down a bit but he has a 2.91 ERA on the year. Misiorowski had a wobble in his most recent start but was dominant in his first three. Patrick has a 3.51 ERA on the year while Priester is at 3.35, though the latter is getting more grounders and fewer strikeouts. Quintana has a 3.30 ERA, though with some shaky peripherals.

Despite some early-season injuries, the Brewers have built up a rotation surplus. They optioned guys like Logan Henderson and Tobias Myers to Triple-A. They were going to bump Aaron Civale to the bullpen until he asked for a trade and was flipped to the White Sox. Now Woodruff is going to be added into the mix. Nestor Cortes, who has been sidelined since April due to a flexor strain, started a rehab assignment with three innings for Nashville yesterday. Robert Gasser, recovering from last year’s Tommy John surgery, could be a factor down the stretch.

The Brewers are clearly in win-now mode. Their 48-38 record puts them in possession of the second National League Wild Card spot, two games up on the Padres and Cardinals. Pitching surpluses have a tendency to disappear quickly but the Brewers have a tight budget and could perhaps use some of this pitching to bolster other parts of the roster. Woodruff, Quintana and Cortes are all impending free agents. Peralta’s deal has an affordable $8MM club option for 2026.

Photo courtesy of William Glasheen, Imagn Images

The Brewers’ Surprising Rotation Depth

By | at

Less than two months ago, conversations surrounding the Brewers’ rotation depth struck a wildly different tone than they do at present. Early in the 2025 campaign, Milwaukee’s injured list read more like a litany, and the team was so pressed for starting pitching that it swung a rare April trade of consequence, bringing in righty Quinn Priester from the Red Sox in exchange for a Competitive Balance draft pick and two prospects.

Fast forward six to seven weeks, and the Brewers have incurred some fan backlash for optioning righty Logan Henderson to Triple-A Nashville amid a brilliant start to his big league career. Fellow righty Chad Patrick might be the NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner at the moment — and he, too, could soon find himself optioned to Nashville. Manager Pat Murphy touched on the topic when asked by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about how the Brewers plan to handle their rotation when Jose Quintana and Brandon Woodruff make their respective returns from the injured list within the next week or two.

Optioning Patrick wouldn’t be due to any concerns with his performance — far from it. The 26-year-old righty has never been a particularly touted prospect — he was acquired from the D-backs for journeyman infielder Jace Peterson and did not rank among Milwaukee’ top 30 prospects at Baseball America at any point — but has nevertheless emerged as a key piece of the pitching staff in 2025.

Patrick has pitched 57 2/3 innings and turned in a sterling 2.97 ERA with a slightly below-average 21.2% strikeout rate but a strong 7.5% walk rate. He’s probably going to have some regression in the home run department, based on his bottom-of-the-scale 26% ground-ball rate, a fair bit of hard contact allowed and a home park that’s quite conducive to the long ball, but that’s largely beside the point. Patrick’s production thus far has been nothing short of a godsend, and nothing in his performance would seem to dictate a demotion to the minor leagues.

As Murphy alluded to in his comments, however, such decisions aren’t always based on merit. The Brewers know all too well what it’s like to have a pitching staff stretched so thin that they need to go outside the organization for help. As already mentioned, they did just that within the first week of April. Teams try their best to avoid depleting depth and putting themselves in position to need to make that kind of move — which is how Patrick might well find himself in Nashville before long.

Milwaukee currently has Freddy Peralta, Aaron Civale, Patrick and Priester as starters on the active roster. Quintana and Woodruff are nearing returns. Both will be plugged into the rotation. Quintana was terrific for the Brewers before hitting the IL with a shoulder impingement. He tells Adam McCalvy of MLB.com that he expects to be activated to start this Sunday. Woodruff has in the past pitched like an ace when healthy and is in the second season of a two-year, $17.5MM deal. He’s going to get the opportunity to show he can again be a top-of-the-rotation presence.

When Quintana returns, the Brewers can go to a five-man staff. Woodruff’s return would present more questions. There aren’t enough starting spots for the number of generally competitive or established arms in Milwaukee’s rotation — a problem that seemed unfathomable in early April.

Priester has been the “weakest” performer of the group, carrying a 4.23 ERA in 44 2/3 innings. His paltry 16.6% strikeout rate and hefty 11.9% walk rate aren’t a great combination, prompting metrics like FIP (4.64) and SIERA (4.78) to cast a less favorable light on his performance. However, he’s also been doing his best work of late. Priester has a 2.76 ERA, 19.4% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate over his past three turns. He’s also down to only one minor league option year. Priester was optioned to Triple-A by the Red Sox at the end of camp but recalled by the Brewers following the early trade; since he spent fewer than 20 days in the minors, Priester didn’t actually burn through that option. Sending him down now for a period of 20 days or longer would exhaust that final option year.

That type of consideration typically doesn’t sit well with fans, but effective option management helps to preserve depth and avoid situations like the one the Brewers faced early in the season when they had more than an entire rotation’s worth of arms on the injured list — most of whom incurred their injuries in rapid succession. Preserving Priester’s final option beyond the current season carries some notable benefit, but the Brewers will obviously have to give some real thought to exhausting it anyhow.

Moving Priester to a swingman role is another option, but that would require either burning the final option year for Aaron Ashby or DL Hall or parting with Tyler Alexander entirely. Again, any of those scenarios will probably be considered, but come with a blend of short- and longer-term ramifications. Fans will surely bristle if the short-term considerations lead to Patrick following Henderson to Triple-A, but all MLB organizations are always toeing the line between maximizing short-term results and preserving long-term depth. That’s especially true of a cost-conscious Brewers club.

Whatever comes of the ostensible logjam, it’s also bearing in mind that it’s a short-term issue in and of itself. Injuries are inevitable, and if the Brewers somehow get to the trade deadline with the quintet of Peralta, Woodruff, Civale and Quintana healthy, there will probably be pitching-hungry teams inquiring about established, affordable veterans like Quintana and Civale, who’ll be free agents at season’s end.

Peralta, of course, will draw interest and present the Brewers with their latest decision on a cornerstone veteran whose club control is dwindling; they hold a club option over his 2026 season, after which he’ll be a free agent. In many regards, he’ll present the Brewers with similar decisions to the ones they’ve faced in the past on Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and Willy Adames. They’ll surely have compelling trade offers this summer, in the offseason and at the 2026 deadline — or they could go the route they did with Adames: hang onto Peralta through the end of his control window and make him a qualifying offer.

None of this even touches on the presence of top prospect Jacob Misiorowski — one of the top young arms in all of professional ball. The 2022 second-rounder, who turned 23 last month, boasts a 1.60 ERA in 56 1/3 Triple-A innings. He’s averaging 97.4 mph on a four-seamer that can climb into triple digits and has fanned 32.2% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate. At some point, this summer, he’ll likely make his MLB debut. Injured lefty Nestor Cortes is a piece in this spiraling puzzle as well. He went on the injured list after just two starts due to a flexor strain but resumed playing catch earlier this month. Once he’s healthy, he’ll also be a rotation option.

The presence of Patrick, Henderson, Misiorowski, Priester, the already-optioned Tobias Myers and lefty Robert Gasser — on the mend from last year’s Tommy John surgery — is of extra importance with each of Woodruff, Quintana, Civale and Cortes reaching free agency at season’s end. (Quintana and Woodruff have mutual options, but it’s been more than a decade since any mutual option in all of MLB was exercised by both team and player.) It also gives the Milwaukee front office plenty of paths to consider at this year’s trade deadline. They could deal from their collection of established veterans in an effort to bring in some infield help and potentially backfill the rotation via in-house arms.

In all likelihood, there will be innings available for the entire contingent of young arms over the final two-thirds of the season. Regardless, they’ll all be in consideration for full-fledged rotation spots come 2026. That likely reliance on this group of young arms only makes it more understandable if the Brewers want to avoid burning the final option years on pitchers like Priester, Ashby and Hall, as that flexibility might be of greater utility next year when working with a younger staff.

Brewers To Select Craig Yoho

By | at

5:55pm: The Brewers have made it official, announcing Yoho’s selection. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Logan Henderson to open an active roster spot and transferred lefty Nestor Cortes to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Cortes landed on the 15-day IL in early April due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. His status is unclear but he’s now unable to return until early June at the earliest.

2:20pm: The Brewers are going to select right-hander Craig Yoho, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty isn’t yet on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, so they will have to make a corresponding move.

Yoho, 25, wasn’t really on the radar as of a few years ago but has been turning some heads lately. The Brewers drafted him with an eighth-round pick in 2023 and signed him to a tiny $10K bonus. He had only thrown 37 innings in college, on account of spending some time as a position player and also undergoing two Tommy John surgeries as well as a knee surgery.

Since then, he has been surging through the minor leagues. Last year, he went from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A, tossing 57 2/3 innings with a 0.94 earned run average. He had a massive 42.4% strikeout rate, a passable 9.7% walk rate and strong 54.5% ground ball rate.

Baseball America ranked him the #15 prospect in the system coming into this year, noting that his changeup is easily his best pitch. Both his fastball and changeup have armside run and look similar out of the hand but are separated by about 13-14 miles per hour in terms of velocity, with his fastball in the 91-94 mph range and his changeup 77-81. He also mixes in a curveball on occasion.

Yoho didn’t break camp with the Brewers but has been posting strong numbers in Triple-A so far this year. He hasn’t yet allowed an earned run in 9 2/3 innings, striking out nine opponents while giving out three walks and continuing to get grounders like last year.

Milwaukee will give him a chance to see if the stuff plays against big league hitters. If it works out and he stays in the majors the rest of the way, it’s too late for him to get a full year of major league service time here in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Curt Hogg, Imagn Images.

Brewers Place Nestor Cortes On 15-Day IL Due To Flexor Strain

By | at

The Brewers announced that left-hander Nestor Cortes has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.  Southpaw Grant Wolfram was called up from Triple-A to take Cortes’ spot on the active roster.

This is now the second time in eight months that a flexor strain has sent Cortes to the IL, as a similar injury sidelined him last September when Cortes was still pitching with the Yankees.  He was able to make it back for two appearances in the World Series, including his infamous relief outing in Game 1 that saw Cortes allow Freddie Freeman’s walkoff grand slam.

Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that Cortes was feeling some elbow discomfort leading up to his last start, though Cortes still delivered six innings of shutout ball against the Reds on April 3.  Kleine doesn’t think the flexor strain is a “long-term issue,” and Cortes himself told Hogg and company that his concern level is “pretty low.”  A previous round of scans cleared Cortes to pitch three days ago, but Cortes said he’ll seek out a second opinion just out of due diligence.

Cortes is now the seventh starting pitcher on Milwaukee’s absurdly crowded injured list, as the Brewers have already just about reached critical mass for pitching health just over a week into the season.  Tobias Myers and Aaron Ashby both sustained oblique strains during Spring Training, Aaron Civale made one regular-season start before a hamstring strain sent him to the IL, and Brandon Woodruff started the season on the 15-day IL as he continues his lengthy recovery from a shoulder surgery.  In other longer-term absences, DL Hall is on the 60-day IL after suffering a lat strain this spring, and Robert Gasser is recovering from a Tommy John surgery last June.

Freddy Peralta now stands as the only healthy member of the Brewers’ projected rotation.  Tyler Alexander, Elvin Rodriguez, and Chad Patrick (all swingmen or multi-inning relief options in an ideal world) comprise the makeshift rotation behind Peralta, and Rule 5 Draft pick Connor Thomas might now be called upon to make a start or two in Cortes’ absence, with Wolfram taking Thomas’ spot as a left-handed bullpen arm.  The Brewers signed veteran Jose Quintana to provide more rotation depth at the start of March, but he is still building up his arm at Triple-A due to his late start to Spring Training.

Cortes was acquired as part of the biggest trade of the Brewers’ offseason, as Cortes, Caleb Durbin, and $2MM in cash considerations came from the Yankees for Devin Williams back in December.  Both Cortes and Williams are pending free agents, but Milwaukee was able to save a little cash in dealing its star closer while also getting a new long-term infield piece and (in theory) a veteran arm to stabilize the rotation.

This injury to Cortes now possibly throws that plan out of whack, and the southpaw and the Brewers can only hope that the strain is as relatively minor as it seems.  Between his last regular-season game in 2024 and Game 1 of the World Series, Cortes missed about five weeks, which would represent a pretty big chunk of the 2025 campaign if he needs a similar recovery period this time around.

Wolfram’s promotion is also worth noting, as the 28-year-old lefty is now on the verge of making his Major League debut.  An 18th-round pick for the Rangers in the 2018 draft, Wolfram spent his entire career in the Texas farm system before inking a guaranteed deal with Milwaukee last December, putting him onto a 40-man roster for the first time.  Wolfram had a 3.34 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate, and 10.9% walk rate over 56 2/3 innings with Triple-A Round Rock in 2024, and his first two Triple-A outings for the Brewers have resulted in a 6.00 ERA over three innings.

This Date In Transaction History: Yankees Sign Nestor Cortes

By | at

Every winter, every organization in baseball signs dozens of free agents to minor league deals, mostly in hopes of finding a useful bullpen or bench piece on the cheap or giving a veteran the opportunity to battle for a roster spot during Spring Training. Finding a true diamond in the rough through this process is exceedingly rare, but it happened for the Yankees four years ago to the day when they officially signed left-hander Nestor Cortes to a minor league deal. At the time, the southpaw was just one month removed from his 26th birthday and had a career 6.72 ERA across 79 innings of work at the big league level. Despite that brutal start to Cortes’s MLB career, the Yankees’ decision to bring him in as pitching depth for the 2021 season quickly proved to be one of the most fruitful minor league signings in recent memory.

The club was plenty familiar with Cortes when they signed him to the deal, as it was actually the lefty’s third stint in the Bronx. First drafted by the club in the 36th-round of the 2013 draft, Cortes was plucked from the club in the 2017 Rule 5 draft by the Orioles, but was returned just a few months later. He then threw 66 2/3 innings of work for the Yankees during his rookie season in 2019, though he struggled to a 5.67 ERA and found himself traded to the Mariners that November. Cortes made just five appearances in Seattle before electing minor league free agency and returning to the Yankees prior to the 2021 season.

The lefty’s return to the Bronx wouldn’t get underway in earnest until deep into May, when he was added to the club’s roster as a multi-inning relief option out of the bullpen. Cortes’s first appearance of the year came on May 30 against the Tigers, and he pitched somewhat unevenly with two runs (one earned) allowed in 3 2/3 innings of work that saw him strikeout three, give up three hits and walk four. Throughout the month of June, however, Cortes looked utterly dominant. He pitched to a microscopic 0.64 ERA across six appearances (14 innings) that month and struck out a whopping 42.3% of opponents.

That overpowering run of success earned Cortes a spot in the starting rotation when the calendar flipped to July, and he managed to keep a hold on that spot in the Yankees’ rotation throughout the remainder of the season. In 14 starts throughout the second half of the season, Cortes pitched to an excellent 3.07 ERA in 73 1/3 innings of work and struck out a respectable 25.4% of his opponents. His emergence helped the Yankees to weather injuries to Corey Kluber, Luis Gil, and Domingo Germán that tested their starting depth throughout the season. While Cortes didn’t pitch in the postseason that year as the Yankees fell to the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card game, he entered 2022 with a firm grip on a role in the starting rotation.

It turned out to be a career year for the left-hander. Cortes was among the very best pitchers in the sport in 2022, earning his first (and to this point, only) All-Star appearance and finishing within the top 10 of AL Cy Young award voting that year. While his 158 1/3 innings of work weren’t enough to qualify for the ERA title, he made a respectable 28 starts and his 2.44 ERA was the seventh-lowest in the majors among hurlers with at least 150 innings of work and left him sandwiched between Shohei Ohtani and Max Fried on that year’s leaderboard. His 26.5% strikeout rate, 3.13 FIP, and 3.7 fWAR all ranked in the top 20 among that group as well. The season to remember saw Cortes go on to make three key postseason starts for the Yankees that October. He cruised through two starts against the Guardians with a 2.70 ERA in ten innings but was ultimately on the mound for the Yankees’ final game of the season, when the Astros completed their sweep of the Bombers in Game 4 of the ALCS.

Following Cortes’s career year in 2022, the lefty saw his production take a bit of a downturn. 2023 was something of a lost season for Cortes, as he made just 12 starts due to a pair of rotator cuff strains and struggled to a below-average 4.97 ERA when he was healthy enough to take the mound. 2024 was a step in the right direction for the lefty as he was healthy for the majority of the year, but his results paled in comparison to what they had been in the first two years of his return to Yankee Stadium. In 174 1/3 innings of work for the Yankees last year, he pitched to a 3.77 ERA (109 ERA+) with a 3.84 FIP but struggled in the second half with a 4.41 ERA over his final 12 appearances.

Still, that’s solid mid-to-back of the rotation production overall and it was a worrying hit to the club’s depth when a late-season flexor strain seemingly endangered Cortes’s postseason in late September. The lefty made it back to the mound in time for the club’s World Series appearance against the Yankees, although some fans might wish he hadn’t done so after he surrendered a walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in the tenth inning of Game 1. Cortes went on to throw 1 2/3 scoreless relief innings in Game 3, but had little impact during the rest of the series as the Yankees dropped the series to the Dodgers in five games.

New York traded Cortes for a second time last month when they packaged him with infield prospect Caleb Durbin and cash considerations to acquire star Brewers closer Devin Williams. At least for the time being, that trade has brought Cortes’s lengthy Yankees story to a close. With Cortes entering his age-30 season and just one year away from free agency, it’s anyone’s guess if he’ll find himself back in the Bronx at some point before his career comes to a close, but he leaves New York as one of the club’s most valuable signings in recent years.

Over the last four seasons, the lefty has pitched to a 3.33 ERA in 489 innings of work across 93 appearances (84 starts) while punching out 25.2% of his opponents. It’s a performance that was worth 9.4 fWAR and 10.3 bWAR, and even in 2025 the decision to bring Cortes back into the fold figures to be a gift that keeps on giving now that Williams and his career 1.83 ERA will spend his final year before free agency closing out games in the Bronx. Garnering that level of production out of a mid-20s minor league signing who has a career ERA north of 6.00 is something any club would be elated about, and the outcome stands as a clear win for Brian Cashman’s front office.

MLBTR Podcast: Kyle Tucker To The Cubs, And Trades For Devin Williams And Jeffrey Springs

By | at

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Yankees Acquire Devin Williams For Nestor Cortes, Caleb Durbin

By | at

The Winter Meetings might be done, but the big trades aren’t. The Yankees and Brewers on Friday agreed to a trade sending star closer Devin Williams to New York in exchange for left-hander Nestor Cortes, infield prospect Caleb Durbin and a reported $2MM in cash.

Both Williams and Cortes are entering their final seasons of club control, and both were projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $7.7MM in 2025. Milwaukee will still come out ahead a couple million dollars, which is of some moderate note, as the Brewers are working on an extremely tight budget this winter. Durbin, meanwhile, is a second baseman with experience at the hot corner. He was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 protection deadline and is likely to slot in at second or third base in 2025, with one of Brice Turang or Joey Ortiz moving to shortstop in place of Willy Adames, who signed with the Giants as a free agent.

Williams, 30, is one of the game’s elite relievers. The 2020 National League Rookie of the Year, he boasts a career 1.83 earned run average with 68 saves, 60 holds, a 39.4% strikeout rate and 48.1% ground-ball rate in his big league career. Command has been an issue at times (11.8% walk rate), but Williams’ utterly devastating changeup — nicknamed the “Airbender” — is one of the most dominant pitches in the entire sport. He’s finished off 2299 big league plate appearances with that pitch, during which opponents have posted a comically feeble .139/.223/.200. The pitch boasts a preposterous 23% swinging-strike rate.

Among pitchers with at least 200 innings pitched since 2019, Emmanuel Clase (1.67) is the only pitcher with a better ERA than Williams’ 1.83 mark. No other pitcher is within even 40 points. (Jacob deGrom is next, at 2.24.) In that same time, only Josh Hader and Edwin Diaz have posted higher strikeout rates than Williams’ 39.4%. Only Gerrit Cole has a higher mark in terms of win probability added. Hader is second in WPA among relievers, but his 12.46 mark isn’t close to Williams’ 14.24. Sports Info Solutions credits Williams’ changeup as far and away the most valuable pitch of its type in the majors.

Dominant as Williams has been, he’ll come to the Yankees with some recent injury concerns. A stress fracture in his lower back caused the right-hander to miss the first four months of the 2024 season. Williams wasn’t activated for his 2024 debut until July 28. Once healthy, he generally looked like his dominant self, rattling off 21 2/3 innings with a microscopic 1.25 ERA, a massive 43.2% strikeout rate and an unsightly 12.5% walk rate (that was largely mitigated by his near-unparalleled ability to rack up strikeouts). Of course, the lasting memory for many fans will unfortunately be the backbreaking three-run homer that Williams surrendered to Pete Alonso in Milwaukee’s NLDS loss to the Mets.

Similarly, one of Cortes’ final moments as a Yankee is one he’d like to forget. The left-hander served up a walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of the World Series — the first of four Gibson-esque home runs the hobbled L.A. first baseman swatted en route to World Series MVP honors. As with Williams, there are some notable 2024 health concerns; Cortes gutted his way through a late-season flexor strain to return to the Yankees in the postseason. Cortes was also limited to 12 starts in 2023, thanks to a strain in his rotator cuff. Clearly, both clubs are satisfied with the medical reports on the veterans they’re acquiring.

Cortes, who just turned 30, has been a rock-solid mid-rotation arm when healthy in recent seasons. Dating back to his 2021 breakout with the Yankees, he’s pitched 489 innings with a 3.33 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate. The ERA is skewed by the 4.97 mark he logged in ’23 when dealing with that shoulder strain, but Cortes has been quite effective in three of the past four seasons.

In 2024, Cortes pitched a career-high 174 1/3 innings while sitting a career-best 92.1 mph with his four-seamer. The lefty fanned 22.8% of his opponents and notched a career-best 5.5% walk rate. If he can deliver anything close to that, the Brewers will surely be thrilled. Adding to the rotation was a significant need for the Brewers this offseason, but they’ve been operating with minimal resources as they try to find creative ways to do so.

Cortes will give Milwaukee an experienced arm to slot in behind Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff (returning from 2023 shoulder surgery), Aaron Civale and diamond-in-the-rough Tobias Myers. The Brewers also have lefties Aaron Ashby and DL Hall as rotation candidates, plus young righties Carlos Rodriguez, Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick on the 40-man roster but likely ticketed for Triple-A.

With a full, healthy season, there’s a chance Cortes is a more valuable pitcher on the whole than Williams. He’s been worth about 10 wins above replacement over the past four seasons, per both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs (even when accounting for his poor showing in an injury-marred 2023 season). For the Yankees, however, he was no more than sixth or seventh on the depth chart — not with Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman all on the roster.

For the Yankees, the deal is about not only beefing up their bullpen during the regular season but more specifically about bolstering their postseason roster, where Williams would be a focal piece and Cortes would be relegated to a lower-leverage relief role. In that sense, there are some parallels with the 2022 Jordan Montgomery/Harrison Bader swap: ship out a starter who’s not in the playoff rotation in exchange for someone who’ll have greater impact on postseason results. In the end, the trade involves both teams dealing from areas of strength.

The Milwaukee bullpen, after all, was one of the best in baseball last season — even in a year where Williams missed two-thirds of the year. The Brewers’ collective 3.11 bullpen ERA ranked second in the sport, and they were top-10 in terms of FIP (3.78, seventh), walk rate (8.3%, ninth) and K-BB% (15.5, tenth). With Williams out of the picture, they’ll likely look to Trevor Megill (2.72 ERA, 27.3 K%), Joel Payamps (3.05 ERA, 25.1 K%) and Bryan Hudson (1.73 ERA, 26.8 K%) for late-inning work. The previously mentioned Ashby (1.37 ERA, 36.8 K%, 19 1/3 innings) and Hall (3.00 ERA, 26.5 K%, 12 innings) also looked impressive when working as relievers.

The other major piece of the puzzle for the Brewers, of course, is the 24-year-old Durbin. Milwaukee lost Adames to free agency this offseason and has been in search of infield help but with scant money to spend. Durbin could slot in at second or third base, with one of Ortiz or Turang sliding over to shortstop. He could also simply give the Brewers a versatile utility option with intriguing contact skills and speed.

Durbin, who came to the Yankees from the Braves in exchange for Lucas Luetge, spent the bulk of the 2024 season in Triple-A Scranton Wilkes/Barre. He missed more than two months after being hit by a pitch on the wrist in May, but when he was healthy he was quite impressive. An infielder from the Altuve mold, Durbin is listed at just 5’6″ but nevertheless hit .287/.396/.471 (129 wRC+) with 10 homers and 31 stolen bases in 82 Triple-A games (375 plate appearances). He walked more than he struck out, drawing a free pass in 12.5% of his plate appearances versus a 9.9% strikeout rate.

With Durbin having missed a notable chunk of the season, the Yankees sent him to the Arizona Fall League to pick up some extra reps. He thrived there, hitting .312/.427/.548 with another five home runs and an AFL-record 29 stolen bases in 24 games (117 plate appearances). As he did in Triple-A, Durbin recorded more walks (17) than strikeouts (six).

Durbin has yet to take a single big league plate appearance, but the success he’s had in Triple-A and in the Arizona Fall League — coupled with the Brewers’ needs in the infield — give him a legitimate chance to break camp with the club. He might need to earn his way into a starting gig this spring, and his ultimate role will depend on any subsequent moves the Brewers make, but he’s very clearly an option to help the club in 2025. As it stands, he’s controllable through at least the 2030 season.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Yankees and Brewers were finalizing a Williams trade. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that the deal was in place. Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Cortes was in the deal. Durbin’s inclusion was first reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reported that there was cash in the deal, and Nightengale chimed in with the exact amount.

Yankees Recently Met With Max Fried, Corbin Burnes

By | at

The Yankees’ efforts to re-sign Juan Soto have dominated headlines in the Bronx this offseason, but they’re also laying the groundwork for other free agent possibilities. The Yankees held a 90-minute meeting with longtime Braves lefty Max Fried this week, as first reported by the YES Network’s Michael Kay, who adds that the talk went well and the two sides are expected to meet again. Mike Puma and Joel Sherman of the New York Post also report that the two sides met, with the Yankees’ contingent consisting of GM Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone, pitching coach Matt Blake and as many as six other team officials. Puma and Sherman further add that the Yankees met with Corbin Burnes late last month.

Soto, of course, remains the Yankees’ top focus. It seems unlikely that they’d sign him to what increasingly appears to be a $600MM+ contract and then put down more than $150MM on one of Fried or Burnes — though the Yanks certainly have the resources to do so. Still, it’s only natural for any Soto suitor to be doing homework on potential contingency plans in the event that he signs elsewhere. Loading up on high-end starting pitching and addressing the lineup in other ways would be one such possibility. (Notably, the Yankees have also recently been linked to infielder Willy Adames, who’s willing to play third base or second base with a new club.)

The Yankees already have one of the most expensive staffs in the sport. Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Marcus Stroman are owed a combined $81MM next year. Nestor Cortes is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $7.7MM. Righty Clarke Schmidt is projected at $3.5MM. Newly minted Rookie of the Year Luis Gil is still in his pre-arbitration years. There’s been speculation about the Yankees moving either Stroman or Cortes this winter, both of which seem plausible. Adding someone the caliber of Fried of Burnes would make a trade elsewhere in the rotation a virtual inevitability.

Either Burnes or Fried would join Cole right atop what could be a powerhouse Yankees rotation. Both pitchers rejected qualifying offers from their former clubs, meaning both would cost the Yankees their second- and fifth-highest draft selections, in addition to $1MM of space from their 2025 bonus pool in international free agency. For a pitcher of either caliber, that’s a small price to pay.

Fried, 31 in January, has rattled off 659 innings of 2.81 ERA ball dating back to the 2020 season. He’s third among all qualified starting pitchers in ERA in that time, trailing only Brandon Woodruff (2.76) and Clayton Kershaw (2.79). Fried has thrown nearly 200 more innings than both those pitchers. His 2024 season wasn’t his best, but only relative to his lofty standards. He made 29 starts, totaling 174 1/3 innings, and notched a tidy 3.25 ERA.

Fried doesn’t miss bats like the prototypical ace but has a slightly better-than-average 23.6% strikeout rate over the past five seasons. He sports a strong 6.3% walk rate in that time and is among the game’s very best when it comes to minimizing hard contact and avoiding opponents’ barrels. He also racks up grounders at a plus rate (54.2% since 2020) — highlighted by a career-best 58.8% mark in 2024. Fried has generally been durable, although he was limited to 14 starts in 2023 due to a forearm strain that did not end up requiring surgery. He missed three starts in 2024 due to a nerve issue in that same forearm, but that’s ostensibly a different issue than the one that sidelined him in ’23.

Burnes is nearly a full year younger, having turned 30 about five weeks ago. He’s solidified himself as a true workhorse, ranking third in the majors in innings pitched over the past five seasons and sitting narrowly behind Fried with a fourth-ranked 2.88 ERA in that same span. Burnes was traded from the Brewers to the Orioles last offseason and proved himself against many of the very same AL East lineups he’d be facing as a Yankee. He made 32 starts and pitched 194 1/3 innings of 2.92 ERA ball for the O’s, adding eight innings of one-run excellence in Baltimore’s brief postseason foray.

Dominant as Burnes has been at times in his career, his recent work bears some resemblance to that of Fried. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but his once sky-high strikeout rate now sits at a roughly league-average rate (23.1% in 2024). Like Fried, he’s countered the diminished strikeout tendencies with sharp command and a knack for dodging hard contact. Burnes doesn’t generate grounders at the same level, but his 46.9% career mark and 2024’s 48.8% rate are both still comfortably above average.

The general thinking has been that Burnes will sign the largest contract of any pitcher this offseason. He’s two years younger than Blake Snell — who signed for five years and $182MM with the Dodgers (albeit with some deferrals) — and a year younger than Fried. His blend of durability and effectiveness is unmatched among this year’s crop of free agents. Fried, however, should command a deal well north of $100MM himself — quite possibly approaching or even exceeding the $162MM the Yankees promised to Rodon two winters ago.

The Yankees currently project for a payroll around $230MM, per RosterResource. They’re currently below the luxury tax threshold, but only nominally so. Even minor additions in free agency or on the trade market will push them into luxury territory. They’ve been a tax payor in each of the past three seasons, however, and their pursuits of various high-end free agents makes it clear they’re comfortable not only paying the tax for a fourth straight season but perhaps pushing into the highest tier of penalty again — at least for the 2025 season.

Managing partner Hal Steinbrenner has said that trotting out a payroll of that magnitude every season isn’t sustainable in the long run. However, that’s probably the reality for the immediate future, so long as the Yanks are paying Aaron Judge, Cole and Rodon a combined $103MM annually through 2028 (to say nothing of weighty commitments to Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, Stroman and any forthcoming free agent/trade additions).

World Series Roster Notes: Cortes, Graterol, Vesia

By | at

The Yankees and Dodgers are going to be facing each other in the World Series for the first time since 1981. Since neither LCS went seven games, there will be a few off-days before the World Series is scheduled to begin on Friday. Between now and then, both clubs will be assessing some injured players to see if they could act as reinforcements for the final stretch of the postseason.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters today that there’s “a decent chance” left-hander Nestor Cortes will be on the World Series roster. Brendan Kuty of The Athletic was among those to relay that info on X. As for the Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was on SNLA last night and said there’s a chance both righty Brusdar Graterol and lefty Alex Vesia make the roster for the series, per Blake Harris on X.

Cortes landed on the injured list September 25 due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. He was shut down for about a week before starting to ramp up again, but hasn’t been on the Yankee roster for any of their postseason series so far.

Presumably, Cortes would be limited to a relief role in the World Series. He was largely working as a starter this year but has been out of action for about a month and has been throwing 10-15 pitch bullpen sessions lately.

The Yanks have had Tim Hill and Tim Mayza as their left-hander relief options of late. Both have been posting good results but in a low-strikeout, grounder-heavy fashion. Hill tossed 44 innings for the Yankees this year with a 2.05 earned run average, only striking out 10.4% of batters faced but with a massive 69.9% ground ball rate. His numbers in seven postseason appearances have been fairly similar: 1.59 ERA, 9.1% strikeout rate and 63.2% grounder rate.

Mayza tossed 18 innings for the Yankees this year with a flat ERA of 4.00. He struck out just 16.2% of batters faced but got grounders at a 55.4% clip. He has only been trusted to toss 1 1/3 innings in the playoffs thus far.

Cortes had a strikeout rate above 25% in each season from 2021 to 2023. That number dropped to 22.8% in 2024 but was still a solid mark. Pitchers can often rack up a few more Ks when moving from the rotation to the bullpen, throwing a little bit harder in shorter stints as opposed to pacing themselves for longer outings. Whether Cortes can do that or not might depend on his health, but if he’s in decent form, he should be expected to provide more punchouts than Hill or Mayza.

Vesia has made 232 regular-season appearances for the Dodgers in his career with a 2.89 ERA. His 11.5% walk rate is on the high side but he’s been able to offset that with a 32.3% strikeout rate. He’s been trusted enough to earn eight saves and 48 holds in that time.

He was on the Dodgers’ roster for the NLDS against the Padres but departed the final contest with an oblique/intercostal injury. He was left off the club’s NLCS roster but could potentially be back in the mix for the World Series. Anthony Banda is currently the only lefty option in the Dodger bullpen, so manager Dave Roberts would undoubtedly love to have Vesia back in the mix.

Graterol is more of a wild card as his 2024 has mostly been a lost season. He only made seven regular season appearances this year due to various injuries. He started the year on the IL due to both hip tightness and right shoulder inflammation, with the latter issue keeping him on the shelf until August. He made his season debut August 6 but left that outing with a right hamstring strain. He came off the IL in September and made six appearances that month but landed back on the IL in the final days of the season due to some more shoulder inflammation.

The on-and-off shoulder problems are concerning but the club might take a chance on him anyway. He’s been a key piece of their bullpen for years and was in good form as recently as 2023. He posted a 1.20 ERA over 68 appearances last year. His 18.7% strikeout rate was subpar but that’s always been his style. He limited walks to a 4.7% clip and kept batted balls on the ground 64.4% of the time.

Postseason Notes: Dodgers, Cortes, Senga

By | at

The Dodgers are headed back to L.A. for Game 6 of the NLCS with a 3-2 lead, but the club nonetheless faces some question marks regarding who exactly they’ll have available tomorrow. Catcher Will Smith departed Game 5 early after taking a pitch off of his glove hand during the game, but per Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times x-rays on Smith’s hand came back negative and he’s expected to be available for Game 6. That’s surely a relief for the Dodgers, given that Smith (111 wRC+) is a massive improvement over back-up Austin Barnes (86 wRC+) with the bat.

Unfortunately, things are less certain regarding first baseman Freddie Freeman. The veteran star has struggled at the dish of late while playing through a sprained ankle, with just one hit in his last 15 at-bats. While Jack Harris of the L.A. Times notes that manager Dave Roberts noted that Freeman is expected to play in tomorrow’s game just as Smith is, there was more uncertainty regarding Freeman’s availability as Roberts said he did not plan to decide if Freeman will start today and that whether or not he’s in the lineup tomorrow will be determined by how the veteran feels tomorrow. Should Freeman wind up missing tomorrow’s game, Max Muncy would likely slide from third base to first, opening up the hot corner for Enrique Hernandez and center field for Andy Pages.

More from around the playoff clubs…

  • Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes was left off the club’s roster for the ALCS as he rehabs a late-season flexor strain that’s left him sidelined for nearly a month now. Fortunately, Cortes now appears closer than ever to a return to action. As noted by The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner, the southpaw has continued to progress well and figures to have just one hurdle left to clear in his rehab: a live bullpen session in the coming days. If Cortes gets through that bullpen successfully, Kirschner suggests that Cortes is “expected” to be on the club’s World Series roster should they advance. The return of Cortes would surely be a huge boost to the Yankees’ bullpen mix, particularly after they lost right-hander Ian Hamilton for the World Series yesterday due to a calf injury. Cortes would also add another lefty option to the club’s relief corps. The club currently only features Tim Hill and Tim Mayza as lefty relief options, the latter has allowed four of eight batters to reach base to this point in the postseason.
  • Moving on to the Mets, the club opted to give the ball to left-hander David Peterson rather than right-hander Kodai Senga in Game 5 yesterday, and that decision seems to leave the door open to a role change for Senga late in the series. As relayed by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters today that he “won’t hesitate” to hand Senga the ball in a relief role in tomorrow’s game despite Senga having been exclusively used as a starter throughout his MLB career to this point. With Senga evidently available out of the pen, the Mets may have a potentially dynamic relief weapon on their hands who’s capable of pitching multiple innings as a bridge to closer Edwin Diaz. Of course, that would require Senga to have ironed out the issues that saw him walk four batters and allow three runs in 1 1/3 innings of work against the Dodgers earlier in this series.
Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top