Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Nestor Cortes

Yankees Place Nestor Cortes On Injured List

By | at

The Yankees announced Thursday that lefty Nestor Cortes has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left rotator cuff. That move is retroactive to June 5. Fellow lefty Matt Krook has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in his place.

Manager Aaron Boone had already suggested earlier in the week that Cortes was likely to be placed on the injured list due to a shoulder strain, so today’s announcement shouldn’t come as a surprise. Boone noted at the time that Cortes has been having difficulty recovering between his starts due to ongoing discomfort in his shoulder. He underwent an MRI this week to determine the severity of the issue, though this is the first time the Yankees have formally disclosed his diagnosis. A concrete timeline has not been provided since Cortes underwent imaging.

Cortes has struggled this season, following up on his 2021-22 breakout with 59 1/3 frames of 5.16 ERA ball. His velocity hasn’t dropped off, but Cortes’s 23.4% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate are both noticeably worse than his respective 26.9% and 6.4% marks from 2021-22. He’s also seen his ground-ball rate, home-run rate, opponents’ chase rate, swinging-strike rate and average exit velocity all trend in the wrong direction.

Cortes has generally pitched well the first and second time through the batting order, holding opponents to a terrible .176/.242/.264 batting line on the first trip and an only marginally better .231/.286/.341 slash the second time around. He’s been utterly demolished by opponents when turning the lineup over for a third time, however: .447/.500/1.021 in 54 plate appearances. That marks a radical departure from 2022, when Cortes held opponents to a .189/.243/.283 batting line when facing them a third time.

With Cortes’ shoulder issue, the Yankees now have 60% of what they hoped would be their Opening Day rotation on the injured list. Neither Frankie Montas (shoulder surgery) nor Carlos Rodon (forearm strain, lower back injury) have thrown a pitch this season. Ace Gerrit Cole has been one of the best pitchers in baseball, while Domingo German has had a solid year (albeit a controversial one, including a 10-game ban for foreign substance usage).

The rest of the staff has been unable to pick up the slack. Clarke Schmidt is second on the team in innings pitched, but his 4.96 ERA isn’t exactly an impressive mark. He’s been solid over his past four turns, but the nine prior starts were fairly ugly. Rookie Jhony Brito has routinely been hit hard, evidenced by a 6.17 ERA in 35 frames. Luis Severino’s return brought a much-needed influx of talent, and he’s given the Yankees a pair of good outings but one painful clunker at Dodger Stadium. Severino will get a chance to bounce back in the first game of today’s twin bill, while rookie Randy Vasquez will make his second start of the season in the the second game.

Yankees To Place Aaron Judge On Injured List

By | at

The Yankees are placing defending AL MVP Aaron Judge on the 10-day injured list, manager Aaron Boone told the team’s beat after tonight’s loss to the White Sox (relayed by Erik Boland of Newsday and Brendan Kuty of the Athletic). Judge has a bruise and ligament sprain in his injured right big toe.

Judge suffered the injury on Saturday. Pursuing a J.D. Martinez fly ball to the warning track, he crashed into the right field wall. The 6’7″ outfielder knocked through the wall with his upper body but struck his foot against its concrete base. He finished out that game but hasn’t played since upon reporting toe discomfort. (Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported this evening the Dodgers are adding a layer of padding at the bottom of the wall in response to the injury.)

The Yankees can backdate Judge’s IL placement to Sunday, so he’ll only officially be out for another week. Whether he’ll be able to return when first eligible isn’t clear, though he appears to have avoided a fracture that’d have raised the specter of a particularly lengthy absence. Judge has already been on the IL once this season. He returned after a minimal stay last month with a right hip strain.

Frustrating as the health issues have been, Judge is again playing at an MVP level. While he was never expected to repeat last year’s record-setting 62 homer season, he’s barely taken a step back. Judge carries a .291/.404/.674 slash over 213 trips to the plate. Among hitters with 200+ plate appearances, he ranks sixth in on-base percentage, second in homers and first in slugging.

New York is already without Harrison Bader due to injury. The Yankees’ outfield looks particularly rough with Judge joining him on the shelf. Left field has been a revolving door all season. New York ran an outfield trio of Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Willie Calhoun this evening. Oswaldo Cabrera is on the MLB bench, while Franchy Cordero is on optional assignment and could be recalled to replace Judge on the roster.

Boone also told reporters that starter Nestor Cortes has been diagnosed with a strain in his throwing shoulder (via Jack Curry of the YES Network). Boone had already said Cortes was headed to the 15-day IL due to shoulder discomfort. That’ll be made official tomorrow with Randy Vásquez expected to be recalled to start in his place. The Yankees haven’t provided an indication of how long they expect Cortes to be sidelined.

Nestor Cortes Likely To Be Placed On IL With Shoulder Issue

By | at

9:30pm: Judge tells Hoch that he expects to undergo X-rays and/or an MRI when the club gets back to New York.

5:58pm: Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes has a shoulder issue and is likely headed for the 15-day injured list, with Bryan Hoch of MLB.com among those to relay word from manager Aaron Boone (Twitter links). Boone hopes that Cortes will only miss one or two starts but the southpaw is undergoing an MRI to determine the exact nature and severity of the issue.

It’s not clear exactly when the issue arose, though Boone says Cortes has been having issues recovering in between his starts. If the club does indeed have to proceed without Cortes, that would obviously not be ideal, but it would perhaps at least lead to an explanation for his diminished results on the season.

The lefty bounced around to various clubs in the early parts of his career before breaking out with the Yankees in the last two years. He tossed 251 1/3 innings over 2021 and 2022, posting a combined 2.61 ERA in that time. He struck out 26.9% of opponents while walking 6.4%. Through 11 starts this year, his ERA is way up to 5.16 while his strikeout rate has dropped to 23.4% and his walks are up to 7.5%.

Despite that tepid performance, the Yanks surely don’t need yet another pitching injury to deal with. Frankie Montas and Carlos Rodón have yet to appear so far this season due to their own injuries and the club has also has to navigate absences from Domingo Germán and Luis Severino. Those latter two are now back in action, slotted alongside Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt in the current rotation.

If Cortes does indeed miss a small amount of time, the club would likely need a spot start from one of Randy Vásquez or Jhony Brito. Both of them are on the 40-man roster and have been up in the majors at times this year. The Yanks have a handful of off-days this month that would limit the need for their services, though that need would obviously grow if the shoulder issue with Cortes proves to be more significant than hoped.

Rotation help could be coming further down the line as Rodón continues his march towards his Yankee debut. He suffered a forearm strain during Spring Training and then was slowed by a back issue that doctors have told him is chronic. Nonetheless, he’s been ramping up his activities in recent weeks and will face live hitters on Wednesday, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. His return to the majors leagues isn’t imminent as he will still need to build up to a full starter’s workload, but it’s encouraging that he’s jumping through the usual hoops without issue at the moment.

Elsewhere on the roster, Aaron Judge is out of tonight’s lineup with a minor issue. He made a spectacular catch last night, crashing into the wall at Dodger Stadium and busting open the bullpen gate, Twitter video per Hoch. Boone says Judge banged his toe and is sore and receiving treatment, per Hoch. There are no plans to place him on the injured list right now but it will depend how things progress. “I don’t know,” Boone tells Hoch in response to the IL question. “Not at this point. We’ll see how he is today, tomorrow and the next day.”

That will obviously be an important situation to monitor as Judge is having yet another excellent season. The reigning American League MVP has 19 home runs on the year already and is slashing .291/.404/.674 for a wRC+ of 188. With fellow outfielders Harrison Bader and Greg Allen already on the injured list, it would be a significant blow if Judge were to join them. With Judge out of the lineup tonight, the Yanks have Willie Calhoun, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jake Bauers in the outfield with Giancarlo Stanton in the designated hitter slot. Franchy Cordero is on the 40-man roster and could be recalled if Judge does eventually require an IL stint.

Yankees Notes: Kahnle, Cortes, Kiner-Falefa

By | at

Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle is in the midst of a 10-day shutdown after battling some biceps tendinitis. It doesn’t seem the club is overly concerned, with manager Aaron Boone saying yesterday he anticipated the right-hander would have sufficient time to prepare for Opening Day.

Kahnle chatted with reporters this evening, likening it to a similar issue he experienced back in 2018 (relayed by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). He estimated it’d take roughly a month to completely dissipate. That doesn’t inherently mean he’ll start the year on the injured list, though with Opening Day three and a half weeks out, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he wound up requiring a brief IL stint. Signed to a two-year, $11.5MM free agent deal, Kahnle will be ticketed for high-leverage work in the Bronx once he’s healthy.

Even more integral to the club’s success is southpaw Nestor Cortes. An All-Star in 2022 during a season in which he worked to an excellent 2.44 ERA through 158 1/3 frames, Cortes has cemented himself as a key starter. On talent, he’s arguably the #3 option behind Gerrit Cole and big-ticket free agent signee Carlos Rodón. Yet the 28-year-old has been slowed a bit in recent weeks after suffering a Grade 2 hamstring strain in February.

That injury forced Cortes out of the World Baseball Classic but the Yankees have maintained optimism it wouldn’t affect his availability for the start of the season. That remains more or less the case. Boone told the media yesterday the Yankees were planing to move Cortes towards the back of the rotation to give him a few extra days to ramp up (via Erik Boland of Newsday). That might get Luis Severino and either of Clarke Schmidt or Domingo Germán — who appear to be the top competitors for the vacant final rotation spot — on the mound a day or two earlier than anticipated but suggests New York still believes Cortes will avoid a trip to the injured list.

The competition between Germán and Schmidt for the last starting spot, necessitated by the Frankie Montas injury, is one of a handful of position battles for the Yankees to sort through over the coming weeks. On the position player side, the club’s biggest decisions revolve around shortstop and left field. There could be some unexpected overlap between those calls, as Boone told reporters the club could consider getting Isiah Kiner-Falefa some outfield work (link via Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty of the Athletic).

Kiner-Falefa has never played the outfield at the major league level. He started only seven games on the grass while coming up through the minor leagues. After beginning his career as a middle infielder, Kiner-Falefa started to see some action behind the plate during his time in the Rangers’ system. He caught at the big league level from 2018-19 but eventually transitioned back to the infield — first as a high-end defensive third baseman and eventually as a primary shortstop.

While Defensive Runs Saved has loved Kiner-Falefa’s shortstop work, Statcast’s Outs Above Average has rated him much less favorably than when he was at the hot corner. While there might be some debate about his defense, Kiner-Falefa’s bat has been more consistent. He’s a high-contact hitter who doesn’t walk a whole lot or hit for much power. Last year’s .261/.314/.327 performance was right in line with his career track record.

The Yankees broke in top prospect Oswald Peraza late last year and could turn shortstop over to him on an everyday basis headed into 2023. The 22-year-old acquitted himself well over an 18-game MLB cameo on the heels of a .259/.329/.448 line in 99 Triple-A games. With another top prospect, Anthony Volpe, on the horizon, it doesn’t seem Kiner-Falefa will hold the shortstop job for long even if he secures the Opening Day nod.

Branching out into the outfield makes for a reasonable experiment to expand his flexibility for a possible bench role. While Harrison Bader and Aaron Judge have two spots secured, left field mostly seems set to come down to Aaron Hicks or Oswaldo Cabrera. While Kiner-Falefa isn’t the caliber of hitter a team would be anxious to pencil into the corner outfield regularly, it wouldn’t be surprising if he proves himself capable from a defensive perspective. He’s a good runner and has already shown the willingness and ability to adapt to a number of infield responsibilities. Branching out into the outfield could position him to take on a super-utility role if he’s squeezed out of the regular middle infield by some combination of Peraza, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and eventually Volpe.

Nestor Cortes Diagnosed With Grade 2 Hamstring Strain

By | at

Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes has withdrawn from the World Baseball Classic due to an injured hamstring, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The injury is actually a Grade 2 hamstring strain, per Andy Martino of SNY, and Cortes will not throw off a mound for the next two weeks. Kyle Freeland of the Rockies will take the vacated spot on the Team USA roster, reports Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette.

Though he will miss the WBC, Cortes still believes he will be ready for Opening Day of the regular season. That’s certainly an encouraging outlook, but the fact that it’s even now a question is a noteworthy development for the Yankees. Not too long ago, they looked like they could open the regular season with an elite rotation consisting of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Luis Severino, Frankie Montas and Cortes. However, it was reported in January that Montas is behind in his offseason preparations due ongoing shoulder issues and will potentially miss the first month of the season. With this injury to Cortes, it now appears to be a possibility that the club starts the year without two of its projected front five.

Cortes, 28, struggled in his first few seasons in the big leagues but has had a tremendous breakout over the past two. Since the start of the 2021 campaign, he’s thrown 251 1/3 innings with a 2.61 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 31.2% ground ball rate. He reached arbitration for the first time this offseason, with he and the club agreeing to a $3.2MM salary for this year. He’ll be eligible to go through arbitration two more times before he’s slated to reach free agency after the 2025 season.

Though it doesn’t seem like Cortes is expecting to miss any of the regular season, there’s always the possibility that his recovery doesn’t go as planned. If he has to miss any time, it’s possible that pitchers like Domingo Germán and/or Clarke Schmidt step up to make some starts as long as he and/or Montas are out. There are also still many unsigned free agents that are available, such as Michael Wacha, Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer. Recent reporting has indicated that the club is reluctant to cross the final luxury tax tier of $293MM, with their competitive balance tax figure currently at $292.48MM per the calculations of Roster Resource, though they could always pivot as circumstances change.

There’s also the trade route, with Chris Flexen of the Mariners and Adrian Houser a couple of starters that make speculative sense as trade candidates. Though with Cortes still hoping to be ready for the start of the season, it’s also possible that no moves will be necessary.

Dylan Cease Tops Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool

By | at

One of the big new additions to the collective bargaining agreement signed between the league and the players was the implementation of a $50MM bonus pool set aside for players with less than three years of league service time.

The pool would be handed out to the top 100 eligible players, with MLB’s WAR metric determining which players made the list. Beyond that, further bonuses could be earned for qualified players if they ranked in the top two of Rookie of the Year, top five in MVP or Cy Young, as well as being named in the first or second All-MLB team.

According to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease topped the class in 2022, taking home a bonus of $2,457,426, in addition to his $750K base salary. Cease threw 184 innings of 2.20 ERA ball for Chicago this year, finishing 2nd in AL Cy Young voting. That finish earned him $1.75MM in addition to the $707,425 he earned for his WAR ranking. 2022 was Cease’s last pre-arbitration season, so he won’t be eligible for the bonus pool after the 2023 season.

The Astros’ Yordan Alvarez was the top hitter on the list, as he took home a $2,381,143 bonus. Alvarez torched pitching to the tune of a .306/.406/.613 line with 37 home runs, finishing third in AL MVP voting. He picked up $881,143 as the top ranked player via the WAR metric, and an additional $1.5MM for his MVP finish. He also won’t be eligible for the pool next season.

Here’s the top ten bonus pool earners (all of these figures are in addition to the player’s base salary):

Per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, Atlanta’s Spencer Strider was the only other player to earn a bonus greater than $1MM, while four more players (Sean Murphy, Tommy Edman, Will Smith and Ryan Helsley) earned more than $700K, with another eleven players (Steven Kwan, Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Nestor Cortes, Logan Webb, Shane McClanahan, Cal Raleigh, Daulton Varsho, Nico Hoerner, Triston McKenzie and Tony Gonsolin) earned a bonus greater than $500K.

Each player’s team will pay out the bonuses by December 23, but they will be reimbursed by the Commissioner’s Office.

Justin Verlander Wins American League Cy Young Award

By | at

Justin Verlander has been named the American League’s Cy Young award winner, according to an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. He received all 30 first-place votes.

Like Sandy Alcantara in the National League, Verlander took the award in a clean sweep. The respective dominance of each player has look since taken away much of the intrigue as to who would actually claim the honors, and the unanimous finishes paint a picture of their excellence. Verlander’s elbow blew out during his first start of 2020, eventually leading to a Tommy John surgery that kept him out of action until this year. He returned to the Astros on a $25MM guarantee last winter and, despite being 39 years old, showed no ill effects of such a major procedure.

Verlander returned to make 28 starts, staying healthy until a late-season injured list stint with a calf strain. He tossed 175 innings with an AL-best 1.75 ERA, a mark nearly a half-run lower than that of the next-best finisher. Even with the late-season IL stay, the former MVP placed 16th in the Junior Circuit in innings. He finished seventh among those with 100+ frames in strikeout rate (27.8%) and walk percentage (4.4%) alike.

It’s the third career Cy Young nod for the future Hall of Famer. Verlander becomes the 11th pitcher in big league history to claim the award three times, joining former teammate Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw as the only active players to do so. He earned his ninth All-Star nod midseason and led his league in ERA for the second time.

Verlander’s Cy Young adds to an already illustrious resume, while his stellar season positions him for a fascinating trip to free agency. He’s presently on the open market after declining a player option with Houston for the 2023 campaign. There’s essentially no precedent for a pitcher performing this well hitting free agency heading into his age-40 season. Verlander’s sure to secure one of the loftiest per-year salaries in MLB history, and Houston owner Jim Crane said last night he’s looking to top Scherzer’s three-year, $130MM deal with the Mets from last winter.

The other finalists in the American League were Chicago’s Dylan Cease and Toronto’s Alek Manoah. Cease received 14 second-place votes to earn the runner-up finish after placing second with a 2.20 ERA in 184 innings. Manoah finished just behind him with a 2.24 ERA across 196 2/3 frames, securing seven second-place votes in his own right. Cease and Manoah joined Verlander in appearing on all 30 ballots in some capacity.

Shohei Ohtani finished in fourth place and actually secured more second-place votes (nine) than did Manoah after leading the league in strikeout rate. Innings leader Framber Valdez ended up in fifth. Others who earned at least one vote are Shane McClanahan, Shane Bieber, Nestor Cortes Jr., Gerrit Cole and Kevin Gausman.

Full voting breakdown available here.

Nestor Cortes Leaves ALCS Game 4 Due To Groin Injury

By | at

Yankees starter Nestor Cortes was removed from Game 4 of the ALCS after two-plus innings of work due to what the team described as a left groin injury.  Cortes allowed only a single and a walk in his first two frames, but walked his first two batters of the third inning and then allowed a three-run homer to Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena.  Cortes was replaced by Wandy Peralta after the Pena home run.

Manager Aaron Boone and a team trainer briefly visited Cortes on the mound after the initial walk, but elected to leave the southpaw in the game.  Later, during an in-game interview with TBS reporter Lauren Shehadi, Boone said that Cortes had been dealing with a groin problem throughout the postseason.  Cortes made two starts against the Guardians in the ALDS, with a solid 2.70 ERA over 10 innings of work.  The Yankees won the second of Cortes’ outings, the series-clinching Game 5.

Cortes missed a little over two weeks on the 15-day injured list with a left groin strain in late August and early September, so it would seem like this current injury may have been a recurrence of that original problem.  Further roster maneuvers may soon be a moot point for the Yankees since they trail the Astros by a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS, though if they force a Game 5 and have to replace Cortes on the roster, the left-hander wouldn’t be eligible to participate in the World Series if New York did launch a miracle comeback.

Yankees Place DJ LeMahieu On Injured List

By | at

The Yankees announced that infielder DJ LeMahieu is headed to the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 5, with toe inflammation on his right foot. Miguel Andújar has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take his spot on the active roster. New York also reinstated starter Nestor Cortes from the IL after optioning out Deivi García following last night’s ballgame.

LeMahieu has been out of action since Sunday dealing with the toe discomfort. He’s battled the issue off and on for a few weeks, and he’ll need at least another week off to recover. It certainly appears as if the discomfort has had an effect on LeMahieu’s performance, as he’s struggled mightily of late. Going back to the start of August 1, he’s hitting .187/.254/.243 through 119 trips to the plate. That’s obviously nowhere close to the .285/.389/.424 line he carried through the end of July. Precisely when LeMahieu started hurting isn’t clear, but he’s seemingly been operating at less than full strength.

The organization hasn’t provided a specific timetable for his return, although the fact that they’ve waited a few days to put him on the IL could suggest they don’t anticipate it being a long-term absence. New York also just lost Anthony Rizzo to the IL, though, leaving them particularly short-handed on the infield. They called up former Ranger first baseman Ronald Guzmán this week, and he started one of the club’s games in their doubleheader against the Twins yesterday. Utilityman Marwin González got the nod there in the nightcap, and he’s back in the lineup at first tonight. Gleyber Torres, Josh Donaldson (who’s currently on paternity leave), Isiah Kiner-Falefa, rookie Oswald Peraza and Andújar round out the healthy infield mix at the moment.

The silver lining of today’s news is that the Yankees welcome Cortes back from his own IL stint. He only missed a bit more than two weeks with a groin issue. The southpaw owns a 2.68 ERA through 131 innings on the season. He’ll make his 24th start of the year tonight against Minnesota.

The Yankees enter play Thursday holding a five-game lead over the Rays in the AL East. They’re five games back of the Astros for the top record in the Junior Circuit, seemingly setting themselves up to secure the #2 seed in the postseason. A second-half swoon has knocked the club off its once-historic pace, but they’ve still got a strong chance of securing a first-round bye.

Yankees To Place Nestor Cortes On 15-Day Injured List

By | at

The Yankees will place left-hander Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list prior to tomorrow’s game, according to The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler.  Cortes is suffering from a groin injury.  As reported earlier today, New York was preparing to place a then-unknown pitcher on the IL to make room for the promotion of minor league right-hander Greg Weissert.

While any pitching injury would’ve been a setback, losing Cortes for any amount of time is a tough blow to the Bronx Bombers.  “Nasty Nestor” has been arguably the Yankees’ best starter this season, and one of the better pitchers in all of baseball.  After surprisingly emerging as a rotation stalwart in 2021, Cortes has kept on rolling, posting a 2.68 ERA and above-average strikeout (25.9%) and walk (5.8%) rates over 131 innings of work.  Despite a low-velocity four-seamer, Cortes’ fastball has been extremely effective, and his cutter isn’t far behind in terms of sheer effectiveness.

Though Cortes’ 131 innings is a new career high for the 27-year old over any pro season, there hasn’t been much sign that Cortes is slowing down, and he was expected to be a big weapon for the Yankees in October.  This 15-day IL stint could perhaps serve as a bit of break in terms of keeping Cortes’ arm fresh, though naturally his groin issue is now a new concern.  The severity of the injury or a possible timeline for Cortes’ return isn’t yet known.

New York enjoyed a great run of pitching health over the first half of the season, but several injuries have cropped up in recent weeks.  The bullpen has taken the brunt of the injury woes, but the rotation hasn’t been immune, with Luis Severino out until mid-September due to a lat strain and now Cortes’ injury.  The Yankees acquired Frankie Montas from the A’s at the deadline but also moved Jordan Montgomery to the Cardinals in another trade, plus Domingo German has been a little inconsistent (if generally solid) since making his season debut in July, after shoulder problems kept him on the sidelines.

Clarke Schmidt was recently called back up to the active roster, and the former first-rounder seems like the probable candidate to step into Cortes’ rotation spot.  Over 22 games and 45 2/3 career innings at the MLB level in 2020-22, Schmidt has only made three starts, but the Yankees have mostly been using him in long relief this season and were stretching him out at Triple-A.

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