Nestor Cortes is doing the dirty work

In an otherwise ho-hum series win against the Cubs in Chicago this past weekend, one of the biggest storylines was Nestor Cortes coming out of the bullpen in relief of a fresh-from-the-IL Clarke Schmidt. It wasn’t just his 4.1 scoreless innings that garnered attention. His quotes after the game, along with Aaron Boone’s response, also generated chatter regarding Nestor’s potential to contribute out of the bullpen in the playoffs.

Nestor has a point — he has been a solid, if sometimes inconsistent, piece in the rotation after a disastrous 2023. A 3.97 ERA in 163.1 innings so far is yeoman’s work, so Cortes is correct when he points out that he’s been the workhorse of the rotation. But with Schmidt and Luis Gil returning from the IL, combined with the turbulence in the bullpen, a starting pitcher was always going to be bumped from the rotation.

Most of the conversation so far has focused on Gil’s potential in the bullpen due to his devastating changeup along with his electric fastball. Yet he’s done so well as a starter that he may have forced his way into a playoff rotation spot. Besides, his walk rate would undoubtedly lead to some tense October moments.

For those reasons, Nestor can make more sense as a starter-turned-reliever for the Yankees. Nestor also has some experience coming out of the ‘pen and has looked good doing it. The last time he pitched in relief was in 2021, where he had a 2.29 ERA in 19.2 innings. He struck out 12.8 per nine, far above his standard K/9 rate as a starter. Again, though, that was in 2021.

So why may Nestor be suited to coming out of the ‘pen besides his experience? For one, he does not walk very many batters. His 1.8 BB/9 is the best out of all Yankee pitchers with over 50 innings pitched. An argument can also be made that his fastball is sneaky good — with a Run Value of 6, it is surprising how effective it is given Cortes’ relatively low average velocity. What’s also surprising is that he doesn’t generate an incredible amount of whiffs with it to get batters out. Instead, it drops relatively little compared to similar pitchers due to a phenomenon known as seam-shifted wake.

That’s a bit out of the scope of this article, but essentially, Nestor’s fastball excels because of the difference between the perceived spin and the actual spin his fastball. Those properties of his fastball and cutter, which he throws over a combined 70 percent of the time, catch hitters off-guard. This is compounded by Nestor’s funky arm slots, of which anyone who’s watched a Cortes appearance has heard from the commentators. In total, Nestor’s pitch arsenal is greater than the sum of its parts by keeping hitters off-balance. I’m no major league hitter, but one would also have to imagine it is difficult to adjust to Nestor’s unorthodox pitch arsenal in between a conventional starter and a more conventional reliever.

Perhaps just as importantly, though, is Nestor’s mental resilience and attitude. This is a player who’s been DFA’d twice and was once traded for under $30,000 of international bonus pool money. He’s outperformed his contract during his third stint with the Yankees. He can warm up in a hurry, as he did in Saturday’s game. Nestor, in his own words, will “never back down from a challenge.”