If that’s how an unhappy Nestor Cortes pitches, the Yankees will take it.
Even if it proves to just be temporary, Cortes was not thrilled about the Yankees moving him to the bullpen for one turn through the rotation.
And yet the left-hander, in his first relief appearance since 2021, looked as sharp as he has all season on Saturday, tossing 4 ⅓ no-hit innings to finish off a 2-0 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
“Obviously I was upset,” an honest Cortes said after the game. “I felt like I’ve been, amongst all the starters, the workhorse here. Once Cole went down [in spring training], they picked me to be the Opening Day starter — not necessarily the No. 1, but the Opening Day starter. I had to switch my routine there.
“Now they do this. But I’m never going to back down from a challenge. I’m never going to leave my teammates out to dry. You’re always going to get my best effort no matter if I’m happy or not. That’s what I did today. I came out there and proved I can be put in any situation. From here on out, if that’s my role, then I’ll accept it.”
With Luis Gil (Friday) and Clarke Schmidt (Saturday) coming back from the injured list this weekend, the Yankees decided to bump Cortes to the bullpen for this turn and have him piggyback Schmidt.
The Yankees have said they plan to insert Cortes back into the rotation this coming week during their series against the Red Sox, which begins on Thursday in The Bronx, as they use a six-man rotation one time through. But after that they are expected to trim down to five starters for the final two weeks of the regular season.
“I have no idea [how it’s going to play out],” said Cortes, who entered Saturday with a 4.08 ERA across 28 starts and a team-high 159 innings. “This one caught me by surprise, so we’ll see. I know they told me that I’m starting against Boston, but after that, with a six-man rotation and off days in between, guys are going to get extra days and I don’t think that’s necessarily the right move, so we’ll see.”
Cortes may have helped or hurt his case with his dominant relief outing on Saturday.
He has prior experience out of the bullpen – as does Schmidt – and looked comfortable doing it against the Cubs.
“It’s just a testament to being a professional,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled about it this turn around. But you still got a job to do and he went and excelled at it.”
Instead of using another reliever to get Schmidt out of a jam in the fifth inning and give Cortes a clean inning to start with, Boone called on the lefty with a runner on third and two outs of a 1-0 game.
Cortes came in and got Christian Bethancourt to pop out to end the jam.
Boone later had Luke Weaver warming in the ninth inning for a potential save, but he stuck with the cruising Cortes, who breezed through a 1-2-3 ninth.
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He faced 14 batters overall and retired 13, issuing just one walk for the only base runner against him.
“It felt a little weird at first obviously, especially being down there when Clarke had two outs in the fifth,” Cortes said. “I was already warm, ready to go in. They had told me 70 [pitches for Schmidt], maybe plus a hitter. So gauging that was a little tough. Obviously I didn’t want to warm up completely and then him get out of the inning.
“So that was a little tough, but other than that, I’ve been there before, done that before. It felt nice stranding that runner at third, honestly. I felt like Clarke had a really good outing today and the least I could do was that for him.”
