Nestor Cortes chalks up 17 Ks

Nestor Cortes is the gift that keeps on giving. The mustache, the sick movement on his four-seamer, and the fact that he just keeps racking up the wins. Over six starts, he has just a 1.41 ERA.

The Yankees are a team that famously have more money than sense. They routinely pick up the best players in the league and double their salaries. No reliance on a farm system for the pin-stripers, they use the rest of MLB as their farm system. So when they pick up a player like Cortes for a salary of $727,000 it looks double savvy.

In Monday’s third and deciding game with the Texas Rangers, Cortes dazzled in seven and a third innings pitched, giving up just one hit and no runs, he managed to set a career high by fanning 17 batters. When he was replaced on the mound, Yankee Stadium gave him a standing ovation.

Nestor Cortes is the only pitcher in baseball this season to strike out at least eight batters while allowing no more than one hit in multiple starts. He is absolutely on fire.

Aaron Boone was not looking to pull him when he made his mound visit, surprising given the recent discourse over managers counting pitches. “I was gonna let him go until he gave it up. Unless he started to walk a lot of guys and it got out of hand.”

As a 36th round pick, Cortes worked his way through the minor league systems of both the Yankees and the Orioles before getting his shot in 2018. Even then, he wasn’t really confirmed as a big-league pitcher, bouncing back to Baltimore and Seattle before getting another shot with the Yankees. His ability to go deep into a game is refreshing as well, particularly for a team like New York who, with all their talent, have a perhaps slightly too-shallow bullpen.

Cortes may not be the savior that the Yankees can lean on like a Gerritt Cole, but he is a steady arm when the Yankees need it most.