If the Yankees make it to the World Series, Nestor Cortes may serve as more than just a cheerleader on the team’s bench.
With the Yankees holding a 2-0 lead over the Guardians in the ALCS, Cortes threw to live batters on Wednesday. It was his first time doing so since landing on the injured list with a left elbow flexor strain on Sept. 25.
“He’ll probably have another live this weekend,” Aaron Boone said. “So he could potentially have two or three lives. If we were to get through this series, it would potentially set him up to have a good body of work under him to potentially be an option if we’re able to get to [the World] Series.”
Asked if Cortes is a long shot for the Fall Classic, Boone said quite the contrary.
“He’s more in play to me at this point,” the manager continued. “Now, he’s got steps to go and he’s got to continue to feel good and bounce back and things like that, but the way it’s gone to this point has been encouraging.”
Prior to the ALCS, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said that Cortes had not been ruled out for the series against Cleveland. However, Cortes had yet to face live batters at that point.
Typically, a pitcher will do that a few times before returning from injury. If all goes well for the player and team, it sounds like Cortes will have time to check those boxes by the time the Yankees make it to the final round of the playoffs.
“I think he’s at least a realistic option,” Boone said. “Not saying for sure, but the timeline lines up to where if things go well, he could definitely be an option.”
With minimal time to build up, Cortes would presumably work out of the bullpen if he were to pitch in the World Series. He spent the majority of the year starting, recording a 3.77 ERA over 174.1 innings.
While not always consistent, Cortes finished the year on a high note, posting a 1.58 ERA over his last seven outings. That included one scoreless relief appearance, which lasted 4.1 innings.
With previous bullpen experience, the left-handed Cortes could help the Yankees match up in key spots on baseball’s biggest stage.
However, he and the Yankees need to be careful with the pitcher attempting to return so soon. Flexor strains can be precursors to Tommy John surgery, meaning there’s some risk involved for Cortes as he progresses.
“I think it’s an educated risk in some ways,” Blake said. “We’ve gotten a lot of information. We’ve had him evaluated a lot of different times. We’ve been monitoring the symptoms. Obviously, we typically follow a pretty lengthy return to play progression. This would probably expedite some of the steps in some way.
“Every day you add to the mix decreases some of the risk. So we’ll see.”
