After an injury-plagued season, Nestor Cortes He announced on social media that he had surgery on his throwing arm. Francis Romero reports that the surgery repaired a torn tendon. Cortez, an impending free agent, is expected to resume baseball activities in nine to 10 months.
The schedule suggests the lefty won’t resume throwing until the All-Star break. This raises doubts about his availability next season. He needs more than a month of batting practice and bullpen sessions before he’s ready to begin his rehab assignment. Even without any setbacks, he won’t reach the minor leagues until late August. That leaves open the possibility for him to return late in the season, possibly as a reliever, but interested teams will view him more as a target in ’27.
Cortez has clearly been underperforming for much of the year. Traded from Yankees to Brewers Devin Williams/Caleb Durbin After the trade, he hit five home runs for his former club in his debut in Milwaukee. In his second start against Cincinnati, he rebounded and pitched six scoreless innings, but was placed on the injured list with a flexor strain after that appearance. It was his second flexor injury in as many years, as he suffered the same injury late last year in the Bronx.
It ended up being Cortez’s final MLB start in Milwaukee. He was absent until the end of July. Cortez began rehab shortly before the trade deadline, and the Brewers believed they no longer had a rotation spot to offer him. They traded him to San Diego for the fifth outfielder. Brandon Lockridge.
Cortez had no more success with the Padres. He caught six balls and allowed a 5.47 earned run average in 26 1/3 innings. He lasted just six innings at a time and had below-average strikeout and walk rates. The Padres sidelined him in early September with a biceps strain.
The 30-year-old is battling dwindling stuff. His fastball average velocity is 90.1 mph, two ticks below where it will be in 2022-24. Opponents eliminated that pitching with a .351 batting average and nine homers in 57 at-bats. While Cortez never lit up the radar gun, he generally found success with his fastball behind deceptive life at the top of the zone. He had an ERA below 4.00 in three of four seasons from 2021-24. He struck out more than a quarter of opposing batters each season from 2021-23 and finished eighth in Cy Young voting in ’22.
This is obviously not the first time Cortez has envisioned becoming a free agent. He still deserves a major league contract. This could be a two-year contract extension or a guaranteed one-year deal with a club option. Jose Urquidy and John MeansBoth are recovering from Tommy John surgery and signed one-year deals with the team last offseason. Each of them made $1MM in the first year, and if they maximized option value in the second season, they could earn $4MM to $7.5MM in bonuses or escalators. Cortez could get a similar or slightly better contract during the 2031-32 season.
