MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Nestor Cortes’ journey through the majors is not one you’d immediately expect from a Game 2 starter in the ALDS. Originally selected by the Yankees in the 36th round of the 2013 MLB Draft, he has bounced around the major and minor league teams of three different organizations. He’s actually in his third stint with the Yankees, having first been lost in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft and then traded for international bonus pool money after his second stint in 2018-19.
Cortes worked tirelessly to reinvent himself as a pitcher, and though a lot of the narrative focuses on his funky windups and varied deliveries, most of his success owes to the fact that he throws an elite four-seamer and cutter that were refined over hundreds if not thousands of hours in the lab.