Yankees Trade Nasty Nestor For A Needed Closer

 

Nestor Cortes striking out Boston's Jarren Duran to open a game on July 5, 2024. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees have their new closer, but it took trading one of their fan favorites to do it.

On Friday, in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Yankees announced that they will acquire closer Devin Williams for left-handed starting pitcher Nestor Cortes, infielder Caleb Durbin and cash considerations.

This is the prudent move for the Yankees, as it is not realistic that Luke Weaver could be the closer over the course of the season, despite his surge in the role at the end of the 2024 campaign.

Williams was named the 2023 National League Reliever of the Year, when he went 8-3 with 36 saves, a 1.53 ERA (earned run average), and 87 strikeouts in 58 2/3 innings in 61 relief appearances.

This past season, in which he missed the first 104 games, Williams had 14 saves and a 1.25 ERA, as he had 38 strikeouts in 21.2 innings, and allowed three earned runs, 10 hits, and 11 walks. Among Major League pitchers that threw at least 20 innings from July 28 to the end of the regular season, he ranked second with a 43.2 percent strikeout rate, third in strikeouts per 9.0 innings (15.78), tied for fourth in saves (14), and 10th in opponents' batting average, at .133. 

New York fans will know Williams because his last moment in Milwaukee was when he gave up the game-winning home run to Mets slugger Pete Alonso in the deciding game of the National League Wild Card Series.

Ironically, Cortes' Yankee tenure ended in a similar fashion, as he gave up the game-winning grand slam to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of a World Series that Los Angeles won in five games.

This was Nestor's first appearance after Cortes had been out for over a month with a flexor strain, which prematurely ended his regular season.

After being arguably the Yankees #1 or #2 starter the prior three seasons, Cortes had a tough year, especially away from Yankee Stadium, as he went 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA in 31 games, 30 of which were starts, as he threw 174 1/3 innings, with 162 strikeouts, in which he allowed 73 earned runs, 162 hits, and 39 walks.

The one relief appearance Cortes made came with some controversy. Cortes closed out a game in early September against the Chicago Cubs, when the Yankees were seeking for options to figure out their late-game relief plan entering the playoffs once they realized they couldn't rely on then-closer Clay Holmes, who just signed with the Mets.

After that game, instead of being thrilled with how he pitched, Cortes said, "Obviously I was upset. I felt like I've been, amongst all the starters, the workhorse here."

Who knew how prescient Cortes' words would be come late October, and on a far more important stage, a sad coda to what was a solid tenure in The Bronx.

Nestor Cortes pitching to Mike Trout on April 20, 2023. Photo by Jason Schott.

Cortes became a fan favorite, to the point they gave out a t-shirt of his face in 2022, as he has a unique, freewheeling pitching style that led to a nickname to match, Nasty Nestor. It also was because he was a Yankee draft pick in 2013 who bounced around before finding himself in The Bronx in 2019, and then after going to Seattle the following season, finding yet another level in 2021.

In five years with the Yankees, Cortes appeared in 126 games (85 starts), and he went 33-20, with a 3.61 ERA, with 564 strikeouts in 555 2/3 innings, and allowed 230 runs (223 earned) on 479 hits and 150 walks.