Former Blue Jays Pitcher Could Be Dropped From Yankees World Series Roster For Nestor Cortes

After missing nearly a month of action with an elbow issue, it’s looking like left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr. is a serious candidate to be on the New York Yankees roster for the upcoming World Series.

Per Brendan Kuty, who covers the team:

Yankees manager Aaron Boone on if Nestor Cortes will be on the World Series roster:

“I would say there is a decent chance that he could be on the roster, yes.”

First and foremost, let’s look at the basic facts:

1) The 29-year-old Cortes went 9-10 this season with a 3.77 ERA. He appeared in 31 games, with 30 starts. He struck out 162 batters in 174.1 innings.

2) Though Cortes was nearly exclusively a starter this year, he would figure to be a bullpen candidate in this series. Given that he hasn’t pitched since Sept. 18, and that he has been slowly been building back, it’s nearly impossible to imagine him giving this team length as a starter. Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil started in the ALCS and could easily take all the starts again in the World Series.

3) If Cortes is to make the roster, especially as a reliever, he could bump a former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher off the roster. Marcus Stroman made the roster in the ALCS, but didn’t pitch at all in the series. He also is in the spot-starter/multi-inning relief role, so it would seem mildly redundant to have him and Cortes in essentially the same role.

If Boone wants to keep the right-handed Stroman, he could also bump former Jays hurler Tim Mayza. The 32-year-old went 0-2 with a 6.33 ERA in 50 games this season. He has thrown 1.1 scoreless innings in these playoffs. If this were the case, Cortes would pair with Tim Hill as lefties in the Yanks bullpen. That would seem to be important given the presence of Shohei Ohtani in the Dodgers lineup.

Stroman went 10-9 this season for New York, pitching to a 4.31 ERA. The 33-year-old Long Island native made 30 appearances with 29 starts.

The 10-year veteran is 87-85 lifetime with a 3.72 ERA. Stroman is the former ace of the Blue Jays but has also pitched for the Mets and Chicago Cubs. He made the All-Star Game with Toronto in 2019 and Chicago in 2023.

Stroman made his debut with Toronto in 2014 and won double-digit games in two separate seasons with the Jays. He helped Toronto reach the ALCS in both the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

As for Mayza, he spent parts of seven years with the Blue Jays. He went 20-8 for Toronto with a 3.87 ERA, helping them to the playoffs in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

The World Series begins on Friday night.

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