The Legend of Nasty Nestor

Nestor Cortes has been the ace for the Yankees so far this season with a 1.41 ERA in 6 appearances. His “stache” has made him an MLB fan favorite, however he wasn’t always this way. In fact, Nestor was a 36th-round draft pick drafted by the New York Yankees and his first MLB pitching appearance was in 2018 with the Baltimore Orioles. Let’s just say the Start of Nestor’s career was not as he hoped. In 2018 he had a 7.71 ERA in 4 Games. In 2019, Nestor was back with the Yankees for the second time but again had a disappointing season with a 5.67 ERA in 33 Games and 1 Start. In 2020 he went to the Seattle Mariners with a 15.26 ERA in 5 Games and 1 Start. Then finally, in 2021 Nestor hit a switch. He was back with the Yankees for the 3rd time and in 22 Games and 14 Starts he had a 2.90 ERA. During the 2021 season, he got the nickname “Nasty Nestor” from how he pitches. Nestor can only top 91 but he fools batters with his slider and fastball. Nestor also said on the “Just Baseball” Podcast that he takes the Subway to Home Games. Nestor has also been notable for eating apples during games and buying a turtle for the team named “Bronxie.” This has made Yankees fans fall in love with Nestor because of his funny personality and also because of how he pitches. It is easy to get fans to love you when you put up numbers like he has, as just recently on May 9th Nestor was so close to a No-Hitter with 7.1 Innings pitched and only allowed 1 hit in the 8th Inning. It is because of performances like this that Nestor is a candidate for CY Young even though the season is still young – watch out for Nasty Nestor.