Yankees: Pitcher Nestor Cortes continues to defy expectations

It’s not every day you find yourself talking about a former 36th round draft pick that possesses good but not great stuff. Yet, 22-year-old left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes continues to keep the opposition off-balance as he climbs the Yankees farm system ladder.

Yankees minor league shooter Nestor Cortes is the perfect example that pitchers often don’t need to overpower hitters to be effective.

With a repertoire consisting of an 89-91 mph fastball, a pair of low 60s-mid 70s breaking pitches and a mid-70s changeup, the 5-foot-11 Cortes consistently mixes up his arm angle and pace of play to upset the timing of those he’s facing — included the much-maligned quick pitch.

In a recent outing against Durham, Cortes’ curveball registered at an unbelievable 47 mph on the radar gun.

Yet to break into a single Yankees top prospect report, Cortes, who’s acted as a spot starter and long reliever this season, dominated at Double-A Trenton — going 5-0 with a 2.60 ERA in 52 innings pitched.

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Having earned himself a promotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in late June, the Hialeah, FL native continues to hone his ability to hide the ball in his unorthodox delivery until the last possible moment.

In 31.1 innings pitched for the RailRiders, Cortes has compiled a 2.87 ERA, 0.894 WHIP, a 10.6 K/9, and 2.0 BB/9. Unfortunately, he’s also been a tough-luck loser, going 1-3.

A couple of those losses can be attributed to a slight breakdown in mechanics, as its been noted that Cortes has a tendency to pull toward the first base side when dropping his arm slot. This causes his right leg to whip around and pull him almost completely off the mound.

Since Cortes has become increasingly dependent on the ground ball in 2017 (45 percent ground ball rate as opposed to 33 percent fly ball) this puts him in a potentially perilous situation when it comes to fielding his position — though, he’s yet to make an error in 10 chances in the field this year.

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None-the-less, ground ball pitchers are extremely important when it comes to pitching in Yankee Stadium. Even if Cortes isn’t ready for the big leagues just yet, finesse shooters are becoming a recent trend for the organization, a la the recently acquired Jaime Garcia and the two men whom the club sent to Minnesota for him, Dietrich Enns and Zack Littell.