Yankees ambush Nestor Cortes and officially declare victory on Devin Williams trade

Really, no matter what happens from this point forward, there won't be a whole lot the Milwaukee Brewers can do in order to reverse the perception of their offseason trade with the New York Yankees after what just happened Saturday.

Nestor Cortes Jr., who was packaged alongside prospect Caleb Durbin, was sent to the Brew Crew in exchange for star reliever Devin Williams back in December. The Yankees dealt from a position of strength at the time in their rotation and upgraded at closer with Clay Holmes' departure.

For a moment, some critics felt as if the Yankees didn't get the better end of the bargain in terms of value. Cortes carried the same salary as Williams and would ostensibly be starting 25+ games while Durbin came with six years of control.

Well, in the only way to settle such a duel, Cortes went head-to-head with the Bombers during the first series of the season ... and got absolutely shelled. No joke, it doesn't really get worse than this.

The left-hander surrendered three home runs on his first three pitches of the game, making the Yankees the first team in history to ever achieve such a feat. His afternoon ended after eight earned runs on six hits and five walks across just two innings. He surrendered five home runs and now holds a 36.00 ERA. Discussion over.

Yankees declare victory on Devin Williams trade after crushing Nestor Cortes Jr. on Saturday

No coming back from that. And the Brewers will not have a chance to respond emphatically enough. They won't see the Yankees again in 2025 (unless it's the World Series) and this one's all but officially in the books (the Yankees lead 16-6 in the fifth as of this writing), which will give New York a series win.

Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge homered to start the game to quickly silence all the fans who were complaining about Aaron Boone's (admittedly) bizarre lineup for the second game of the 2025 campaign. Austin Wells then belted his second homer of the year three batters later.

Though Max Fried barely held his own in his Yankees debut (4 2/3 IP, 6 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 K), we'll just call it a little tune-up for the veteran lefty, who's getting his feet under him in a completely new setting. Fans are hardly worried about that after the offense put itself on pace for 30 runs on the day.

Would be nice if the five errors the Yankees made so far in this one were swiftly swept under the rug, too. Let's not have that happen again, especially not in a losing effort. For what transpired Saturday, should the expected result hold, nobody will be sweating that either.