Yankees left-hander to undergo MRI on elbow

The Yankees have punched their ticket to the postseason but are facing a potentially worrisome injury scenario. Lefty Nestor Cortes — who had been slated to start Wednesday’s game against the Orioles — is undergoing an MRI to evaluate his left elbow, as first reported by Jack Curry of the YES Network.

Assuming that takes him out of consideration to take the mound, the Yanks could go with Marcus Stroman (who recently moved to the ’pen) or call up an arm from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Right-handers Cody Poteet, Yoendrys Gomez and Will Warren are all on the 40-man roster and are all fresh. Poteet has pitched the most big-league innings of that trio this season (21) and had the most success (2.14 ERA). Curry adds that Poteet is headed to the Bronx, suggesting he’ll get the nod, though there’s no official word from the team yet.

Cortes, 29, has pitched a career-high 174 1/3 innings in the majors this season and been quite effective along the way. He’s started 30 games (also a career-high) and notched a 3.77 earned run average while fanning a solid 22.8% of his opponents against a terrific 5.5% walk rate. Though he’s a pronounced fly-ball pitcher (31.1% grounder rate), Cortes has scaled back on some of the home run troubles that have plagued him in his career; he entered the season having averaged 1.49 round-trippers per nine innings pitched but has scaled that back to a more palatable (but still higher than average) 1.24 mark in 2024.

It’s not clear that Cortes would be a part of the Yankees’ postseason rotation, but he’d certainly play a key role in the bullpen even if the team opted to go with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and one of Luis Gil or Clarke Schmidt in the top three spots. (Cole and Rodon are locks, health permitting.) Cortes is no stranger to working in relief. He’s primarily been a starter in recent seasons but has seen 37% of his career appearances come in a relief setting.

The Yankees have a pair of veteran left-handed options in the ’pen regardless, with Tim Hill and Tim Mayza on the roster, but neither can miss bats at the same level as Cortes. Mayza also carries alarming platoon splits, making him ideal for strict left-on-left matchups. Cortes would also be an obvious option to give manager Aaron Boone some length out of the bullpen in the event of a short start during postseason play.

Those scenarios are on hold as the Yankees await word on Cortes’ ailing elbow. Taking a step back to look at the bigger picture for Cortes himself, a serious injury would be as poorly timed as possible (not that there’s ever a “good” time for a major health setback). He’s headed into his final offseason of arbitration eligibility and is due a raise on this year’s $3.95M salary. An injury that threatens a significant portion of his 2025 season could leave Cortes as a non-tender candidate, given that he’s slated to become a free agent following the 2025 season. And, if something at play impacts his 2025 availability, that’d cut short what should be his platform season in advance of free agency, where he’d stand as a clear candidate for a multiyear deal with good health.