Nestor Cortes understands that his lasting memories of October will follow him to Milwaukee and wherever else.
He threw a regrettable pitch to Freddie Freeman, and his then-teammates made several regrettable plays that could not be overcome.
“The way it ended, I think it’s going to be something that not only them but myself have to live with. Obviously, it didn’t go the way that we wanted to,” said Cortes, who also understands that the World Series loss to the Dodgers was a blip in a bright Yankees tenure. “But overall, the … four and a half years I was in the big leagues with the Yankees, I can take a lot of positives. Thinking back on how my career was there, they watched me grow up. I became who I became with the Yankees.
“Ten, 20, 30 years down the line, I can talk about how good the experience was here and how happy I was and how successful this team was every year.”
Cortes spoke Thursday from a visiting clubhouse he had not seen since April 2018, when he was a short-lived member of the Orioles as a Rule 5 pick.
His Opening Day experience this year was “a little weird,” he allowed, stepping off the Brewers team bus and not knowing which way to go as a visitor.
In his return to the Stadium, he honored the great tradition of players who are no longer Yankees in sporting a new beard (a tradition that the Bombers have ended).
Former New York Yankees and now Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Nestor Cortes holds up a peace sign on the field during Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.
In a lesser-celebrated tradition, he also dyed his hair “platinum, with a little purple in there,” he said, looking a bit like a pop star.
Why? Because he now can.
With the Yankees, it was tough to “bend the rules a little bit,” said Cortes, who was not sure if he would stick with the new look for his start Saturday, when he opposes plenty of his friends and Max Fried.
If he keeps the hairstyle, it would provide one more reminder that one of the better success stories around the Yankees is no longer around the Yankees.
In 2013, Cortes became a Yankees flier in the draft in a round (the 36th) that no longer exists.
He came up through the system slowly, playing with affiliates like Low-A Charleston and Double-A Trenton that no longer are affiliates.
He pitched (and pitches) like few do today: without much velocity and with plenty of deception, using an array of arm angles and hesitations in delivery.
He twice left the Yankees, once when selected by Baltimore and again when traded to the Mariners, with whom he pitched in five games in 2020.
Nestor Cortes smiles as he talks to his former Yankees manager Aaron Boone on the field.
And yet, he always found his way back to pinstripes and eventually found ways to excel.
A kitchen-sink lefty broke through in 2021, when he began the year with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre but made The Bronx his permanent home by the end of May. He took another leap in 2022, when a 5-foot-10 everyman emerged as an unlikely All-Star and was the best starter in a rotation that had Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino.
He was hurt for much of 2023 but bounced back last season until a flexor strain sidelined him in September, only to rush a return for October that did not go well.
As it turned out, that would be Cortes’ last chance, of this tenure at least, to win a World Series with the Yankees.
After signing Fried and with seven rotation options at the time, the Yankees sent Cortes and prospect Caleb Durbin to the Brewers for Devin Williams.
Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes walks off the field after giving up a walkoff grand-slam to Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series.
Cortes, who was celebrating his 30th birthday in Vegas at the time, was not surprised.
“I knew something had to be done,” he said. “We had a lot of starters, and the team had a lot of needs.”
Cortes called his Yankees years “fun” and said the team is “like family.” If he took the trade personally, he did not show any outward sign of it.
“I love Nestor Cortes,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who added that Cortes texted him through camp wondering if childhood friend and fellow Miami product J.C. Escarra would make the team.
“I love the kid,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Cortes.
In a different uniform, with a beard rather than a mustache and perhaps with a dye job, Cortes will look differently as a person Saturday.
He might look familiar as a pitcher whom fans loved to watch.
“We’ll see,” Cortes said when asked if the opposing lineup would inspire him to get extra funky.
