Pitcher Nestor Cortes is looking forward to the day when he can rejoin the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation.
Acquired by the Brewers from the New York Yankees along with Caleb Durbin for Devin Williams after the 2024 season, Cortes made just two starts for the Brewers before suffering a strain of his flexor tendon in his pitching arm.
That landed the left-hander initially on the 15-day injured list April 6 before getting transferred to the 60-day injured list April 21.
After a three-inning stint July 2 for the Brewers’ Nashville Triple-A team, Cortes pitched four scoreless innings for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on July 10 in a 12-3 loss against the South Bend Cubs at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.
In his four shutout innings against South Bend, Cortes threw 54 pitches, allowed three hits, walked none and struck out two. Of the three hits, two were infield hits.
“I think the most important part was to get out of here healthy,” Cortes said about his outing against South Bend. “I wanted to see the velo (velocity) and have the command. Once I start getting closer to big league action, obviously you’ve got to have one of two things.
“You’ve got to throw hard, or you’ve got to have command. I need a little bit of both, so right now I’m working on getting out of here healthy and have some of that.”
The timing and location of his next rehab start is a bit tricky because of next week’s all-star break.
Nashville is idle July 14 through July 17 before beginning a home series against Indianapolis, while the Timber Rattlers are off the same days before opening a series in Cedar Rapids.
While he’s been out, Cortes has been paying close attention to the Brewers pitching staff.
“I’m pulling for those guys,” Cortes said. “You think about it at the start of the year. (Aaron) Civale went down. I went down. Woody wasn’t ready. We signed Quintana. Peralta is a workhouse. Then you have Priester and Chad Patrick. They took the whole rotation by storm.
“Chad Patrick was in the running for rookie of the year before he was sent down. He was a guy who would give you five or six quality innings. Priester is a guy we got in a trade, and he’s helped us tremendously and you’ve got Logan Henderson, who has had his spot starts there.”
When Cortes is ready to return, then it’s a matter of getting back into what is now a crowded Brewers rotation with Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester and Jose Quintana.
“OK, how do I fit into this rotation?” Cortes said. “I’m almost ready. You don’t want to take away reps from these guys because they are big league ready. I was in their shoes at one time. I thought I was ready to pitch in the big leagues, but it was clogged up up there so there wasn’t any role for me. It’s fun to see that.”
Cortes said teams usually look for seven or eight starters when they go into spring training.
“Most team have four and they’re scrapping for five,” he said. “We have like nine. It’s a healthy competition. It’s fun. It’s competitive. Everybody wants to be out there.”
The main thing for Cortes is to make the decision as difficult as possible for Brewers manager Pat Murphy, pitching coach Chris Hook and general manager Matt Arnold.
“That is the plan for us players,” Cortes said. “Make decisions like what happened to Chad Patrick tough. You know it’s tough. You have Brandon Woodruff coming back and Chad Patrick, he happened to be that guy who had to make room.”
During his two rehab starts, Cortes said none of his pitches are tougher to throw after suffering the injury.
“Honestly, I thought the mix was pretty good today,” he said. “And even last time out in Nashville, it was pretty good. I don’t think there’s a pitch that affects me more than the other. I feel that I’m in a pretty good spot.
“I’d like to see my velo pick up like maybe one or two ticks, but I’m not overly worried about that because I haven’t pitched in a real game in over three months. I think that’s going to come back with the adrenaline of pitching at higher levels.”
While sidelined, Cortes said it’s tough not being there for his teammates.
“Being able to pitch for only two starts, I feel bad about that,” Cortes said. “I want to be able to go out there and compete for the guys, compete for the organization and compete for the Milwaukee Brewers.
“We’re pretty hot right now and I want to be out there in the middle of that. It’s frustrating when you go to the ballpark but at the same time, it’s part of the process. When I get back, I’m sure they want the best of me. Not half best or 75% best. I want to be as healthy and as good as I can be when I get out there.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Milwaukee Brewers: Nestor Cortes makes rehab start with Timber Rattlers