The Great Nestor Cortes

The Mystery

I love a good mystery. So why not start my preseason writing off with a mystery? That mystery is, what the [bleep] are we supposed to do with Nestor Cortes? He came on to the scene last year and found something magical. After some unimpressive showings before he put a spell on hitters last year with great effect. Nestor was magnificent!

Season	IP	ERA	WHIP	FIP	K%	BB%	K-BB%	AVG	BABIP	HR/FB
Before 2021	79	6.72	1.71	6.69	21.7%	10.3%	11.4%	0.297	0.327	22.6%
2021	93	2.90	1.08	3.78	27.5%	6.7%	20.9%	0.216	0.265	11.3%

So main thing to note is in 2021 Nestor started 14 games. Before that, he had only started a grand total of... (carry the 1... multiply by square root...) 2 games. 2 games that's it. So this was a bit of a new foray for him. It's not often that you go from the pen to starting and your numbers improve drastically. Not just a little mind you; but by every conceivable measure, he got better. His K-rate went up, BB-rate went down, and he cut home runs in half while suppressing hard contact and limiting runners. Everything you could possibly want. Mama mia! The plot thickens...