At the time of print, the New York Yankees own the best record in the league one month into the 2022 MLB season. Led by one of the best pitching staffs in baseball and a powerful lineup that ranks among the leaders in various categories, this New York team looks like one of the early contenders.
While that might be surprising in and of itself, given the team's quiet offseason, a closer look at the Yankees' start reveals several surprising developments.
Slugger Joey Gallo, acquired at the trade deadline to beef up the lineup, owns just three home runs and a miniscule .324 slugging percentage, a far cry from his career .483 mark. Second baseman Gleyber Torres, who has been a shell of himself in the past two years, has shown flashes of the breakout performer the Yankees thought he was back in 2018 and 2019.
While Yankees fans certainly consider those developments to be surprising, there's one player in particular who has really impressed and exceeded even the wildest of expectations one month into the 2022 MLB season. That player is starting pitcher Nestor Cortes.
Cortes has been the Yankees' best pitcher in a staff that features $324 million ace Gerrit Cole and other talented starters in Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery.
The southpaw leads all Yankees pitchers in Wins Above Replacement and ranks second in the statistic to slugger Aaron Judge. Through six starts, Cortes owns a 1.41 ERA with a 0.96 WHIP and a 42:11 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 32 innings of work.
He is the first Yankees pitcher in the history of the franchise to record 40 strikeouts while allowing six runs or fewer in the first six starts of a season.
The 27-year-old took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in his last start against the Texas Rangers, fanning 11 batters in an outstanding performance.
Needless to say, he's been a big surprise for the Yankees. Cortes emerged as a reliable option out of the bullpen last year for New York, often working multiple innings while impressing the club with his ability to induce weak contact against batters.
While he was seen as a good story, many were quick to dismiss the 36th round pick in the 2013 MLB draft who had labored in the minors before finally making it to the big leagues in 2019.
Cortes doesn't have imposing stuff- his fastball has been clocked at an average of 90.4 MPH- and he stands just 5-11 and 210 pounds. So, what gives? The secret to Cortes' success is his ability to mess with hitters' timing.
Cortes is a whirling dervish on the mound, manipulating his wind-up and arm angles to make opposing hitters as uneasy and off-balance as possible. It's not uncommon to watch him pitch and see two or three different wind-ups in an inning.
That is the genius of Cortes. He might not be the hardest-throwing or possess the nastiest stuff, but he is able to get the most out of his pitches with his quirky style.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised either. Maybe Nestor Cortes showed who he really was last year, and people just overlooked it, just as teams overlooked him for years.
One thing is for sure. No one is overlooking Nestor Cortes anymore.
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