As a major leaguer, your reputation often precedes you.
And reputation is often built on past performance, which is the only certain information available about a player.
New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes was, as of the end of the 2020 season, rejected by three MLB teams in a row.
That’s why not too much people bought his 2021 performance, when he posted a 2.90 ERA in 93 innings.
They thought he got lucky, and said he would crash down to Earth in 2022.
What they ignored is how much he worked to get better in 2021: he honed his cutter (his bread and butter as a pitcher), he improved his command, he optimized his fastball, and developed other secondaries.
He rebuilt himself as a pitcher that year.
When everybody thought he would struggle to keep up his 2021 form last year, he answered with a 2.44 ERA in 158.1 frames.
His reputation made too many people think they had him figured out, but they were all wrong.
Right now, Cortes looks fully focused on keeping up the good work and having an “everybody shut up” season in 2023.
He is already working out and throwing.
His pitches look very good already.
POV: Nestor Cortes Jr’s tunnel vision en route to the 2023 Cy Young Award. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/BGz96WYTwa
— Conor Maguire (@cmaguire2008) January 20, 2023
That one seems like an excellent way to keep himself from throwing too far off the strike zone.
It could be, as Maguire points out, Cortes’ tunnel vision en route to the 2023 Cy Young award.
That seems like a lofty goal, but why not pursue it?
Not many American League pitchers had a lower ERA than him.
It’s a matter of durability.
As the great Geno Smith once said, they wrote Cortes off.
He isn’t writing back though.
