Nestor Cortes pours gasoline on Red Sox-Yankees rivalry ahead of clash

Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes fired shots at the Red Sox and their recent track record ahead of the rivalry’s first matchups of the 2023 season.

On Friday, the Boston Red Sox and rival New York Yankees will play for the first time in the 2023 season. And while New York starting pitcher Nestor Cortes won’t be on the mound as he was just put on the IL, his presence is almost surely going to linger over the series and rivalry.

That’s because his words leading up to the series in the Bronx are gasoline on the fire of the rivalry.

Cortes was asked about the rivaly with the Red Sox and, rather than celebrate the longstanding and heated history between the two teams, he downplayed it at the expense of Boston.

“It doesn’t feel like what we have with Tampa now, or with Toronto now,” Cortes said, via FOX Sports.

“You could argue that [the Red Sox] haven’t been who they really are the last couple years,” Cortes continued.

Yankees SP Nestor Cortes on Red Sox: It doesn’t feel like what we have with Rays, Blue Jays

There is some truth to what Cortes is saying in regards to recent years with Boston. Since winning the 2018 World Series, the Red Sox have made the playoffs just once, including finishing the regular season below .500 in 2020 and 2022, both of which saw them finish in last place in the AL East.

In those same four seasons, the Yankees have won the division twice in 2019 and 2022 while also earning a Wild Card berth in 2021 as well. And entering the first series between the rivals in the 2023 campaign, New York is five games ahead of Boston in the division standings, though they are just in third place in the division.

When you broaden the scope, though, it makes Cortes’ shots-fired moment look a bit more asinine.

That’s because you could make the arguments that the Yankees “haven’t been who they really are” in quite a while either. Yes, they have been a perennial playoff team, but middle schoolers weren’t born the last time this franchise won a World Series (2009). That was also the last time that New York even made it to the World Series.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have three World Series rings since 2007 and two since the Yankees’ last. And let’s not forget that, in the one time since 2018 that Boston made the playoffs, they ousted New York in the Wild Card Game.

So yes, things haven’t been as fruitful for the Red Sox in recent years as even fans in Boston would surely like. But let’s not act like that hasn’t also been the case for the Yankees and their fan base. They are falling short of admittedly lofty expectations routinely over the past decade.

And with this lack of self-awareness from the Yankees pitcher, you can rest assured that things will be fiery in the Bronx for the first series between the rivals this season.