Nestor Cortes is still a free agent, and it's time for that to change

The World Baseball Classic is perhaps the greatest example of “there is no way that guy is still playing.” Former Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramírez is 44 years old, though that hasn’t stopped him from suiting up for Team Cuba. Ex-Yankees fan favorite Didi Gregorius hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2022, but he’s a core part of the Netherlands squad.

Now, there’s no guarantee that we would have seen veteran left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes, a former Yankees teammate of Gregorius, play for either Cuba or Team USA in the WBC if he were healthy. Not only is the 31-year-old Cortes recovering from surgery on his left arm, but he remains a free agent with less than two weeks until Opening Day.

There is no indication that Cortes is close to signing anywhere, and there haven’t been any updates of late regarding his status for the 2026 season. Nonetheless, some of the sport’s notable contenders — and a couple teams looking to take that next step — might want to consider bringing Nasty Nestor into the mix.

Why is Nestor Cortes still a free agent?

Well, he’s a free agent because no team has signed him yet. Obviously.

Back in October, Cortes announced that he had surgery to repair a tendon in his left arm. At the time, the expectation was that he would resume baseball activities in nine or 10 months, which would suggest a late June to mid-July timetable.

If a team signs Cortes anytime soon, they’d be doing so knowing that they might not see him on a big-league mound until August. Even then, asking Cortes to immediately come out and average over five innings per start might be tough, if not incredibly unrealistic. Still, that doesn’t mean he should spend the entire season waiting for that one phone call.

Which teams should sign Nestor Cortes?

Athletics

What kind of team will the 2026 Athletics be? If you’re an optimist, you likely believe that the A’s young core will have them competing for a Wild Card spot. A cynic might instead point to the lack of traditional home-field advantage — and that’s not even factoring in the park dimensions, which former All-Star Luis Severino complained about only months after signing a three-year contract — and the dangers of relying on such a young team.

If I’m the A’s, I would sign Cortes hoping that you get enough work out of him to determine whether he’s a viable candidate to contribute in 2027. The Athletics are still likely the fourth-best team in the AL West, and they need so many things to go right this season to make the playoffs. As for next year, maybe that’ll be when Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson and all of the other young pieces here help the club break through.

Atlanta Braves

If the Braves plan on leaving a surprisingly terrible 2025 behind them, they’ll need reliable starting pitching. Atlanta’s 4.36 staff ERA ranked 22nd last year, a key reason why the team finished 76-86 — their first losing season since 2017.

Obviously, Cortes wouldn’t be able to help them when the season kicks off later this month. But he has experience coming out of the bullpen, and he averaged a 25.2% strikeout rate to a 6.2% walk rate from 2021 through 2024. Why wouldn’t the Braves consider adding him in hopes he could replicate something similar to that in what could be a three-team division race? The less we see of Bryce Elder and Didier Fuentes in 2026, the better.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The easy joke is that the Dodgers should sign everyone, and this past offseason proved there’s some truth to that idea. I’m waiting on the Dodgers to call me and offer to add my Jack Russell mix to the Triple-A lineup. Winnie will make Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts look like amateurs.

In all seriousness, the Dodgers’ starting rotation isn’t exactly what I’d call reliable. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow have extensive injury histories, and Roki Sasaki’s control issues should have the Dodgers concerned about his long-term viability as a starter. It’d be hard to fault anyone who's skeptical that L.A. will have most of their rotation healthy by Aug. 1. Suppose Cortes is good to go by that point, even if he’s only going to be a long reliever? The Dodgers don’t strike me as the kind of team to pass that opportunity up.

Besides, good things happen to the Dodgers when Cortes pitches at Dodger Stadium.

Sorry, Yankees fans.

Miami Marlins

Cortes grew up in Hialeah, Fla., and actually went to Marlins games when they still played at what is now Hard Rock Stadium. At first glance, this sounds like nothing more than a fun homecoming. Which, in fairness, it certainly would have the potential to be.

However, the Marlins are in a similar situation as the Athletics in the sense that they're a young team with real talent but we don’t know whether they’re ready to build off the improvements they flashed in 2025. Miami’s 4.60 ERA in 2025 tied for fifth-worst in baseball, and Cortes makes sense as additional depth for a mostly unproven rotation. If Miami feels like doing what they do best and opts to trade half the roster come July, they could then turn to Cortes to eat up innings over the season’s final weeks.

New York Yankees

Obviously, the Yankees and Cortes are extremely familiar with one another. We don’t need to overthink this one too much — and, in fairness, a reunion would make sense even if New York didn’t have a long, storied tradition of losing their top pitchers to injury.

Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole are expected to start the season on the IL while recovering from elbow surgeries. We likely won’t see Clarke Schmidt until much later in the year. Cortes can’t help the Yankees in April, and even asking him to contribute in July might be difficult. But it should be all hands on deck when September hits, and Cortes knows what it takes to step up when the Yankees need him most.

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