NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes has a flexor strain in his pitching elbow and was placed on the 15-day injured list Wednesday in a blow to New York’s rotation heading into the playoffs.
Cortes and the Yankees are holding out hope he could return at some point in the postseason, but it didn’t sound likely.
“I don’t know if optimistic. I mean, we’re not ruling it out yet,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Cortes was scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday night against Baltimore and replaced by Marcus Stroman, with the Yankees one win from clinching the AL East title and a first-round playoff bye.
Stroman (10-9) took the loss in a 9-7 defeat, charged with six runs and a season-high 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings. The veteran right-hander had been moved to the bullpen for the final two weeks of the regular season because New York had six healthy starters before Cortes’ injury.
“He’s been great through all of this,” Boone said before the game. “He’s been ready for whatever role comes his way. He’s had a really good year for us, and a big reason why we’re in this position.”
Cortes (9-10, 3.77 ERA) had an MRI on Monday and was put on the IL retroactive to Sunday.
He won’t throw for at least seven to 10 days, and will seek additional opinions from two renowned experts by sending the MRI results to Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Dr. Keith Meister.
“I’ve been dealing with some tenderness for a few weeks. But it wasn’t until Sunday, I threw my bullpen in Oakland, where it didn’t feel right,” Cortes said. “The ligament looks good. Obviously, there’s like chronic stuff that’s, throughout the year, if you do an MRI to any pitcher, stuff is going to pop up. But (the) UCL is not torn, or there’s no damage to it. So that’s kind of good news.
“I don’t know what the timetable looks like,” he added. “I don’t know if it’s 10 days or 40 days, but I know with rest people get better, and hopefully with treatments that I get, it’s going to feel better.”
Cortes had been a candidate to be New York’s third starter in the postseason behind Gerrit Cole (7-5, 3.67) and Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.98).
“Certainly feel for him right now,” Boone said. “Just have to pick up the slack there and support him right now and then see what we have over the next several days, just see exactly how he’s responding and things like that.”
Cortes was 4-0 with a 1.58 ERA in his last seven outings (six starts), striking out 38 and walking 10 in 40 innings.
“That’s one of the things that stinks about this, too, is just how well he’s throwing the baseball right now,” Boone said.
Already assured at least a wild-card berth, the Yankees need one victory in their last four games to clinch the division crown. If that’s accomplished, they would open a best-of-five Division Series at home on Oct. 5.
Stroman, rookie Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt are the remaining candidates to start a potential Game 3. Because there are off days between Games 1 and 2 in addition to between Games 2 and 3, the Yankees likely would need only three starters in that round.
“Definitely the mentality and the way I’m going to go about it is try and come back,” Cortes said. “Depending on how far we go and how well I do with the rehab. Obviously, my main focus is to be able to come back and help this team.”
New York recalled Cody Poteet from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and he provided 3 1/3 effective innings in relief Wednesday night. The right-hander permitted one run and three hits, throwing 57 pitches.
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