The tale of New York Yankees' 'Nasty Nestor' Cortes and his magic mustache

The man thinks his mustache should be in the movie.

The New York Yankees' left-handed pitcher said that it was a super power. At the right time, it came.

His major league career is divided into two separate periods: Before Mustache and After Mustache

Carlos Marti, a Yankees area scout, said to look at the numbers since he had a mustache. "It has the ability to do things."

Cortes had facial hair, a goatee, and a full beard in the days before the mustache. He pitched for three teams in his first three years in the majors, but never found a home in the bigs. After the Baltimore Orioles designated him for assignment in 2019, and again in 2020, his confidence took a hit.

His facial hair grew in May of 2021. Since that transformation, Cortes has a 2.35 ERA with a 0.994 WHIP in 32 games, striking out 10.1 batters per nine while walking 2.3, and he's also had a 0.994 WHIP in 53 games. Heading into his start Wednesday night in Minnesota, the right-handed pitcher is leading the American League with a 1.50 earned run average. Even with his 10th-best strikeout rate, he is the owner of the league's 10th best strikeout rate.

The Yankees manager said it was a special start to the season. "He's got a lot of things going for him, he's got weapons and he can really pitch, but he's got that savvy out there and it serves him well in whatever situation he has out there."

The mustachioed Cortes has become a leading member of one of the best starting rotation in baseball, a Yankees staff that has gotten stellar performances out of the first three pitchers. The Yankees have the best record in baseball, and their starting staff is the best in the game. Five years after being let go by a team that was one of the worst in the league, "Nasty Nestor" is poised to start the All-Star Game.

Cortes said that he needs to pinch himself every time he gets past the sixth. When I was aReliever, I barely got out of the secondinning and now I'm here throwing six. I'm going to pinch me.

CORTES tends to step outside his body when he is in the Yankees' locker room. He wonders where he fits in after seeing his teammates walking around him.

Is this true? The person said that. What's going on here?

After his father won a visa lottery, the family moved to the U.S. His mother was a manicurist and his father was a forklift driver. His parents always insisted that he pay back the financial assistance he received from his coaches. As he entered his late teens, he dreamed of following in the footsteps of other players from the Miami area who had recently made it to the big league.

He was unsure about his major league prospects as he was graduating from high school. He committed to pitch at Florida International, with Miami Dade County as backup, but Marti, who had coached Cortes in middle school before taking the scouting job with the Yankees, told him he was confident he could play at the big league level.

The Yankees had a list of players they wanted, and Marti told Cortes he was on it. The Yankees vice president and director of amateur scouting made one last push for the team to take Cortes as other teams selected names ahead of him.

Marti waited for him outside the door. He wasn't happy.

Cortes signed a contract for an $85,000 bonus after being drafted by the Yankees. He started playing with timing on the mound in Double-A in order to compensate for his lack of speed. The Orioles drafted Cortes in the Rule 5 after he was not added to the Yankees' 40-man roster.

He thought he'd arrived. The reality wasn't the same. He gave up 10 hits, two homers, four runs, two walks and struck out three in four games. He was back to the Yankees after two weeks. He had a 5.67 earned run average in 33 games for the major league team.

The last team in baseball was them. The worst team in baseball demoted me. I don't know how I will ever make a big league squad.

There was no plan for that. He didn't know what a career outside of baseball would look like. He was intimidated by the thought of going back to school, even though he wanted to be a marine biologist. It was necessary that he make baseball work.

He decided he needed to do something different. In the second half of 2020 and in the off-season leading into 2021, Cortes changed the grips on his pitches to create more backspin and added a cutter. After working on his stuff in the Dominican Winter League, Cortes started to build his confidence again. He was able to stand out due to his movement and deception.

By May 2021, he was back in the Yankees' system, but with a different attitude. He decided that he needed to mark this new chapter in his life with a symbol. He believed in his ability to stay in the majors.

He grew a mustache.

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