PHOENIX -- Here’s one way to win over new teammates: caffeinate them.
Nestor Cortes, the veteran left-hander and the most notable newcomer to a roster mostly unchanged from last season, has surprised the Brewers on at least two occasions so far this spring by contracting with a local shop to station a coffee truck between the players’ parking lot and the entrance to American Family Fields of Phoenix. Anything from an espresso shot to the most complicated iced latte imaginable is available to help bleary-eyed Brewers begin the day, courtesy of “Nasty Nestor’s Cafe.”
“I was like, ‘Oh, Nestor, wow!’” said starter and Milwaukee mainstay Freddy Peralta. “It’s a very good entrance.”
It’s not the first new team for Cortes, who has changed places five times in a professional career that began as a 36th-round Draft pick of the Yankees in 2013. He went to the Orioles in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft and had a brief stint with Baltimore in ‘18, including his Major League debut.
Cortes was returned to the Yankees that April and spent 2019 with New York, then was traded to the Mariners for ‘20. He signed back with the Yanks in ‘21 and stayed, pitching as their Opening Day starter last season, before he was traded again to the Brewers in December along with infield prospect Caleb Durbin in the Devin Williams deal.
In other words, Cortes knows how to make an entrance.
“In the offseason, I was like, ‘Let’s see how he is,’” Peralta said. “And his personality, it’s awesome. He’s for sure a great addition for us.”
“He reminds me a lot of Gio,” said fellow Brewers veteran Brandon Woodruff, referring to lefty Gio Gonzalez, who played for Milwaukee from 2018-19 and went to the same high school in Hialeah, Fla., that Cortes would later attend. “They’re very similar in that they just fit in, you know what I mean? He’s a ballplayer, he’s one of the boys. That’s what we’re good at is putting the right people in the room.”
Of course, what Cortes does on the mound is just as important for the Brewers, who have him slotted into a rotation that will start with Peralta on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium and is likely to also include right-handers Tobias Myers and Aaron Civale and left-hander Aaron Ashby, with Woodruff hopefully to follow as he completes his comeback from right shoulder surgery. Cortes brings stability and some success, including an All-Star season in 2022 in which he posted a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts, and a career-high 174 1/3 innings in 2024, when he went 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA for the Yankees.
Cortes’ 2024 season was interrupted in late September by a left elbow injury that sidelined him until he made a pair of appearances in the World Series against the Dodgers. But he resumed throwing in mid-December after taking a break, and he is on schedule to be full-go for what he hopes is a Brewers debut during the opening series at his old home.
“Everybody here is like a family and it’s felt like home,” said Cortes, who turned 30 on Dec. 10 -- three days before the trade. “I’m happy to go on this journey with this group of guys and I know what they’re all about. It’s a Gold Glove-caliber defense, and as a pitcher, that’s what you want.”
Cortes worked through the usual soreness that followed over the first two to three weeks after he resumed throwing in December. Even though it’s “only Spring Training,” he was eager to feel the intensity again of pitching in games.
“I’ve been bouncing back real well,” he said. “I think as we ramp up here, I’ll get a sense of where I’m really at. As of now, I feel super healthy.”
Cortes will have plenty of personal motivation. Like Woodruff and Civale, he’ll be a free agent at year’s end. He has another goal in mind first.
“This team is always fighting for a playoff spot at the end,” Cortes said. “I’m excited to be with this team and be able to do that.”
In the meantime, he’ll keep everybody caffeinated. Cortes, who regularly consumes three or four cups of coffee a day, typically iced coffee with a splash of milk and “as strong as it can be,” has enjoyed putting new faces to names over a cup of joe.
“It’s just an easy way to connect with the guys and see who’s a coffee lover,” Cortes said. “I’m going to try to do that as much as possible, so the truck will be out there more. We’ll be in business.”