Nestor Cortes Lands on IL with Elbow Trouble, as Pangs Keep Coming for Brewers Starting Rotation

Nestor Cortes's arm angle came back down a bit in his start Thursday against the Reds. Whatever mechanical gremlins had hindered him so badly that he was bludgeoned by the Yankees in the season-opening series the previous weekend appeared to have been tamed. Unfortunately, if fans hoped that that adjustment also indicated less trouble in Cortes's balky elbow, the opposite turned out to be true.

Instead, Cortes had been battling soreness in the same area as the flexor strain that sidelined him in late 2024, and got imaging on his elbow before the start last week. Though that MRI didn't reveal anything immediately concerning, Cortes found that he wasn't recovering properly after the appearance Thursday, in which he fired six one-hit innings and struck out a half-dozen Reds. Since he didn't believe he could make his next scheduled start Wednesday in Colorado, the team was forced to shelve him, retroactive to April 4th.

In speaking to the media, both Cortes and members of the front office downplayed any concern that this will be a long-term issue. However, all the facts they shared—that they compared the MRI they took to one taken during the offseason, rather than reading it straight; that Cortes was feeling sore before the start and more sore than normal the day after; and that the hurler said it feels similar to the injury that sidelined him for six weeks in 2024 (after which he came back for the World Series only against the advice of the Yankees' medical team)—push against that optimism.

"They wanted to see if there was something alarming, so I don't make my start [Thursday]," Cortes said of the decision to undergo that MRI earlier in the week, "but I feel like they saw what it was and didn't feel like it was going to hurt me.”

Easy to overlook, in that comment, is that the team did see what it was—which is to say, it's not nothing. Now, too, the question of the short- and long-term interests of player and team come into some potential tension. The Brewers take pride in taking good care of players, even when they don't have long-term futures with the club, and Cortes is a competitor who will want to pitch when he can, as much as he can. 

However, when he chose to rush back for the World Series last fall, he was doing so on behalf of a Yankees organization in whose employ he'd toiled for the bulk of the previous 11 years. It was the first time in his tenure that his team had reached that pinnacle, and it was, after all the World Series. He also wasn't eligible for free agency at the end of the season.

This time, he's doing the calculations about his future with free agency looming just seven months away. A flexor strain is, thankfully, very rarely a precursor to a torn UCL or a similarly vicious injury—but it still tends to require a long absence. Since the start of 2016, the only pitchers to return to the mound within four weeks after this type of injury have been relievers Luke Weaver (in early 2023) and Derek Law (late last season), and like Cortes, Law is back on the injured list with forearm inflammation this spring. He didn't even get as far as the regular season before being shelved again.

Much though they'd surely like to take care of Cortes in a proactive way, the Brewers have every incentive to push for whatever innings they can get from him, especially amid the relentless parade of injuries their pitching staff has already sustained this spring. Cortes, too, will want to demonstrate that this is minor and that he can be durable. He's not a dominating hurler; availability and volume are big selling points for him with potential suitors this winter.

Still, he'll want to avoid making this any worse, and the team can ill afford to bring him back too soon and have the strain get worse. It's unlikely that Cortes will return before May. Hopefully, the club will get Jose Quintana integrated into the rotation, as he finishes building up to the degree of readiness the team demands from their starters. Aaron Civale's hamstring strain could also be mild enough to allow him to return quickly. and Tobias Myers is preparing to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville.

In the meantime, Pat Murphy and company will have to hope for more heroics from Tyler Alexander and Chad Patrick. It's increasingly clear why Murphy advocated (and Matt Arnold executed) the signing of Quintana in early March, even if he hasn't yet been able to patch the holes that have ripped open the team's rotation picture since. The Brewers have a chance to survive this onslaught of hurt, which is a testament to their organizational depth and deftness. At the moment, though, they're in a very difficult spot.