Nestor

Cortes

Cortes made the announcement on his X, formerly Twitter, account. Independent journalist Francys Romero adds that the 30-year-old lefty, who was limited to just eight starts this season between the Padres and Brewers due to injury, underwent surgery to repair a small tendon tear in his left arm. He’ll be a free agent in a couple weeks once the offseason gets underway.

Cortes will face those hitters Friday before the Padres’ game against the White Sox. The 30-year-old left-hander has been on the shelf since September 5 with tendinitis in his left biceps. He could be an option for San Diego in the postseason, but time is obviously running out.

The 30-year-old hurler has been terrible throughout the season, but was especially bad in Wednesday’s start against the Orioles where he served up four home runs in just 2 1/3 innings of work. Now it sounds like the biceps has been bothering him for a while and could be a part of the reason for his ineffectiveness. Ron Marinaccio was recalled from Triple-A El Paso in a corresponding move on Friday.

The last five runs came on three homers in a span of four pitches in the third. The first was a three-run shot from Colton Cowser, which was quickly followed by solo homers from Coby Mayo and Alex Jackson. Cortes has now given up 13 homers in eight starts, though 12 of those have come in three of the eight outings. Actually, 10 of them have come in three of his 34 1/3 innings. If Cortes stays in the rotation, he’ll face the Reds and Rockies at home next week, which would make him fairly intriguing in mixed leagues.

The 30-year-old southpaw also walked a pair of batters while striking out two. While he was probably going to be removed anyways, Cortes was ejected during a lengthy mound visit in the fourth inning, where he may have just been stalling to allow Wandy Peralta more time to warm up. Cortes got just five whiffs on 66 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 24 percent. He’ll try to get back on track as he carries a 5.06 ERA, 1.44 WHIP and a 27/17 K/BB ratio (32 innings) into Wednesday’s matchup against the Orioles.

The 30-year-old southpaw struck out three batters on the evening. He retired each of the first 16 batters that he faced in the ballgame until Miguel Rojas smacked a one-out single in the sixth inning. He then retired each of the next two to strand Rojas at first. Cortes generated eight swings and misses on 81 pitches on the evening — five of them on his sweeper — while posting a strong CSW of 30 percent. He’ll look to replicate this outstanding performance as he brings a 4.66 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and a 25/15 K/BB ratio (29 innings) into Friday’s tilt against the Twins in Minneapolis.

The first inning was a disaster for Cortes. He gave up back-to-back jacks to Heliot Ramos and Rafael Devers, a double to Casey Schmitt and a two-run homer to Wilmer Flores. Not ideal. Credit to the southpaw for not allowing another run, but also, damage done. Cortes will try and get off to a better start against the Dodgers over the weekend.

A double and two base hits put the Giants on the board with a run in the first inning. Cortes would settle in to keep the Giants from scoring into the fifth. He’d leave the game with two runners on and two outs at 79 pitches. Cortes struck out six. The 30-year-old left-hander will look to build off the strong start when he takes on these same Giants in San Diego on Monday.

It was the first start as a member of the Padres for Cortes, and his first appearance in the big leagues since April 3 when he was still a member of the Brewers. He struggled to locate as seen in 45-of-76 pitches being called strikes, and he gave up a long homer to Corbin Carroll to lead off the game and a sac fly an inning later. Cortes was better as the game went along, which is certainly encouraging. He’ll look to build on this next week in San Francisco against the Giants.

Cortes is expected to make his San Diego debut on Friday against the Red Sox. The 30-year-old was acquired earlier this week from the Brewers and offers some intrigue as a streaming option for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues.