Nestor Cortes was moved to bullpen assignment by the New York Yankees on Saturday in order to support freshly activated Clarke Schmidt. Following the game, Cortes used the media to inform the players that he was not pleased with the disruption to his typical opening procedure.

Cortes stated, “Obviously I was upset,” as Greg Joyce of the New York Post reported. “I felt like I was the workhorse here, among all the starters. They selected me to start on Opening Day—not necessarily as the No. 1 player, but as the Opening Day starter—after Cole got hurt [during spring training. There, I had to change up my regimen. They act like this now.

Cortes turned his rage into an excellent excursion. In order to keep the lead at one run, he stranded an inherited runner at third base after entering the game with two outs in the fifth inning. The 29-year-old pitched 4.1 innings of no-hit ball to end the contest.

On the surface, it makes sense that Nasty Nestor would be angry about being assigned to clean up after Schmidt. However, a closer examination of the Yankees’ rotation situation suggests that Cortes was probably better off keeping his resentment to himself.

For Yankees manager Aaron Boone, there was no obvious decision based only on the data. Pitchers Cortes, Carlos Rodon, and Marcus Stroman all have ERAs in the neighborhood of 4.00. In addition, in each of their two prior outings, they all let up five runs in a start.

They were never options to be sent to the bullpen because Luis Gil still has the best numbers in the rotation and Gerrit Cole is the team’s ace. Boone had the option to use his bullpen to relieve Cortes, but doing so would have been too dangerous with the Yankees vying with the Orioles for the AL East championship.

As is always the case, the money is the decisive factor. Rodon and Stroman have about $200 million invested in them by the Yankees. Cortes is not a free agent until 2026 and is currently earning $3.95 million.

With an ERA that barely went below 4.00 and a 9–10 record, Cortes ought to have swallowed his pride. It would be ideal for him to use his wrath as fuel to play well in the remaining games in order to maximize his arbitration payment the following season.

The Red Sox will choose Richard Fitts.

Right-hander Richard Fitts’ contract will be chosen by the Red Sox tomorrow, as reported by Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. Fitts has a “very great chance” to start tomorrow’s game against the White Sox, according to Smith, but it’s also possible that he’ll be deployed as a bulk reliever in front of an opener. Fitts’s accession to the 40-man and active rosters before tomorrow’s game will require equivalent roster adjustments because the club is now at capacity.

The Yankees selected Fitts, 24, in the sixth round of the 2021 draft. Fitts advanced to the Double-A level with New York last season after making his professional debut the year before. In 152 2/3 innings of work over 27 starts, he had a 3.48 ERA and struck out 25.9% of batters faced. Fitts was transferred to Boston over the summer in a trade that brought Alex Verdugo to the Yankees, along with right-hander Greg Weissert and pitching prospect Nicholas Judice.

Now that Verdugo has struggled to an 84 wRC+ with New York this season, the trade appears to be rather lopsided in the Red Sox’s favor. The team has even considered moving Verdugo out of the lineup to make room for top prospect Jasson Dominguez, though that move has not yet been made. Weissert, on the other hand, has contributed quality middle relief to the Red Sox this season, pitching 52 innings with a 4.14 FIP and 3.81 ERA.

Fitts, who had a respectable season at Triple-A but not as well as he did at Double-A with the Yankees the previous year, is now scheduled to join him in the majors. Fitts has put up a 4.17 ERA in 116 2/3 innings pitched this year, with a career-best 42.4% grounder rate and a strikeout rate of 22.6% against a walk rate of 7.5%.

Now that he’s in Boston, the right-hander will try to translate his success in the upper levels into his major league debut. He will face White Sox right-hander Chris Flexen, who has a 5.36 ERA in 29 outings with Chicago this season, if he starts the game tomorrow as anticipated. The Red Sox currently have Tanner Houck, Nick Pivetta, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and Cooper Criswell in their full rotation. However, by inserting Fitts for a spot start, the team will be able to give their regular rotation some extra rest before two difficult series against the Orioles and Yankees next week.

With a dismal record of 72-70, the Red Sox are obviously long bets to qualify for the postseason at this juncture. The club’s odds of making the playoffs are 9.9% according to Fangraphs, although they would need to defeat the Twins (76-66) or Royals (78-65) to secure an AL Wild Card position, as the AL East is most likely out of reach.

It’s worth noting, though, that the Red Sox would have needed to add Fitts to the 40-man roster this offseason even if they didn’t want him to get big league exposure down the stretch in order to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, from which he’ll need to be protected this winter. Even though giving their regular starters an extra day off before a challenging stretch of the schedule is unlikely to have an impact on the standings.