Nestor Cortes, the New York Yankees pitcher, is arguably best remembered for his bizarre antics on the mound. The 5-foot-11 lefty frequently uses hitches and giddy-ups during his windup to throw hitters off his timing and delivery.
What he did on Sunday should probably be illegal…
Cortes performed a real pump fake against the Cleveland Guardians. Major League Baseball may (and should) act fast to remove the maneuver from the game.
While the novelty of what Cortes does on the bump is fun and usually effective, he backs it up with some ugly stuff. Combining the two is extremely frustrating for opposing batters. Timing is one method he employs to keep hitters uncomfortable. Cortes will occasionally accelerate or slow things down to create an imbalance in their expectations.
Batters never know what is coming— or, perhaps more importantly, when.
And then there is the creative stuff. Cortes will swing his leg around or vary the height of his kick to mess with the hitter’s head. It can get super weird.
Although it is bizarre and looks like a balk, it’s totally legal. Cortes starts his windup in a legal manner, never stops his motion and continues moving all of the way through his delivery.
Love it or hate it, there is nothing illegal about it and it often works. There is no issue there.
What he did on Sunday is something that has not been seen before. Cortes exploited yet another loophole that allows him to literally use a pump fake during his funky windup.
This specific action could be a step too far. There is no need to enable pump fakes. They are currently lawful (or perhaps better phrased as not illegal), thus Nestor Cortes did nothing wrong. However, MLB should fix that loophole before every pitcher in the league starts using a pump fake in their pitching actions!
