Nestor Cortes refuses to get irked by incident in which he had to cover his glove number

New York Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes quickly returned to his 2022 form after a slow start to the 2023 campaign and skipping the World Baseball Classic. In his second appearance of the year, he targeted the Baltimore Orioles.

Umpire Bill Miller told Cortes to color in the white No. 44 on the back of his glove after the first innings because they thought it was a distracting code violation.

The New York Yankees used a sharpie in the dugout to darken the patch, but Cortes did not inquire as to why. He was questioned about the sudden onset of a problem with his glove, the same model he's been using since 2017, after the game, which the Yankees won 5-3.

He claimed he wasn't bothered by it.

“The fact that he came over to me and said that it was a problem kind of pissed me off,” said Cortes, who said he has pitched with the gloves since 2017. “But other than that, I didn’t have a big problem with it.”

The person who protested was technically correct according to the text of the law, but Cortes frequently tosses while wearing this glove. In any case, it led to the first blacked-out 44 in the Yankees locker room since Reggie Jackson struck Billy Martin.

Nestor Cortes became an All-Star in 2022

Cortes has previously played for the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners. During the 2013 MLB Draft, the Yankees selected him in the 36th round.

New York Yankees v Baltimore Orioles

He was selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft following the 2017 campaign, and after making his MLB debut with them in 2018, he joined the Yankees once more.

Before returning to the Yankees in 2021, Cortés pitched for the Mariners in 2019 and the Yankees in 2020 before finally becoming an MLB All-Star in 2022.