St. Louis Cardinals v New York Yankees / Mike Stobe/GettyImages

The New York Yankees couldn’t pull off the sweep, but they won the weekend series against the Chicago Cubs. They clinched on Saturday when Clarke Schmidt and Nestor Cortes put up an incredible performance.

Schmidt started the game after over three months on the shelf with a lat injury. Cortes, who was moved to the bullpen for the time being, piggybacked the right-hander and tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the 2-0 victory. He allowed just one walk and struck out three. Zero hits. It was awesome.

Except … Cortes doesn’t seem too thrilled with manager Aaron Boone’s decision. And that’s totally fine. But is this yet another situation in which there wasn’t an extensive conversation between the two parties?

Remember back in 2020 when Gary Sánchez was blindsided by his benching during the playoffs and was confused by it? Remember when Jordan Montgomery was traded out of nowhere despite it making no sense and nobody in the clubhouse supporting it? Remember how Aaron Hicks voiced his displeasure about his role three games into the 2023 season?

All we’re saying is that this is a trend with Boone and general manager Brian Cashman. It feels like a very dishonest operation shrouded in secrecy, and that’s only going to hold the Yankees back.

Nestor Cortes Jr. not thrilled with moving to Yankees’ bullpen

Now, did we like Cortes’ comments? Absolutely. The prevailing sentiment here is that he’s a team player and will do whatever it takes to help New York win baseball games. That’s exactly what’s needed for the Yankees to get back to the pinnacle of baseball.

Then again, his lack of consistency in the rotation certainly paved the way for him to eventually be moved to a bullpen role, but it’s evident that was never communicated to him until the Yankees decided it. Cortes saying “and now they do this” in regard to switching up his routine further drives that point home.

Again, we don’t know exactly how this was delivered to the left-hander, but he was asked a question that could’ve easily been answered without having to delve into the mysterious nature of the transition. He could’ve easily just said, “Yup, it’s Boone’s decision and I have to respect that and I’m prepared to handle myself as a multi-inning reliever for however long I’m needed,” and not, “Well, I was the Opening Day starter, so I’m not sure why I ended up being the candidate to get bumped out of the rotation.”

See what we’re trying to say here? Boone also framing this as a “difficult decision” is a bit comical, too. Asking one of your starters to pitch multiple innings of relief because you need to shift things around ahead of the postseason? That’s a difficult decision?

No. A difficult decision is replacing Alex Verdugo with Jasson Dominguez. A difficult decision is benching somebody for a lack of effort. A difficult decision is making a disciplinary call for whatever reason necessary to light a fire under the team.

A standard pitching swap for a guy who has always felt like he was destined for a long relief role out of the bullpen? That’s an easy one. So, yeah, it seems the disconnect is even greater than we expected.