After a frustrating season in which he made just six starts for the Padres, impending free agent Nestor Cortes revealed on Thursday that he had surgery on his throwing arm.
Cortes was with San Diego for only part of the season, having been acquired in a mid-2025 trade. Prior to the deal, he had thrown just eight innings that year before landing on the injured list with a strain in his left elbow flexor. Though brought in to bolster the Padres’ pitching depth, he saw limited action with the team.
In his six starts with the Padres, Nestor Cortes posted a 5.47 ERA over 26.1 innings. He was placed on the injured list in early September with what the team described as a biceps strain and was shut down for the rest of the season.
A key factor in Cortes’ struggles was a noticeable drop in his fastball velocity. According to MLB Trade Rumors, his average fastball speed fell to 90.1 mph—down from over 93 mph two years prior. Opponents hit .351 against his fastball and launched nine home runs in just 57 at-bats.
Simply put, the version of Nestor Cortes the Padres acquired wasn’t the same pitcher who consistently posted sub-4.00 ERAs in every season but one from 2021 to 2024. However, his injury likely contributed to the decline in velocity and overall performance. Now, after undergoing successful surgery to repair a small tendon tear in his left arm, Cortes is set to enter free agency at season’s end.
Per reporter Francys Romero, Cortes is expected to resume baseball activities in about nine to ten months, which means he’ll miss all of spring training and likely most—if not all—of the 2026 MLB season. A return in late July or early August would be the earliest possible timeline.
Regardless, Cortes should still find a suitor over the offseason as he enters the first free agency period of his career. Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors writes that Cortes could get a deal similar to pitchers Jose Urquidy and John Means, who signed one-year deals with team options last offseason while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Cortes could sign a cheap deal with bonus incentives with a team option to extend his contract another season depending on his performance.
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