Nestor Cortes Jr. is hitting back at any cancellation attempts of Jim Kaat.
Kaat, who is both a Minnesota Twins Hall of Famer and Baseball Hall of Famer, broadcasts Twins games. While talking during Thursday’s Twins-Detroit Tigers telecast, Kaat was joking around and referred to Cortes as “Nestor the molester.”
Jim Kaat's nickname for Nestor Cortes is "Nestor the Molestor" 😬 pic.twitter.com/ezLhcPBXSB
— MLB Errors (@mlberrors) June 2, 2022
Kaat was just kidding around and just rhyming. Morever, “molester” used to be a common nickname for people whose names rhymed with the word (Lester, Chester, etc.). Kaat even complimented the New York Yankees pitcher, saying Cortes is “fun to watch.”
Still, that didn’t stop the perpetually-offended media from playing a game of “gotcha!” with Kaat.
Multiple media outlets tried to stick the mob on Kaat by describing his words for Cortes as “offensive.”
Anyone who was listening knows there wasn’t the least bit of ill intent behind Kaat’s words, which means 99 percent of people were not offended. Cortes wasn’t either and even stuck up for his fellow southpaw pitcher.
Cortes posted a tweet saying Kaat had reached out to him to apologize, which Cortes said was unnecessary. Cortes said he recognized there was “no malice intended” by the remark and that he wanted to lift up Kaat.
— Nestor Cortes (@Cortes_1210) June 3, 2022
“Hey everybody – Jim Kaat has spent an entire lifetime in this game we love. He reached out to me and apologized for his remark last night, but he didn’t need to,” Cortest wrote in his statement. “We all make mistakes and feel 100% there was no malice intended. I plan on lifting him up with this tweet and I hope others do too. No sweat here Jim!”
Cortes is in his second season with the Yankees and having a breakthrough. He is 5-1 with a 1.50 ERA this season and drawing some impressive comparisons. Cortes only needs 271 more wins to match Kaat’s career total (283).
