“I don't know if optimistic. I mean, we're not ruling it out yet,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Cortes was scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday night against Baltimore and replaced by Marcus Stroman, with the Yankees one win from clinching the AL East title and a first-round playoff bye.
Stroman had been moved to the bullpen for the final two weeks of the regular season.
“He's ready to go. I think excited to get the ball," Boone said. “He's been great through all of this. He's been ready for whatever role comes his way. He's had a really good year for us, and a big reason why we're in this position. So, hopefully he can go out and set us up tonight.”
Cortes (9-10, 3.77 ERA) had an MRI on Monday and was put on the IL retroactive to Sunday. He won't throw for at least seven to 10 days.
He had been a candidate to be New York's third starter in the postseason behind Gerrit Cole (7-5, 3.67) and Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.98).
“Certainly feel for him right now,” Boone said. “Just have to pick up the slack there and support him right now and then see what we have over the next several days, just see exactly how he's responding and things like that.”
Cortes was 4-0 with a 1.58 ERA in his last seven outings (six starts), striking out 38 and walking 10 in 40 innings.
“That's one of the things that stinks about this, too, is just how well he's throwing the baseball right now,” Boone said.
Already assured at least a wild-card berth, the Yankees needed one victory in their last five games to clinch the division crown. If that's accomplished, they would open a best-of-five Division Series at home on Oct. 5.
Stroman, rookie Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt are the remaining candidates to start a potential Game 3. Because there are off days between Games 1 and 2 in addition to between Games 2 and 3, the Yankees likely would need only three starters in that round.
New York recalled right-hander Cody Poteet from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and he was available in the bullpen Wednesday night.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Credit: AP
Credit: AP