Jim Kaat has apologized to Nestor Cortes, with the New York Yankees left-hander tweeting Friday that he doesn’t believe the comment made a day earlier by the longtime Minnesota Twins announcer was done with ill intentions.
Kaat had referred to Cortes as “Nestor the Molestor” during a broadcast of the Twins-Detroit Tigers game. He began to explain that Cortes had become one of his favorite pitchers during a breakout season with New York.
“‘Nestor the Molestor,’ Nestor Cortes,” Kaat said. “Angles and different speeds. He’s a pitcher.”
Cortes said after the Yankees played Thursday night that he wasn’t offended by what Kaat said, and he reiterated that in the social media post Friday.
“Jim Kaat has spent an entire lifetime in this game we love,” he wrote. “He reached out to me and apologized for his remark last night, but he didn’t need to. 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!”
The Twins said Thursday that they would handle what happened “internally and privately.”
Kaat, a longtime commentator who has also worked for the Yankees and MLB Network, apologized in October after saying teams should try to “get a 40-acre field full of” players who look like Chicago White Sox infielder Yoan Moncada.
His comment about Moncada reminded some viewers of the unfilled promise by the U.S. government that freed slaves would receive 40 acres and a mule following the Civil War. He apologized later in that game between the Houston Astros and White Sox.