New York Yankees' Nestor Cortes Says Rivalry with Boston Red Sox is Fading

As the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox get set to play for the first time in 2023 this weekend, Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr. says that the rivalry with Boston isn't what it used to be.

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are set to play each other for the first time this season this weekend.

The three-game series at Yankee Stadium begins on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. ET and features both teams coming off of series losses. The Yankees lost two of three to the Chicago White Sox while the Red Sox lost two of three to the Cleveland Guardians.

Speaking ahead of the matchup, Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr. said he doesn't think the rivalry is as good as it used to be.

FOX Sports: MLB put out the transcript of his comments:

"It doesn't feel like what we have with Tampa now, or with Toronto now... you could argue that (the Red Sox) haven't been who they really are the last couple years."

Nestor Cortes had this to say about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry 👀 pic.twitter.com/2WgBNvAkFo

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 8, 2023

While these comments are sure to anger some longtime baseball fans, it's fair to acknowledge and understand what Cortes is saying.

1) He's only been with the Yankees since 2021. In that time, the Red Sox finished last in 2022 and are in last place in 2023, so he hasn't seen the Red Sox consistently battling with the Yankees. The Yankees have battled consistently with the Rays and the Blue Jays in his tenure in New York.

That said, the Red Sox did make the playoffs in 2021 and beat the Yankees in the wild card playoff game, so that should be remembered.

While there are longstanding rivalries in professional sports, rivalries tend to go in cycles also based on who is good at the time. I'm sure Dallas Cowboys fans would see the Eagles as bigger rivals now than the often irrelevant Washington Commanders. 

2) It should be acknowledged that the current state of baseball also adds to the possible dissolution of the rivalry. Now, players change teams so quickly, it's hard to develop sustained hatred for a team. The roster changes over too fast to have major beefs and you have few players that stay in one city or organization for too long to develop that venom towards another organization. Often times now, players will end up playing for both organizations over the course of a career.

3) And it should be acknowledged that the Yankees also have a hand in the rivalry in general not being as good. Since the Yankees moved to the New Yankee Stadium in 2009, it's just a different environment and it's not as conducive to rivalries. Something is missing from that building that was present in Old Yankee Stadium. 

The Yankees will enter this series at 37-27 and in third place in the American League East. They are 8.5 games behind the first-place Rays and 2.0 games behind the second-place Orioles. As for the Red Sox, they are 31-32 on the year and are 14.0 games behind the Rays. They've lost seven of their last 10 games.

Cortes was placed on the injured list this week with a shoulder issue and won't be pitching at all this weekend.

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