Dodgers Champion Slams Yankees Pitcher For Saying They Were Better Than LA

Valentina Martinez | Mar 2, 2025

Sep 12, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes (65) walks to the dugout in the middle of the fifth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a number of players emerge as October heroes in the postseason. The defending champions could not keep every member of the 2024 Dodgers, and one fan favorite who is no longer with L.A. is right-hander Brent Honeywell.

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The reliever has yet to sign with a team in free agency after being non-tendered by the Dodgers in November, but that hasn't stopped him from defending his former team.

In a recent appearance on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast, Honeywell slammed former New York Yankees reliever Nestor Cortes for trash talking the Dodgers in a recent interview.

“I’ll tell you this, they weren’t the best team," Honeywell said. "On paper, they weren’t the best team. Can’t say it with a straight face. They were not the best team. We were the best team. We were the better team. I said it the whole time, ‘Dodgers in four’. I was cranking that out in the clubhouse, ‘Dodgers in four, Dodgers in four, Dodgers in four.’ Maybe if I don’t give up 12 (earned runs), maybe there’s a chance (we sweep). But they weren’t the best team.”

Cortes recently told The Athletic that the Bronx Bombers were actually the better team in the Fall Classic, despite almost being swept by the Dodgers in five games.

"We had done enough to win that game," Cortes said. "They can talk whatever they want to talk, but we win Game 1 — which we should have — we lost 2 and 3, we win Game 4 and we should have won Game 5. Then we go back to LA up 3 to 2.

"So people can say it slipped away from us, people can say we made a lot of mistakes, which we did. But at the end of the day, we were the better team. I see it that way, and I'm sure everybody in that clubhouse sees it that way. The reality (could have been) going back to LA leading 3-2. It didn't happen that way and they deserve all the credit in the world, they won the World Series. At the moment, they showed they were the better team."

Cortes will always be remembered for his time with the Yankees, but not because of his success. The left-hander notoriously gave up a walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of the World Series. It will be his failure in the tenth inning of the series opener that is forever etched in baseball lore.

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