Baseball analyst and Minnesota Twins analyst, Jim Kaat is under fire again for insensitive comments regarding a player once again. During the broadcast of the Detroit Tigers-Minnesota Twins matchup on Thursday, Kaat referred to Yankee’s left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes as “Nestor the Molester” while previewing the Twins-Yankees matchup for June 7. “‘Nestor the Molester,’ Nestor Cortes, Man, he is fun to watch,” Kaat said while praising Cortes’ play after the pitched seven shutout innings against the Los Angeles Angeles on Thursday.
Cortes said after the game that he didn’t feel that Kaat made the statement with any ill intentions. “I’m sure, you know, he didn’t really mean it, and people make mistakes, but it didn’t offend me at all, so, you know, I don’t really have anything more than just that, honestly,” he said. Cortes further supported this in a social media post, “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. 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!”
This is the second time that Kaat has come under fire for insensitive comments while discussing a player. During last year’s playoffs, while discussing All-Star Yuan Moncada with fellow analyst Buck Showalter, Kaat said, “get a 40-acre field full of them [Moncadas].” This received immediate backlash due to the implications of references to slavery.
Kaat apologized quickly saying later in the game, “In fact, I need to read this right now, because earlier in the game when Yoán Moncada was at the plate in an attempt to compliment the great player, I used a poor choice of words that resulted in a sensitive hurtful remark. And I’m sorry.”
As of today, Kaat has not released a statement regarding his comments about Cortes, however, the Minnesota Twins said that they would handle the matter “internally and privately.”
Cortes who has been given the nickname “Nasty Cortes” has been sensational with a 5-1 record and an ERA of 1.50, the lowest in the MLB.
