BALTIMORE — Nestor Cortes apologized and said he was “pissed” at himself for old tweets in which he used offensive language nearly a decade ago when he was in high school.
A Twitter user retweeted some old tweets on Sunday in which Cortes used the n-word (n—a) more than a dozen times.
Nestor Cortes addressed insensitive tweets he sent in the past. EPAWhen Cortes realized they had resurfaced following his start against the White Sox in Chicago, he said he was “shocked.”
“Those aren’t the messages I want to send out,” Cortes said before the Yankees faced the Orioles at Camden Yards on Monday. “I deleted my Twitter [account] to clean stuff up. Hopefully I can make a better impact in the world for the people that look up to me to give a better example.”
Asked if he remembered the tweets, Cortes acknowledged that he did.
Nestor Cortes’ tweetsSpamPablo/Twitter“I’m not gonna say I don’t, but I didn’t realize they were still there,” Cortes said. “It’s unacceptable. I could have managed myself better and said stuff differently.”
Cortes is in the midst of a breakout season during which he’s followed an impressive 2021 with an even better start to this year. He’s hoping to get back to interacting with fans soon.
“I hope to be back in the next few days,” said Cortes, adding he wanted to continue inspiring athletes trying to overcome odds.
“I like to attract people like me, not the prototype 6-foot-5, 97 [mph pitcher],” Cortes said. “For the last two or three years, I’ve been pretty positive on Twitter. When I saw that I was a little pissed off at myself.”
