Iván Nova always wanted to be a Yankee. Growing up in the Dominican Republic outside of San Cristóbal, his father, Manuel, passed on a passion for the Bronx Bombers. As the younger Nova developed into an intriguing pitching prospect, a Red Sox scout came calling, offering the right-hander a contract. He turned the Yankees’ rivals down flat, holding out until his favorite team offered him $80,000 to take the first step in his dream of pitching in the pinstripes.
Iván Nova Born: January 12, 1965 (San
Cristóbal, Dominican Republic) Yankees Tenure: 2010-16
After three years in the the lower rungs of the minor leagues, Nova faced yet another obstacle in his path to the Bronx when the Padres claimed him in the Rule 5 Draft. Most players would be thrilled at the prospect of competing for an MLB roster spot. Not Nova. “I thought, ‘They don’t love me anymore.’ I thought they didn’t want me on their team,” a heartbroken Nova later said of the Yankees’ decision not to protect him from the draft by adding him to their 40-man roster. But, after he allowed eight runs in 8.2 innings in spring training, San Diego shipped him back to New York.
This time, he’d stick around for a while. As a 23-year-old in 2010, Nova went 12-3 with a 2.86 ERA in 23 Triple-A starts and earned a brief debut in the majors.
That offseason, he was approached by Billy Connors, the longtime Yankees pitching guru, who showed the prospect the same cutter grip he’d taught Greg Maddux decades earlier when he was the Cubs’ pitching coach. Nova took to the pitch immediately, evolving it into a highly effective cutter-slider hybrid that helped him break camp with the Yankees.
It was to be a charmed rookie campaign for Nova. He stuck in the rotation for nearly the whole season, even forcing the Yankees’ hand to employ a six-man rotation for a stretch due to his dominance. The 24-year-old ended the year with a 16-4 record to go along with a 3.70 ERA in 165.1 innings, finishing fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting. He earned the win in Game 1 of the 2011 ALDS, allowing two runs in 6.1 innings of relief in a contest that began on September 30th with CC Sabathia on the bump but was paused due to rain and had to be resumed the next night.
The Yankees fell behind in the series before winning Game 4 to force a win-or-go-home Game 5 with Nova on the bump. Alas, he lasted only two innings before exiting with forearm tightness, allowing two runs and earning the loss. It would be the last playoff appearance of Nova’s career.
After a disappointing 2012 that saw his ERA balloon above 5.00, Nova began 2013 on a similarly sour note, ending up back at Triple-A after struggles and injury threatened to derail his career as quickly as it began. With his back up against the wall, Nova got another shot in June and made the most of it, posting a 2.70 ERA the rest of the way while striking out 90 against 34 walks in 116.2 innings, including tossing two shutouts.
In 2014, he once again got off to a rough start, allowing 19 runs in 20.2 innings through four starts. He was removed from the last of those starts with elbow discomfort which would ultimately be diagnosed as a UCL tear that required Tommy John surgery. When Nova returned mid-way through the 2015 season, he wasn’t the same pitcher. Now 28, he posted a 5.07 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 17 starts as the Yankees limped to a Wild Card berth. After starting the 2016 season in the bullpen, he was pressed back into duty in the rotation in May. In what would be a lost season for the Yankees, Nova pitched well enough to garner some value on the trade market and, with free agency looming after the season, the team decided to move him once and for all. In a flurry of moves that generated blue chip prospects for the likes of Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, Nova’s exit from New York came with a whimper, as the veteran was traded to Pittsburgh for two players to be named later that became Stephen Tarpley and Tito Polo.
Ever-resilient, Nova once again got up off the mat and performed admirably for his new club, going 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 11 starts. That was good enough to garner him a three-year, $26 million contract from the spendthrift Pirates that offseason. He remained a viable innings-eater through the duration of that deal, including after a trade to the White Sox in its final year. At the age of 33, he signed on with the Tigers for the 2020 season but allowed 22 runs in 19 innings before they cut him loose. After unsuccessful stints with the Phillies and Rockies the following spring and with the SSG Landers of the KBO in 2022, Nova had finally emptied his bag of tricks for good.
In all, Nova ended up in the elite group of big leaguers with a full pension, accruing 10 years of service time. Perhaps more importantly, he got to play for the team he idolized as a boy for seven of those seasons. While he never developed into the front-line starter that seemed in play when he won 16 games as a rookie, that’s certainly a career worth celebrating.
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