With a strong defensive profile and three more seasons of control, Fortes is acquired and Danny Jansen shipped out.

The Tampa Bay Rays are one game above the .500 mark entering play on Tuesday, July 29. They are 2.5 games out of nabbing one of three American League Wild Card spots, but Tampa Bay needs help.

Nick Fortes, a DeLand native, will swap Sunshine State teams as the Tampa Bay Rays have acquired him from the Miami Marlins.

The Rays opted for youth and control in a trade with Miami, signaling a shift in priorities behind the plate heading into the season’s stretch run.

How to watch the MLB game between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays, as well as first-pitch time and team news.

The Marlins are sending Nick Fortes to the Tampa Bay Rays, as first reported Monday by the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Miami is receiving outfielder prospect Matthew Etzel in return for Fortes, according to Fansided’s Robert Murray. Etzel is ranked as the Rays’ No. 28 overall prospect by MLB Pipeline.

According to two industry evaluators, the Rangers have reached out to Tampa Bay to discuss closer Pete Fairbanks. The Rangers drafted Fairbanks in 2015 and he made his major league debut with the club in 2019 before being traded to Tampa shortly thereafter for infielder Nick Solak.

In discussing the reasons and thought process behind changing catchers by trading away veteran Danny Jansen and acquiring Nick Fortes, Rays baseball operations president Erik Neander on Tuesday raised an interesting point.