TODAY: Both clubs have officially announced the Fortes-for-Etzel trade.
JULY 28: The Rays and Marlins are reportedly in agreement on a trade that will send catcher Nick Fortes to Tampa Bay for minor league outfielder Matthew Etzel. Once completed, this will backfill the Rays’ catching depth. Tampa Bay traded Danny Jansen to the Brewers for an infield prospect on Monday evening. The Rays expect to announce the Fortes deal on Tuesday.
For the Rays, they often try to straddle a buy/sell line at the deadline and it seems that will be the play this week. They are 53-53 this year, three games back of a playoff spot. While they don’t want to punt their season, they seemingly want to strike a balance between doing things that work for the club now and in the future.
Jansen is a 30-year-old veteran on a one-year deal. He’s better than Fortes right now but Fortes is younger, cheaper and controllable for three more seasons after this one. Presumably, the Rays feel that going from Jansen to Fortes doesn’t significantly harm them in 2025, while adding a few seasons of Fortes and also grabbing Jadher Areinamo in the Jansen trade will help them in the long run more than Etzel.
Fortes, 28, doesn’t do a ton in the batter’s box. In 1,073 plate appearances, he has 25 home runs but a .225 batting average and a 5.2% walk rate. Overall, his .225/.277/.344 line translates to a 70 wRC+. Jansen, on the other hand, has 11 home runs this season alone and is drawing walks at a 12.7% pace. His .204/.314/.389 line in 2025 translates to a 99 wRC+.
Behind the plate, Fortes grades out well. He’s been credited with 17 Defensive Runs Saved in his career. Outlets like FanGraphs, Statcast and Baseball Prospectus all consider him a strong framer. Jansen gets strong marks from BP but not the other two systems. In short, Fortes might be a downgrade from Jansen at the plate but might be a slight upgrade defensively.
It’s certainly a cost-saving switch. Jansen signed a one-year deal with the Rays which guarantees him $8.5MM. He’s making $8MM in terms of salary and then there’s a $500K buyout on a mutual option for 2026. Fortes just qualified for artbitation for the first time after the 2024 season, as a Super Two player. He is making $1.86MM this year and is lined up for three further raises via arb.
For the Marlins, they don’t really need Fortes. They already have Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks on the big league roster. It’s possible that Ramírez might not have the defensive chops to stick behind the plate, but the Fish also have Joe Mack lurking. Mack has shown up on some top 100 prospect lists and is already at the Triple-A level. Perhaps he will get a big league look in the wake of this Fortes deal. Or if not now, maybe he could be a September call-up.
They Marlins have exchanged a light-hitting placeholder catcher for an outfield prospect. Etzel is a deadline pickup for the second year in a row. He went from the Orioles to the Rays last summer as part of the Zach Eflin deal.
A tenth-round pick of the O’s in 2023, he’s not ranked as one of Tampa’s top 30 prospects by either Baseball America or FanGraphs. MLB Pipeline has him in the #28 slot. Broadly speaking, he seems to be a contact-based hitter with speed. Since the start of 2024, he has 723 plate appearances, mostly at the Double-A level. He has just 16 home runs but a 12.2% walk rate, .259/.350/.404 line and 119 wRC+ in that time. He’s also stolen 62 bases, though while also getting caught 19 times.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Rays were working on a Fortes trade. Robert Murray of FanSided reported Etzel’s inclusion. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times confirmed the Fortes trade agreement was in place.
Photos courtesy of Katie Stratman and Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
The stove is HOT
Don’t touch it, you’ll get burned!
🎶It’s gettin hot in here🎶
In a place like Florida it burns real quick.
Acquiring Fortes is such a Rays move
Their perpetual search for a catcher.
He is under team control for awhile. That’s what appealed to the Rays.
Yup. Another Ben Rortvedt type. Be good one season and then suck the other 2-3 years
Debatable. A lot of catchers fall into that category.
Nick is the Rays type of guy. He’s an under the radar guy that is helpful.
Do you mean a good framer? That does fit the Rays, but they also have some catchers in their system that have a higher ceiling. This move doesn’t make much sense to me.
As a fan, I’m so tired of good framers. I want good hitters.
Yep, good framer and can call a solid game. Fortes was Sandy Alcantara’s preferred catcher.
In the end it’s about saving money at the position and having control past 2025.
I love Fortes because he is a hometown DeLand, FL guy, but wish the Rays would acquire a hit first catcher instead of a defense only guy to start for the rest of the year.
Who do you have in mind? And Fortes has multiple years remaining.
Before the season I was hoping Langliers or Soderstrom from the A’s or Raleigh from Seattle.
I say rest of year because I assume Driscoll will be the starter next year.
Not Driscoll, I meant Keegan. Always confuse those two.
@Karen
The Rays almost always snub in-house catchers. The most recent example being Rene Pinto and now Keegan/Driscoll. Hopefully they get a chance to prove themselves, but I really don’t know why we’d trade for a sub-par Catcher when we possibly have better options in the system.
Agree. I’m ok with Fortes as a backup and Keegan as a starter, even this year. Same with Walls as a backup at SS and Carson Williams starting, but don’t get me started on the front office and their love of defense and low batting averages.
That was some serious hoping
Danny Jansen is far from a defense first catcher.Jansen has posted negative defensive numbers for for several years now.
So he basically gets back the runs that he allows?
Despite the stats, Etzel can freaking hit. Sneaky grab.
What part of his 700 OPS in AA suggests he can “really hit”?
Since when does OPS mean you’re a quality hitter? Great you have an OPS of .850 but strike out 35% of the time. I wouldn’t call that a quality hitter. There’s a lot more than just OPS that makes someone a quality hitter.
How does one get an ops of .850?
Obp+slg
.310+.540
.300+.550
Pretty easily.
A guy with an OPS of 850 is a very good hitter I don’t care what his K rate is.
.310/. 540 with a 35% k rate isn’t a good hitter at all lmao.
That’s a player who doesn’t get on base nearly, strikes out way too much, and when they finally do get on base it’s for extra bases.
That is hardly a good hitter when they don’t walk, strikeout too much, and maybe hit a double triple homer when they make contact.
You’re saying 2021 Hunter Renfroe was a good hitter which he definitely wasn’t.
practice.
Still in A ball at 23. Those guys are all over the place.
I dunno. Don’t really trust Bendix. He traded for Vidal Brujan, remember.
And he traded him away for a tryout 1B that he’s cut since.
As a Marlins fan, we’ve grown to trust his moves. He’s earned that with what he’s pulled off since he’s been here.
Ugg. Fortes is horrible.
Obviously the Rays don’t agree with your scouting report.
Yes and their track record with catchers really makes me confident they’re right.
Fortes is better than you think. He’s a sneaky guy that gives some help to a team. He’s decent.
Not true
Time to move Yandy, Littel…
Yeah, the Cubs want Yandy, so we can use PCA.
The Yanks want Littell, so let me be the first to step up and say let’s take a chance on Judge even though he’s damaged goods. What the heck.
Overall I think the poplarlity of Fantasy Baseball has had a negative effect on reporters and even GMs.
Joe Mack time????
I was thinking the same thing. Very likely after the trade deadline.
nice appetizer, whatcha got for main course(s) options
They have three catchers at AAA including Dom Keegan. Why do they need Fortes?
Because AAA isn’t MLB
They could just promote Keegan and see what he has. Especially if they end up trading any other lineup regulars.
They traded a catcher and replaced him with a catcher so nothing lost. Can do same with others but I heard they’re not.
Because the Rays always shun their prospect catchers for unknown reasons. Rene Pinto, Ciuffo, to name a few
I’m confused. MIL gave up prospect #20 to get Jansen and TB gave up prospect #24 to get Fortes. Is Jansen that much better and/or is TBs prospects that much better then MIL?
Save money. Get a look at Fortes for 2 months. Save money in 2026. They must like his defense.
They should start operating like someones buying the team tbh. Dont know why they would chip away the MLB roster to pinch pennies when a new group is coming in
20 and 24 are same thing usually. Not that prospect ranking sites are that accurate. Different gms value different things and have different levels of negotiating.
Yeah the Rays are really good at evaluating Catchers…
Or is Fortes that much less a player than Jansen? It could be that TB just sees value where others don’t. It could be that #20 prospects aren’t equal in value, team to team.
Fortes is a pretty nice piece to have. when I saw the trade, my first reaction was that Fortes is a Rays type of guy – helpful and under the radar.
I’m curious about the player we’re getting. I sense that is a move to trade Jesus Sanchez next for site unseen.
hate to break it to you, but prospect rankings aren’t very authoritative
Exactly. I always get a chuckle when guys always talk about prospects like they’re sure things. the vast majority of prospects fail to meet the expectations.
I just don’t have any high expectations for him whatsoever. With new management coming in he may not even last the off-season. We’ll see.
Yeah, Fortes is in the stages of becoming a journeyman, veteran catcher. He has the glove and the experience, but the bat is not good most of the time, except when he gets a short-lived hot streak.
Fair
Ramirez could very well be NL Rookie of the Year and keeping 3 Catchers on the roster was kind of redundant for the Marlins. Decent pickup for the Rays.
Bendix is cooking!!!
Fortes isn’t a bad pickup. He would automatically be a huge improvement over Maldonado with the Padres, just saying…
Right? If this is the going rate for catchers not named Sean Murphy, I’ll be pretty disappointed if they don’t bring someone new in at the deadline. Any warm body has to be better than Maldonado at this point in his career.
Typical Rays type move.
$50 says he’ll hit under .200 for the rest of the year.