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 Miami Marlins today announced that the team has acquired Minor League outfielder Matthew Etzel from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for catcher Nick Fortes. Etzel (ET-zull), 23, is ranked the 28th-

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.

The Reds did all their scoring in the first inning. Austin Hays and Gavin Lux had back-to-back RBI singles to drive in T.J. Friedl to get on the scoreboard, and then Matt McLain for an insurance run, respectively.

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.

Right-hander Shane Baz was strong for the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, giving up just two earned runs in a 2-1 loss to Cincinnati.