Nick Fortes has found his niche with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Cuban-American catcher has seen action in 53 games this season and has put up decent offensive numbers for the Rays. In 156 at-bats he has hit a solid .269, swatted a homerun and driving in 14 runs.
Fortes has been good not only handling the pitching, but also behind the plate. The backstop has a .986 fielding percentage, has 11 assists and has also thrown out 10 runners on the year. Fortes also sports a 0.3 FRM and has only had two passed balls in 369 ⅔ innings of work.
Being the main catcher for a potential playoff team like the Rays has its responsibilities and Fortes so far this season has been up to the task. The ex-Miami Marlin has found a home and a key role on Florida’s other coast and is making the best of it.
You look more adjusted at the plate this year. What did you do in the offseason to help yourself?
Just try to stay short. I mean, nothing too drastically different. Just trying to put the ball in play and limit the strikeouts. Like I said, not trying to do a whole lot of things different. Just staying short and just trying to put together competitive at bats, that’s all.
How does catching interfere with your approach at the play? A lot of people don’t know that catchers have two things on their mind, catching and hitting.
Yeah, it can be difficult sometimes. You know, I try not to overthink it because if I allow myself to, I could try to think along with the catcher and what I would do. But I try to put that aside and just dumb it down as much as I can to keep it simple. That’s just what works best for me. I feel like whenever I’m going at my best, I’m not thinking as much, so I try to just dumb it down as much as I can.
You played your man, and obviously you’re playing in Tampa now, a city with a high concentration of Cubans. What’s the difference between the cities and what’s similar between.
I mean, both really nice coastal Florida cities that I enjoy very much. I’m a Florida boy, you know, through and through, so I love being by the ocean. So that similarity is very nice. But yeah, both cities have great people, and I’ve enjoyed living in both of them very much.
You’ve caught another Cuban American this year. Talk to us about the camaraderie between you and Nick and Nick Martinez.
He’s the best. He’s a fantastic teammate. It’s been a pleasure playing with him. He’s a lot of fun. He brings a lot of energy to the clubhouse and very vibrant Cuban roots, you can tell. So he’s very fun to be around, and he’s a great clubhouse leader.
How have Cubans contributed to the good start of this team? Because you have a couple of them on the roster.
Yeah, I mean we got one who is one of the best hitters in baseball. Yandy Diaz, he’s pretty impressive to watch and, yeah, it’s cool to see, you know, the island of Cuba being represented so well on this team. So thankful to have those guys on our team.
Do you have any goals for what’s left of the season?
Just keep winning. I mean, our team’s off to a good start. You know, we put ourselves in a good position to make a run here. Yeah, closing in on the halfway point of the season and then into the second half, we have put ourselves in a good spot to chase a postseason spot. So that’s basically the only goal, is to just continue to win, play well, and try to secure a postseason spot.