A year ago, Jesús Aguilar took the starting first base job in Milwaukee away from Eric Thames, hitting 35 homers and posting a 135 wRC+ as the Brewers rolled to a division title. This year, Aguilar’s struggles opened the job back up for Thames; Aguilar has been relegated to the weak side of a platoon. A strong month of July in part-time duty wasn’t enough to play him back into a starting role with the Brewers, but it was enough to get the Tampa Bay Rays interested and willing to part with a pitcher the Brewers can use for their own pennant drive. As first reported by Jeff Passan:

Brewers Receive

• RHP Jake Faria

Rays Receive

• 1B Jesús Aguilar

For the Rays, the need for a right-handed bat is obvious. The left-handed Austin Meadows and Nathaniel Lowe have been getting starts at first base and designated hitter against lefties, with Ji-Man Choi only playing against righties and catcher Travis D’Arnaud getting time at first as well. Aguilar and his righty bat should be able to relieve some of the poor matchups the Rays have found themselves in. Aguilar has bad splits against lefties this season, but that’s more likely a product of generally hitting poorly and some randomness than weird reverse platoon splits. And while his 2019 performance has been wanting, with an 82 wRC+, he’s shown some signs of putting things together over the last month, as the rolling wRC+ graph shows.

Aguilar been more aggressive of late, lowering his walk and strikeout totals, so it is hard to know if his run over the last month will hold. He should get opportunities in Tampa and if he hits well enough, he’ll be relatively inexpensive over the next few years; he isn’t arbitration eligible until 2020. Meanwhile, moving Faria allows the Rays to begin to address the 40-man roster crunch that Eric and Kiley highlighted yesterday.

As for the Brewers, the team needs pitching and Jake Faria is a pitcher. The righty debuted in 2017 with the Rays and put together an encouraging season with a 4.12 FIP and 3.43 ERA across 86.2 innings and 16 appearances, 14 of which were starts. He missed a month with a strained abdomen, but made the Rays rotation out of spring in 2018. A decent April gave way to a rough May, before Faira then missed several months with a strained oblique. He then played the role of mediocre swingman in August and September.

This year, Faria has bounced back and forth between Triple-A and the majors, making seven appearances, accumulating 10 innings, 11 strikeouts, and seven walks, while giving up two homers and three runs total. Throwing in shorter stints, Faria’s fastball velocity has ticked up into the mid-90s. He throws that pitch a majority of the time, also mixing in a split/change and a slider. He’s a fly ball pitcher, which could make things tough for him in Milwaukee, but he might miss enough bats to help the team.

For the rest of this season, Faria looks like a bullpen piece for the Brewers, but at 26 years old, with likely five more years of team control and a history of starting, Milwaukee could try him in the rotation again next spring.

This is hardly a major move for either club as they fight for their playoff lives, but its one that marginally improves both sides in areas of need while moving depth at areas of strength.