Aguilar to the Rays, Creates Only Questions

by
July 31, 2019

The Rays and Brewers have swapped players with the Rays getting first baseman Jesus Aguilar and the Brewers adding reliever Jake Faria. Here’s my take on who gains the most value from now to end-of-season in redraft leagues.

Travis Shaw/Eric Thames: Not sure what is going on here. The Brewers are left with two left-handed bats for the first base job. I think both become two-thirds time plays with both splitting time at first and Thames playing in the outfield especially with Ryan Braun needing rest Lorenzo Cain getting banged up. Shaw could play around the infield once a week as he did before his demotion.

Jake Faria: Who cares? He was a decent middle reliever for Tampa and will be a decent middle reliever for the Brewers. The Brewers may try him in the rotation (career 4.27 ERA, 4.63 FIP starting) so he may become deep streamer in the future.

Any hitter on the Rays including Aguilar: No freaking idea. None. Zip. Zero. Every week before I analyze the Rays lineup, I feel I need shot or two of shine to get my courage up to untangle the mess. It’s even more of a mess right with the addition of Eric Sogard and Aguilar. Since it’s impossible to figure out what happened looking backward, I’m going to take the weak and cowardly approach and not even try looking ahead.

For now, the only Rays players who need to be started in mixed leagues are Tommy Pham (when healthy), Austin Meadows, Travis d’Arnaud, and Willy Adames (barely). Sadly, the rest are just gambles.

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Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

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carterMember since 2020
6 years ago

I agree that this is a horrible trade for fantasy, since there is an absolute glutton of players at every single position on the Rays. Basically it seems like they don’t want to start anyone everyday, or even close to it, and platoon everyone. I was a bit surprised that Adames was a guy listed as a guy who should be owned as he has been downright horrible. edit now I noticed the barely. I guess in AL only or something. I think both the Lowes should be owned, probably.

2
viceroyMember since 2020
6 years ago
Reply to  carter

Avi Garcia has been pretty consistent this year too

1
carterMember since 2020
6 years ago
Reply to  viceroy

Agreed. I own him in NFBC main, and this trade concerns me, as he was getting a fair amount of DH at bats.

0
RonnieDobbs
6 years ago
Reply to  carter

Agreed that they actually are looking to platoon people. They are all about increasing the odds for winning every game. I would argue that it comes at the cost of developing players, but they seem to relish the micromanagement.

0