The Tampa Bay Rays came into the final day of the trade deadline with some clear needs and they filled them with the type of “buy low” names that they acquire so often.
It wasn’t until the afternoon when the Rays made their first splash of the day when they acquired 1B Jesus Aguilar from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for RHP Jake Faria.
Aguilar, who just turned 29 in June, is coming off of his first All-Star campaign where he slashed .274/.352/.539 while hitting 35 home runs and racking up 108 RBI.
Unfortunately, that same magic that Aguilar found last year has not carried over into this year. He is currently slashing .225/.320/.374 with only eight home runs and 34 RBI in only 52 starts this season. He is, however, hitting .311 (14-45) since July 5th in eight starts.
Aguilar is under team control until 2023.
It wasn’t until after 4pm that a whirlwind of trades happened, including the Rays acquisitions of RHP Trevor Richards and RHP Nick Anderson from the Miami Marlins for RHP Ryne Stanek and OF Jesus Sanchez. (Trades are filed before the 4pm deadline, but often not approved and reported until after the official deadline).
And just like that, the Rays add the pitching that they needed.
With all of the injuries to the staff that the Rays have had to deal with they desperately needed to add some MLB ready arms, and they did that with Richards. While the numbers don’t look great on the surface for Richards, when you watch him pitch you can see flashes of what a team like the Rays would like from the 26-year-old.
Think Tyler Glasnow.
Now I’m not telling you that Trevor Richards has the same skill set of Tyler Glasnow, but the Rays have this way of getting the best out of players that they acquire and I don’t see why Richards would be any different.
Currently sporting a 3-12 record with a 4.50 ERA, Richards was recently moved to the Marlins bullpen where he’s thrown three scoreless innings. Regarded as owning one of, if not the best changeup in all of baseball, it’ll be very interesting to see what magic Kyle Snyder will get out of Richards.
Anderson, 29, is getting his first taste of major league action. He’s 2-4 with a 3.92 ERA in 43.2 innings of work out of the bullpen. In those 43.2 innings, Anderson struck out 69 batters which is good for tied for fourth among NL relievers.
Richards and Anderson are both until team control until 2025.
Some other minor deals
The Rays acquired minor-league OF Niko Hulsizer from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for LHP Adam Kolarek.
The Rays also acquired minor-league C Rocky Gale from the Los Angeles Dodgers for cash considerations.
And lastly the Rays traded minor-league OF Joe McCarthy to the San Francisco Giants for minor-league LHP Jacob Lopez.
