Brewers bring back Jordan Lyles in trade with Pirates, DFA Marcos Diplan

That didn’t take long.

Shortly after it was reported the Brewers were hoping to make multiple trades before this year’s deadline to help out a hurting pitching staff, David Stearns made his first move — reportedly bringing Jordan Lyles back to Milwaukee in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Lyles got off to a very good start in the Pirates’ rotation with a 3.68 ERA through June 8th before getting hurt and having a very rough month of July. He’s allowed 7 earned runs twice against the Cubs since returning and only lasted 1.2 innings while giving up 8 runs (5 earned) in his last appearance as a Pirate. He’s striking out more batters than ever before — 90 in 82.1 innings for a 9.8 K/9 so far — but has struggled with allowing baserunners.

Lyles did show flashes out of the Brewers’ bullpen late last year, to the point of many wishing the Brewers hadn’t let him go in the offseason. Now that he’s back, he could potentially help in the short-term as a starter — he was scheduled to start for Pittsburgh tonight — or shift back to the bullpen after covering one of the starts in Oakland.

In return, the Brewers are giving up Cody Ponce, who has found success this year in the bullpen. As a 25-year-old in Biloxi, though, time was running out, and as J.P. Breen notes, the Brewers likely would have had to make a decision on him in the offseason.

It’s a small move to start, and likely one we would have seen in August instead of July if that trade deadline still existed, but the Brewers seem to have at least found a short-term stopgap while they potentially negotiate other deals.

UPDATE:

It’s now Twitter Official.

To make room for Lyles on the 40-man roster, the Brewers have designated Marcos Diplan for assignment. Diplan was part of the return the Brewers got for Yovani Gallardo in 2015, along with Corey Knebel and Luis Sardinas. Diplan has a 4.99 ERA in 30 games (5 starts) this year as a 22-year-old in Biloxi.