diff --git a/src/babel/transformation/file/index.js b/src/babel/transformation/file/index.js
index c053910ad8..41250e8773 100644
--- a/src/babel/transformation/file/index.js
+++ b/src/babel/transformation/file/index.js
@@ -241,7 +241,10 @@ export default class File {
     var plugin;
 
     if (name) {
-      if (typeof name === "string") {
+      if (typeof name === "object" && name.transformer) {
+        plugin = name.transformer;
+        position ||= name.position;
+      } else if (typeof name === "string") {
         // this is a plugin in the form of "foobar" or "foobar:after"
         // where the optional colon is the delimiter for plugin position in the transformer stack