Aaron Civale is getting his wish for a trade after resisting the Milwaukee Brewers‘ attempt to move him to the bullpen.
The Brewers are trading Civale to the Chicago White Sox for first baseman Andrew Vaughn, sources told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers on Friday.
The trade comes two days after the Brewers announced they were shifting Civale to the bullpen for the first time in his seven-year career. That was being done to make room for flame-throwing prospect Jacob Misiorowski in the Milwaukee rotation.
But Civale pushed back against the bullpen move, saying he wanted to continue starting, even if that meant getting traded. His agent, Jack Toffey, made the trade request to Brewers general manager Matt Arnold.
“We’re exploring the options to give me the chance to do what I do best, and that’s to go out there and start,” Civale said Thursday.
Civale (1-2, 4.91 ERA), who turned 30 on Thursday and is eligible for free agency after the season, was the odd man out when the Brewers opted to go with a rotation of Misiorowski, Freddy Peralta, Jose Quintana, Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick. Misiorowski tossed five scoreless innings in his major league debut Thursday to help the Brewers win 6-0 in the opener of a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Civale, with a 40-37 career record and a 4.06 ERA, said his last regular-season relief performance came in college at Northeastern.
“Whatever’s next, I’m not exactly sure what’s going on,” Civale said. “This is typically early in the season for a trade to go down, but I know what I can do. I think a lot of people know what I can do. Whatever the next steps are, they are. Go from there.”
Civale is now heading from a Brewers team that won the past two National League Central titles to a White Sox club that has lost more than 100 games each of the past two years and is already 21½ games back in the American League Central with a 23-46 record.
Vaughn, 27, was in his fifth season with the White Sox. He was hitting .189 with five home runs and 19 RBIs in 48 games this season before being sent to Triple-A Charlotte in May in hopes of getting him back on track.
Information from The Associated Press and Field Level Media was used in this report.
