Brewers and White Sox Swap Aaron Civale and Andrew Vaughn

When I volunteered to write about the Aaron Civale-for-Andrew Vaughn swap, I thought I was going to be covering the most interesting trade of the month. At the very least, I thought I’d be putting out the most interesting trade write-up of the day. It’s not that Civale and Vaughn are huge household names, but you don’t often see notable major leaguers traded for one another in June. Trade season isn’t supposed to have started yet! I looked back through the FanGraphs archives to find pieces with the “trade” tag that dealt with June transactions. I found six others:
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1. The Phillies acquired Jay Bruce from the Mariners for Jake Scheiner (2019).
2. The Yankees acquired Edwin Encarnación from the Mariners for Juan Then (2019).
3. The Blue Jays acquired Adam Cimber and Corey Dickerson from the Marlins for Joe Panik and Andrew McInvale (2021).
4. The Mariners acquired Carlos Santana for Wyatt Mills and William Fleming (2022).
5. The Rangers acquired Aroldis Chapman for Cole Ragans and Roni Cabrera (2023).
6. The Giants acquired Rafael Devers for Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks (2025).
Then, of course, there’s one you’re reading right now. Of those seven June trades we’ve covered, four took place before the last week of the month: the two from 2019 and the two from the past 72 hours.
Do I feel slighted that mine is no longer the biggest trade story of the month, the week, or even the day? That through no fault of my own and no fault of my editors’, my story has been relegated to a secondary position? No, not really. But if I did, I’d be able to relate quite well to Civale. Last week, the Brewers informed the right-hander he’d be moving to the bullpen. Civale was understandably upset. He’s in his free agent walk year, and moving to a long relief role could diminish his earning potential in the offseason. What’s more, aside from one postseason appearance last fall, he has never worked out of the bullpen in his professional career. Above all else, he remains a perfectly capable back-end starting pitcher. He didn’t cost himself a rotation spot with his poor performance; the Brewers simply had five superior options. Read the rest of this entry »