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:

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).

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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.

The Brewers traded for Civale last summer after injuries decimated their rotation. Milwaukee didn’t unlock any untapped potential that the Rays, or the Guardians before them, weren’t able to discover, but it got exactly what it needed from him. He averaged five-plus innings per start with the Brewers last year from July through the end of the regular season, and allowed no more than three earned runs in 12 of his 14 starts. He pitched similarly well for Milwaukee in 2025, especially if you ignore his first start of the season, when he was almost certainly playing with an injury. His velocity was down, he gave up three home runs in three innings, and he landed on the IL with a hamstring strain the very next day. Excluding that outing, he pitched to a 3.48 ERA, 4.61 FIP, and 4.53 xFIP over 18 starts with the Brewers from 2024-25. No one would confuse him for an ace, but the major leagues require roughly 150 starting pitchers at any given time. Civale deserves to be one of them – just maybe not with the Brewers.

Indeed, the writing has been on the wall for Civale in Milwaukee since the start of this season. He came into the year with a job in the rotation, but it was never clear how long that would last. As of spring training, the Brewers had four starters who, injuries aside, would be ahead of Civale on their depth chart: Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Nestor Cortes, and Jose Quintana. If there were ever a point when all four of those arms were healthy, that would leave Civale fighting with Tobias Myers for the fifth spot in the rotation. Civale is the more experienced of the two, but Myers was excellent in his rookie season and ended up beating out Civale for a start in last year’s playoffs. In addition, both of them would probably have to contend with Top 100 prospects Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson, who were in the high minors and progressing toward a debut sometime later in the season.

Things haven’t exactly gone according to plan for the Brewers. In addition to Civale, Quintana and Myers have spent time on the IL, while Woodruff and Cortes are still there. Quintana is back in the rotation, but Myers struggled upon his return and was sent down to Triple-A in May. Nonetheless, Civale eventually found himself squeezed out of the picture. Rookie Chad Patrick has been surprisingly effective, as has mid-April trade acquisition Quinn Priester. When Misiorowski earned his call to the show last week, someone had to go, and Civale was the odd man out.

It would be easy to frame what happened next as some sort of dramatic falling out: The Brewers disrespected Civale by asking him to move to the bullpen; then, after Civale responded with equal disrespect when he publicly demanded a trade, the Brewers took their revenge and sent him to one of the worst teams in baseball. Yet, I’m glad to have the legitimate drama of the Devers trade to put this all in perspective. The Brewers did not sign Civale to a long-term, face-of-the-franchise-type extension with the promise that he would be a starting pitcher. They had every right to move him to the bullpen when he was no longer one of their five best starting options. Similarly, Civale had every right to be upset. He’s the same pitcher he was when the Brewers gave up a lottery ticket prospect to add him to their rotation last summer, and he’s the same pitcher he was when they tendered him an $8 million salary to keep him in their rotation last winter. He is a starting pitcher, and if the Brewers didn’t have a starting job for him, asking for a trade was a perfectly reasonable request. The Brewers obliged, and while a trade to the lowly White Sox could be perceived as a punishment, the fact of the matter is Civale will get to start in Chicago. Even better, if he succeeds with the Sox, there’s a strong chance he’ll be pitching for a contender again in another six weeks.

It’s pretty clear what the White Sox are gaining from this arrangement. Truth be told, their rotation has been better than you might think, thanks to an All-Star-worthy performance by Shane Smith, a solid showing from Davis Martin, and the recent success of Adrian Houser and Mike Vasil. However, Smith is a rookie, Martin has already surpassed his previous career high in innings, and Houser’s track record and Vasil’s underlying metrics suggest they’re both due for some serious regression. Meanwhile, depth options like Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon, and Bryse Wilson haven’t looked promising. Even the dwellers of the dingiest basements need innings, and the White Sox will be glad to have a veteran like Civale to help them preserve their bullpen and avoid blowout losses. If he pitches well enough, they can flip him for a prospect ahead of the deadline, much like they were surely hoping to do with Martín Pérez before he injured his elbow. If not, at least the White Sox can continue to run him out every five games to fill the innings they need to fill in another losing season. He came as advertised in his debut, tossing five innings of two-run ball, striking out four and walking four in a 2-1 loss to the Rangers.

From the Brewers’ perspective, they were able to get something back for a pitcher they no longer had a job for and who therefore no longer wanted to be there. That’s a win. In addition to Peralta, Quintana, Patrick, Priester, and Misiorowski, the Brewers have DL Hall and Aaron Ashby in the bullpen, Woodruff and Cortes working their way back from injury, and Henderson and Myers at Triple-A. Giving up Civale is still a hit to their depth (you can never have too much pitching), but it helps with flexibility. They didn’t need another long man in the bullpen, and they can now use that active roster spot on an optionable arm instead. In addition, the Brewers received some bench depth, which they needed more than pitching depth, and a little bit of salary relief. The difference between the remaining salaries of Civale and Vaughn for the season is roughly $1.24 million, and Milwaukee reportedly sent $807,000 to the White Sox as part of the deal. That means the team offloaded approximately $430,000 in salary. That amount of money should be negligible to a major league team, but then again, it’s only been a couple of years since the Brewers spurned their ace by taking him to arbitration to save about $750,000.

As for Vaughn, the former third-overall pick and top prospect in the White Sox organization is almost certain to be non-tendered this winter. In other words, I don’t think the Brewers are taking him on as a long-term project. That’s not to say a fresh start can’t help him; at this point, it could be exactly what he needs. However, I’m skeptical this return is about anything more than adding a bench piece and offsetting Civale’s salary – though I’d be very happy for Vaughn if he proves me wrong.

Over his first four years with the White Sox, Vaughn was roughly a league-average hitter, slashing .253/.310/.415 with 72 home runs in 562 games. Those weren’t just disappointing numbers from a former top prospect; they were almost unplayable numbers for a fielder who racked up -18 OAA at first base and -23 OAA in the outfield corners. Simply put, such a poor defender at even the positions furthest down the defensive spectrum needs to be more than a league-average bat to warrant a spot in a starting lineup.

Unfortunately for Vaughn, things only got worse in 2025. He hit .189/.218/.314 with a 44 wRC+ over his first 48 games before he was optioned to Triple-A. The good news is his struggles were more the result of tough luck than anything else. Prior to his demotion, only one qualified AL hitter had a lower BABIP, while his .321 xwOBA was almost identical to the .319 mark he posted in each of the last three seasons. The biggest cause for concern was his meager 3.6% walk rate, but the fact that he’s already walked 10 times in 15 games in the minors suggests that was probably just a small-sample-size fluke, too. He has a career 97 wRC+, and that’s the kind of production I’d expect from him again when he makes his way back to the majors. The bad news for Vaughn is the Brewers don’t have a roster spot for him. Christian Yelich is almost exclusively playing DH this season in an attempt to keep him healthy, and Milwaukee already has Rhys Hoskins at first base and Jake Bauers seeing time at first and in the corner outfield spots. The Brewers are surely hoping they don’t need to call up Vaughn at all. Still, an experienced hitter with a league-average bat and a faint glimmer of former top-prospect upside is hardly the worst thing to have stored away in case of injury.

After six years in the White Sox organization, Vaughn will hope a change of scenery can do him some good. If he thrives at Triple-A Nashville, he could end up contributing to a postseason race. Meanwhile, few players are more used to changing scenery at this point than Civale, who has now been traded three times in less than two years. This is the first time he hasn’t been traded to a contender, and the first time he hasn’t been in an organization with a great reputation for pitching development, but he’ll get to continue starting ballgames for a team that really needs him. So, this might not be the biggest trade of the month, but it’s the trade that makes the most sense for all involved.