Aaron Civale Will Move to Bullpen as Brewers Add Jacob Misiorowski to Rotation

[Matthew Trueblood]

Freddy Peralta, Jose Quintana, Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick will all retain their spots in the Brewers starting rotation, with the arrival of Jacob Misiorowski rounding out the group. The odd man out will be Aaron Civale, last year's early-July starting reinforcement. Civale, who turns 30 on Thursday, has a 4.91 ERA in five starts this year, and is a free agent at season's end. Everyone else in the mix either has significantly outperformed him; is more important to the long-term future of the Brewers; or meets both of those criteria.

 

Presumably, Misiorowski will take the place on the roster of Easton McGee, whom the team recalled to replace the optioned Grant Anderson. With Civale, DL Hall and Aaron Ashby all in the pen, the Brewers now have one of the deepest groups of multi-inning relief options in the league. That figures to come in handy, since Patrick, Misiorowski and even (lately) Peralta are prone to short starts. One way or another, though, the pitching staff certainly got more talented—and Pat Murphy's job to manage it just got a hair more complicated.

View full rumor

[liveforoctober]

What a great problem to have.

[Matt]

I wonder if they work with Civale to find him a place where he can start. Can't imagine he's happy about being relegated to the bullpen in a contract year. I'd be more than fine dealing him for a low level lottery ticket given they'll have Myers, Henderson, Woody, Cortes, Gasser, and Rodriguuez for depth. 

[umphrey]

I am thinking they probably keep him in a long relief role so he could start again if needed, or get traded as a starter. If he can't make the cut as a top 5 starter for us, I don't think he will have any trade value, just a salary dump. Small chance they are going for a Drew Pomeranz style transformation (below average starter to good reliever) but I doubt it if he has already said he's mad about it. 

[Turning2]

Middle relief pen is largely a second set of starting rotation arms. And Woody coming back soon too.

[TURBO]

3 hours ago, Turning2 said:

 And Woody coming back soon too.

Is he?

[Turning2]

7 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Is he?

Supposedly. Yeah, who knows. Does it really matter at this point? Not sure that it does. 

[Sixtolezcano]

6 hours ago, Matt said:

I wonder if they work with Civale to find him a place where he can start. Can't imagine he's happy about being relegated to the bullpen in a contract year. I'd be more than fine dealing him for a low level lottery ticket given they'll have Myers, Henderson, Woody, Cortes, Gasser, and Rodriguuez for depth. 

Who really cares that Civale is upset. You go with the best 5 (or 6) and if he’s not one of them to bad. The Brewers don’t owe Civale anything.

[jay87shot]

With all the pitching needs around the league it just makes to much sense to trade him for a SS/3B or a prospect. Civale has shown to be a reliable 3-5 starter and his last starts have been good enough to get something back. With Henderson, Myers, CarRod in AAA and Woody, Cortes, and Gasser back at some point it makes too much sense to trade Civale. 

[edfunderburk]

1 hour ago, Sixtolezcano said:

Who really cares that Civale is upset. You go with the best 5 (or 6) and if he’s not one of them to bad. The Brewers don’t owe Civale anything.

Other than his $8M salary for 2025

[Frisbee Slider]

Civale is an above replacement level starting pitcher for a major league team, somewhere. He has been a good starting pitcher for half of his career. Probably not ever excellent but definitely good.

[Playing Catch]

14 hours ago, Sixtolezcano said:

Who really cares that Civale is upset. You go with the best 5 (or 6) and if he’s not one of them to bad. The Brewers don’t owe Civale anything.

I mean... that is one way to handle professional relationships. Purely as a transaction, with no meaning behind the months and months of hard work, and teamwork that people have invested in those relationships.

Why do we even bother thanking people in our day-to-day, transactional lives? After all, the waitstaff are being paid, aren't they?

I kid. I agree that it's usually in everyone's best interest for Civale to put on a brave face and do the job no one else wants to do, either. But the last time he came out of the pen was for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the Cape Cod League as a 20-year-old amateur.

I know that on paper, Civale moving to the pen looks like it could be the best idea, but I'd rather him start and then bring in guys that have experience coming out of the pen.

[Frisbee Slider]

30 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

I agree that it's usually in everyone's best interest for Civale to put on a brave face and do the job no one else wants to do, either

This demotion to the pen could cost him several million dollars. That’s rough by anyone’s standards.

[wibadgers23]

 

[Brewer77]

It makes a lot of sense for both parties, you just don’t often see public trade demands in baseball

[Matt]

A trade is the best outcome for everyone. Thank you for service, Aaron, and best of luck elsewhere.

[Sakatarama]

Sadly, I think he'll end up being DFA'd. Not enough production for that price, unless you're the Dodgers and you can, but I doubt they go this route.

[endaround]

Maybe the Brewers get lucky and Detroit is willing to take him to replace Jobe to fill in innings.

[markedman5]

No hard feelings…….i understand his viewpoint and I’m sure the brewers will try and accommodate him.

[folly412]

Trade would be best.  He's been pitching well enough to start.  We have a lot of depth.  Plenty in AAA, and eventually they're probably going to want to test Crow and Cornielle in AAA since they both need to be rostered next season.

[tmwiese55]

Generally dumb to have allowed this to leak.  I'm sure it was the agent.  But one would've thought the conversation could've been had that they're going to try and trade and that it would go well enough for the agent to keep quiet.   In the meantime, good chance you'll be needed again soon due to injury.  But only so much you can do

ETA: IKF in Pit is a close salary with him.  Pitt could hope for a good two months to re-trade at deadline or just take him for consistent mediocrity, maybe resign next year or if there's a way to get a pick back

[markedman5]

1 minute ago, tmwiese55 said:

Generally dumb to have allowed this to leak.  

The agent leaked it…….nothing you can do about that.

don’t think it’s a big deal……brewers were likely already shopping him……it’s not like teams can’t read the writing on the wall…….shedding the salary and getting a lottery ticket would seem to be a reasonable move.

[biedergb]

This is a problematic move.  I mean I get calling up Miz, but with the way the starting pitching has been going, you have a bunch of options here - 

1. Put Civale in the 'pen against his wishes, which is what they chose, and you get a trade request which immediately lowers his return (teams won't overpay for a guy who wants out).

2. Go with a 6 man rotation for a bit - try to get more innings out of each starter in the process knowing someone will have start skipped or a IL stint given what has been going on.

3. Piggyback him with a Priester or Miz and let Civale be an opener or a multi-inning piggyback starter.

I would think options 2 or 3 would have worked and bought time to see what develops while secretly shopping Civale or Quintana.

Options 4 - just trade any veteran, punt on this year and focus on 2026-2028 when most key players and prospects should be in the MLB and under contract.

[Playing Catch]

Firstly, Civale demanding a trade is hilarious to me.

With that said, I think he'll have pretty decent value. Surely better than a usual DFA-guy, solely in terms of production, anyway, I'm not considering his price tag.

I kinda think this artificially improves his trade value. He's available to pitch next week, and I think he would fit into the 5-man rotations for probably what? 24 teams or so?

[Outlander]

This is a little earlier than the Brewers traded for him last year but would think a trade would be possible versus a DFA, get some salary relief for a trade down the road.