It’s been a busy week for the Milwaukee Brewers front office, who completed a series of moves to reshape their roster heading into the All-Star break on Friday.
The first domino fell when the club called up top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski and his 103mph fastball earlier this week. Across 63.1IP at the Triple-A level, Misiorowski complied a 2.13 ERA to go along with 80 strikeouts, leaving little left to prove to scouts in the minor leagues.
The rookie’s arrival however meant that the Brewers would need to move one of their current starters to the bullpen to make room in the rotation. That pitcher wound up being RHP Aaron Civale, and to say that he took the news from GM Matt Arnold poorly is an understatement.
Civale, who has always been a starting pitcher at the MLB level, and his agent Jack Toffey promptly informed the team that if he was going to be converted into a reliever, they would be requesting a trade.
“This is not a situation where I’m trying to leave this team,” Civale said Thursday. “All the guys are great. Coaching staff is great. The players are great. I love competing with all of them, just I feel like I still have more to contribute and more to give to this game, and I feel I’m best suited to do that as a starting pitcher.”
“The conversation was very professional,” Toffey told reporters. “I just very respectfully said that Aaron would really like an opportunity to continue his career as a starter. He’s going to be a free agent at the end of the year.”
Meanwhile, that still left Misiorowski with a start to complete against the Cardinals on Thursday in the midst of some freshly aired clubhouse drama. The 6’7″ righty rewarded Milwaukee’s front office for their faith in him by tossing 5 innings of shutout ball, along with 5 strikeouts to earn his first career MLB win.
He was so dominant in fact, that he actually left the game with a no-hitter intact, though the 23 year old told reporters afterwards he wasn’t aware when he departed that his no-no was still in place.
“I had no clue,” Misiorowski said following his team’s 6-0 victory. “I thought one of the popups landed.”
Misiorowski would leave the game under duress after his foot landed awkwardly on the front of the mound in the sixth inning. The Brewers would call it “cramping” in his right calf and quad areas, but fans of the Brew-Crew were rightfully concerned that their star prospect could be on the shelf before he even completed his first start.
Luckily, additional testing revealed no long term damage was done, paving the way for the front office to pull the trigger on a Civale focused trade. The 30 year old, who sports a 4.91 ERA, and 1-2 record, was dealt to the struggling Chicago White Sox on Friday, along with cash, in exchange for former first round selection Andrew Vaughn.
Vaughn, who is currently batting .189 on the year with 9 runs, 5HRs, and 19 RBIs will report to Triple-A Nashville for the time being. Currently making $5.85M this season, the right handed bat provides some depth in the event Milwaukee suffers a rash of injuries, but outside of that is largely a non-tender candidate unless he’s able to turn things around in the minor leagues.
Civale now heads from a team that won the NL Central the last 2 years, to a White Sox club who are still years away from being a legitimate contender. Luckily for the veteran hurler, he’s slated to become a free agent at season’s end, and will likely see as many innings to showcase his talents to potential suitors as he can handle in Chicago.
Completing the flurry of moves on Friday, Milwaukee recalled RHP Grant Anderson and OF Drew Evans from Triple-A. In a corresponding move, they then placed OF Daz Cameron on the paternity list.
The Brewers are now a half game clear of St. Louis at 37-33 on the year, but still have some work to do to catch the division leading Cubs who have a 5.5 game cushion heading into Friday’s slate of games. Up next for Milwaukee is an 8:10pm ET rematch with the Cardinals.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.