When I volunteered to write the Andrew Vaughan exchange about the Aaron poll, I thought I would cover the most interesting deals of the month. At least, I thought I would launch the most interesting trading writing sky. Not that Civale and Vaughn are huge household names, but you often don’t see famous major leagues that traded each other in June. The trade season shouldn’t have begun yet! I looked back at the Fangraphs archive to find works involving the “Trade” tag for June deals. I found six other:
1. The Phillies received Jay Bruce from Jake Scheiner (2019) from the sailors.
2. The Yankees received Edwin Encarnación (2019) from Juan’s sailors.
3. The Blue Jays acquired Marlins Adam Cimber and Corey Dickerson from Joe Panik and Andrew McInvale (2021).
4. The sailors acquired Carlos Santana for Wyatt Mills and William Fleming (2022).
5. The Wanderer acquired Aroldis Chapman for Cole Ragans and Roni Cabrera (2023).
6. The Giants acquired Raphael Devs for Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks (2025).
And then, of course, you are now reading. Of the seven June deals we cover, four happened before the last week of the month: two in 2019 and two in the last 72 hours.
Do I feel like I’m no longer the biggest trade story of this month, a week or even a day? Is my story downgraded to a secondary position because of my own fault and my editor is not wrong? No, not true. But if I do, I can get in touch with Civale well. Last week, the brewer told the right-hander that he would move to the bullpen. Understandably, Civale was frustrated. He is in a walking year as a free agent and playing a long-term relief role may reduce his profit potential in the offseason. More importantly, he never worked out in the bullpen in his career, except for a playoff appearance last fall. Most importantly, he is still a fully capable back-end starting pitcher. His poor performance did not make him take turns to give. There are only five superior options for winemakers.
The brewery changed plates after it was injured last summer. Milwaukee has no untapped potential for unlocking rays or guardians in front, but it cannot be discovered, but it gets exactly what he needs. From July last year to the end of the regular season, he averaged five innings per game and scored no more than three runs in 12 of his 14 games. He did a great job of pitching against Milwaukee in 2025, especially when you ignore his first game of the season, and it’s almost certain that he was injured. His speed dropped, he gave up three home runs in three innings, and he landed on the IL the next day due to tight hamstrings. In addition to the outing, he started with 3.48 ERA, 4.61 FIP and 4.53 XFIP when he started with the winemaker in 2024-25. No one would confuse him as a trump card, but at any given time, the major leagues need about 150 starting pitchers. Civale should be one of them-maybe not with the brewer.
Indeed, the article has been on the Civauke wall in Milwaukee since the start of the season. He entered the year in his rotation job, but it is not clear how long it lasts. After spring training, the Brewers had four starters, besides being injured, and would lead the citizens in their depth list: Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Nester Cortez and Jose Quintana. If there was ever a little bit of four arms healthy, that would have Civale fight Tobias Myers to spin fifth. Civale is more experienced in the two, but Miles performed well in his rookie season and eventually beat Civale to start last year’s playoffs. Additionally, both of them may have to compete with the top 100 prospects of Jacob Misowelowski and Logan Henderson, among seniors and heading for their debut sometime later this season.
According to the brewer’s plan, things didn’t go away completely. In addition to Civale, Quintana and Myers also spent time on the IL, while Woodruff and Cortes were still there. Quintana is back again, but Myers struggles on his return and is sent to Triple-A in May. Despite this, Civale eventually found herself squeezed out of the picture. Rookie Chad Patrick is just as effective as the trade acquisition of Quinn Priester in mid-April. When Misiorowski got a call from the show last week, someone had to go, and Civale was a weird guy.
It’s easy to construct what happened next, because of some kind of dramatic fall: the brewer asked him to move to the bullpen to disrespect Civale; then, after Civale made the same disrespect when Civale publicly asked for a deal, the brewer took revenge and sent him to one of the worst teams in baseball. But, I’m glad to have the legal drama of Devers Trade to see it all as it all. The winemaker has not signed Civale for a long time and promised that he would be the starting pitcher. When he is no longer one of the five best starting options, they have the right to move him to the bullpen. Likewise, Civale has the right to be frustrated. When the brewer gave up on his lottery prospects last summer, he was the same pitcher, he was the pitcher last summer, and he was the same pitcher, they put him in $8 million in salary to make his rotation last winter. He is a starting pitcher and if the brewer has no starting job for him, then it is a perfectly reasonable requirement to ask for a deal. Brewers are obliged to see their trade as punishment, but the truth is that Civale will begin in Chicago. Even better, if he succeeds in Sox, he will likely be pitching for his contender again in six weeks.
It’s obvious what the White Sox gets from this arrangement. To be honest, thanks to Shane Smith’s All-Star performance, solid performances of Davis Martin, and successes of Adrian Houser and Mike Vasil, their rotations are better than you think. But Smith is a rookie and Martin has surpassed his previous career highs, and Houser’s track record and Vasil’s basic metrics suggest they should both make some serious return. Meanwhile, in-depth choices like Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon and Bryse Wilson don’t look promising. Even the filthiest basement residents need the innings, and the White Sox is excited to have veterans like Civale to help them keep their bullpens and avoid blowout losses. If he’s good enough, they can flip him into prospects by the deadline, just like they certainly want to do it with Martín Pérez before his injured elbow. If that isn’t the case, at least the White Sox can continue to beat him every five games to fill the situation they need in another losing season. He made his debut, throwing five innings and two rounds, hitting four, and losing 2-1 to the Rangers for four innings.
From the perspective of the brewer, they can get something Back to the pitchers, they no longer have jobs and therefore no longer want to be there. That was a victory. In addition to Peralta, Quintana, Patrick, Priester and Misiorowski, the brewers also have DL Hall and Aaron Ashby in the bullpen, Woodruff and Cortes, recovering from their efforts to get hurt, Henderson and Triple-A’s Myers. Give up the Civics still gets hit on their depth (you never have too much pitch), but that helps with flexibility. They don’t need another long man in the bullpen and can now use the active roster on the optional arms. Additionally, winemakers get some bench depth, and they need more than just pitching depth, but some salary relief. The remaining salary for the season and Vaughan’s remaining salary is about $1.24 million, and Milwaukee reportedly sent $807,000 to the White Sox as part of the deal. This means the team’s salary is about $430,000. The money should be negligible for a major league team, but again, the homebrewer has refused the ace to send him arbitration to save about $750,000, just a few years away from the ace.
As for Vaughn, the White Sox organization is almost certainly not inclined this winter. In other words, I don’t think the brewer is using him as a long-term project. This is not to say that a new starting point is useless. At this point, this may be exactly what he needs. But I was skeptical of the rewards, and I had to pay more than adding the bench and offsetting Civale’s salary – although I would be very happy for Vaughan if Vaughan proved me wrong.
In his first four years with the White Sox, Vaughan was about a league average hitter, hitting .253/.310/.415 with 72 home runs in 562 games. These are not just disappointing numbers, they are the numbers with the highest prospects in the past. They were almost unplayable numbers for a fielder, who ranked -18 OAA in first base and -23 OAA in the corner of the field. In short, such a bad defender needs Bats that exceed the league average at the defensive range and even at the farthest position to gain a place in the starting lineup.
Unfortunately for Vaughan, things will only get worse in 2025. He hit .189/.218/.314 in his first 48 games before being selected as Triple-A. The good news is that his struggles are more difficult than anything else. Before the relegation, only one qualified Al Hitter had a lower Babip, and his .321 Xwoba was nearly identical to the .319 tag he posted in each of the last three seasons. The biggest reason for worrying is that he has a walking rate of 3.6%, but the fact that he has gone 10 times in 15 games for minors suggests that this may be just a small sample size fluke. His career was 97 WRC+, and that’s the kind of work I’d expect again when he returned to the profession. The bad news for Vaughan is that brewers don’t have a roster. Christian Yelich has played almost exclusively in DH this season to keep him healthy, Milwaukee has put Rhys Hoskins in first base, and Jake Bauers first and Outfield Spots around the corner see the time. The brewers certainly wish they didn’t need to call at all. Still, an experienced bats have the league average bats and the weak front of the previous one stored in the injury isn’t the worst thing.
After six years at the White Sox organization, Vaughn hopes that changing the scenery can benefit him. If he thrives in Triple-A Nashville, he may end up contributing to the playoffs. Meanwhile, at this time, few players are more accustomed to changing scenery than Civale, who has traded three times in less than two years. It was the first time he hadn’t been traded to a contender, and the first time he hadn’t been in an organization that had a reputation for tilting up development, but he would continue to start playing for the team that really needed him. So this may not be the biggest deal of the month, but for all participants, it makes the most sense.
