Brewers RHP Aaron Civale requests trade after shift to bullpen

Right-hander Aaron Civale was bumped from the Milwaukee Brewers’ rotation, and now he wants to be traded from the club.
Civale’s spot in the rotation was taken by top prospect Jacob Misiorowski, who was summoned from Triple-A Nashville to make his MLB debut against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. Milwaukee also features Freddy Peralta, rookie Chad Patrick, Quinn Priester and Jose Quintana in its starting rotation.
Shortly after the team informed Civale that he was moving to the bullpen, his agent, Jack Toffey, made the request to Brewers general manager Matt Arnold.
“The conversation was very professional,” Toffey said Thursday, per The Athletic. “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.”
Toffey said Civale is merely examining his options.
“Aaron is not angry or banging his fist on the table,” Toffey said. “But it’s a little confusing because he did not pitch his way out of the rotation whatsoever. It’s more of a subjective choice the organization is making.”
Brewers manager Pat Murphy had a different take about Civale’s move to the bullpen.
“He’s not happy,” Murphy said, per the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
“Throughout his career, he’s been a successful starter in the major leagues, he helped us last year. He’s been fine. … Even though he’s never done it, we think he can handle that. You look at Civale’s third-time-around numbers, he might be better suited on this year’s team right now, to disrupt everything else less, if he can be in that long relief role.”
Civale, who turned 30 on Thursday, has recorded all 122 of his regular-season appearances as a starter. He did come out of the bullpen in a Game 1 loss of the 2024 National League wild-card series against the New York Mets, throwing three scoreless innings.
Civale is 1-2 with a 4.91 ERA in five starts this season with Milwaukee.
He is 40-37 with a 4.06 ERA in his career with Cleveland (2019-23), the Tampa Bay Rays (2023-24) and Brewers, who traded for him last July.
“He’s a guy that was a very helpful part to our team last year,” Arnold said of Civale. “We traded for him, he’s done a nice job here coming back off of injury. He’s done nothing wrong here, certainly, and I think that he’ll continue to get chances.
“And things can change. We used how many, 17, different starters last year? There’s always something that can happen where he can slide back into that role and he’s proven he can do that at a high level in the major leagues and especially here.
“Right now, we think it’s the right move for him and the team.”