ARLINGTON, Texas — The White Sox acquired right-handed starter Aaron Civale and cash from the Brewers on Friday for first baseman Andrew Vaughn.
General manager Chris Getz said the organization had been doing a status check on Civale after learning that he had requested a trade from Milwaukee.
In his never-ending search for pitching, Getz sensed an opportunity and pulled it off. Shoring up the rotation was the impetus for the move.
“The spirit of it all is really about protecting our younger arms,” he said in a phone call with reporters Friday.
Vaughn, the No. 3 pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, leaves the Sox with 77 home runs and 293 RBI in 610 games over five seasons. He batted .189/.218/.314 in 48 games this season before being sent to Triple-A Charlotte.
“We do wish Andrew well,” Getz said. “He’s been a leader in our clubhouse. He’s been productive, and it’s my job to look out for the health of this organization, and we feel like this was a move to really support that.”
Acquiring Civale gives the Sox a veteran arm with a track record in the majors. He’s 40-37 with a 4.06 ERA in 122 starts over seven major-league seasons. He has pitched more than 100 innings three times in his career.
Starters Davis Martin, Shane Smith and Sean Burke already have surpassed their career highs in innings at the major-league level. Righty Jonathan Cannon is still recovering from a back strain, but the club expects him to go on a rehab assignment soon.
Getz wanted to get ahead of future injuries and instances where guys are nicked up.
“There’s upside in protecting our young arms, and we’ll see where Civale takes this opportunity,” Getz said. “We’re excited to have him.”
Entering play Friday, Sox starters have thrown the fourth-fewest innings in the majors. Because of the rotation’s inability to go deep in games, an already-thin bullpen was being relied on more than usual.
Civale, 30, will be in the rotation. He has a 4.91 ERA in 22 innings in five starts this season. He requested a trade from the Brewers after they removed him from the rotation to make room for prospect Jacob Misiorowski.
The Sox have four healthy starters: Burke, Martin, Smith and righty Adrian Houser. Getz said this trade is not connected to Cannon’s injury, so the Sox could have six starters when all are healthy. Civale already voiced displeasure about being moved to a bullpen role in Milwaukee, but Getz isn’t worried about accommodating his new pitcher.
“It gives us options to get a little creative in regard to a six-man rotation or opportunities to skip starts,” Getz said. “More than anything, it’s someone that can come in and will be starting for us; we don’t question that. It’s just a matter of being able to keep the rest of our starting group healthy the remainder of the year.”
Manager Will Venable has experimented with openers as a mechanism to get starters deeper into games, so the club has been open to finding creative solutions to get through games.
“We believe that there are quality innings in there,” Getz said. ”Any evaluator around the league would agree that it would be nice to have an Aaron Civale as part of your pitching staff.”