Andrew Vaughn dumped on the Brewers

White Sox trade a No. 3 overall pick for recently-bullpenned Milwaukee starter Aaron Civale

The White Sox finally said goodbye to Andrew Vaughn in an exchange that sends Vaughn to the Brewers for starting pitcher Aaron Civale, who requested a trade nearly 24 hours ago, and a reported $600,000. Civale will finish out his $8 million contract this year before he becomes a free agent.

The not-so-bitter but oh-so-sweet ending to the Vaughn saga ended with much to be desired. Vaughn slashed .189/.218/.314 with five home runs in 48 games with the Sox before being optioned to the Charlotte Knights on May 23. His hitting has shown little improvement in Triple-A, too, with a slash line of .211/.328/.351 and a pair of homers through 15 games.

Instead of wasting the rest of Vaughn’s $5.85 million contract this year and hanging onto the tiniest morsel of hope that Vaughn might magically evolve into the elite power hitter he was supposed to be (or outright non-tendering him, which surely in retrospect was the right move last offseason), the Sox decided to cut ties and finally pay attention to one of the glaring holes in their current 26-man roster: starting pitching.

With Civale in the back end of their rotation, the Sox will finally backfill Martín Pérez’s spot, which has been vacant since April 19. Civale has six years of experience in the majors with a career 40-37 record, 4.06 ERA, and 1.21 WHIP. He was just demoted to the bullpen after the call-up of heralded Milwaukee pitching Jacob Misiorowski and asked for a trade, which the Brewers accommodated one day after Civale’s 30th birthday.

While his 4.91 ERA and 5.53 FIP this year aren’t ideal, Civale’s proven history of replacement level-plus pitching should be enough to keep the Sox in more games than not. Paying an extra $1.5 million for a rental starter for the rest of the year is worth the price of admission over keeping a struggling Triple-A player whose time on the major league roster has passed.

Getting Vaughn off the books calls for a sigh of relief. Even if Civale is similar to or even worse than Bryse Wilson (the interim fifth starter, to everyone’s surprise, since Pérez was injured), it seemed like the Sox were going to go down with the Vaughn ship. No one expected a team would willingly pay to take Vaughn off Chicago’s hands.

Perhaps this is another one of Pope Leo’s miracles granted to the Sox, because being free of Vaughn’s contract is truly a surprise no one expected this year.