The Philadelphia Phillies should be searching every nook and cranny in their quest to add starting pitching. The precipitous decline of Aaron Nola and the unmitigated disaster that was Andrew Painter’s rookie season have left the club in desperate need of a hurler or two who can chew through innings. That could mean taking a chance on another team’s castoff, and that opportunity may have just presented itself when the Athletics gave up on veteran Aaron Civale.
Civale has bounced around plenty during his eight-year big league career, having spent time in Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, both sides of Chicago, and now Sacramento with the Athletics. The 31-year-old has a middling 4.26 lifetime ERA in 156 contests, but has gotten there through a series of peaks and valleys.
In his five years in Cleveland, Civale worked to a rock solid 3.77 ERA, and was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023 straight up for top prospect Kyle Manzardo. Things unraveled from there, as he put up an atrocious 5.17 mark in 27 games with the Rays before being unceremoniously dumped to the Brewers.
He picked things up with the Brew Crew by posting a 3.84 ERA, but cratered once again after a trade to the White Sox where he put up a 5.37 mark. He then shined again in a brief five-game look with the Cubs to finish last season, which prompted the A’s to scoop him up this past winter on a one-year, $6 million pact.
Unfortunately, the Connecticut native was lit up during his stint wearing green and gold, as he yielded an atrocious 5.42 ERA across 16 appearances. That continues the up-and-down trend over Civale’s career, as he’s been excellent in one uniform and unplayable in the next.
Aaron Civale isn't a sure thing, but he's a flier worth taking for the Phillies
Quite frankly, there’s not much evidence that a turnaround is coming for the right-hander, as his fastball sits around 91 and his offspeed pitches have been hammered by opposing hitters. And yet, would he really be worse than what the Phillies currently have?
Franchise icon Aaron Nola may be here to stay due to his albatross contract, but his 5.68 ERA is somehow worse than Civale’s and Nola has surrendered a National League-leading 23 home runs to Civale’s 16. Swingman Alan Rangel currently occupies the fifth spot in the rotation, but is routinely being pulled after less than five innings and subsequently killing the bullpen with overuse.
Rangel is only in that situation because of Painter’s epic faceplant in his first crack at the majors. There’s no question that Civale, while not great in his own right, would be a massive upgrade over what Painter had given the Phillies earlier this year, and he at least has some big league success to his credit.
Bringing in Aaron Civale will not fix the Phillies’ pitching issues. A guy with a Jekyll and Hyde career arc is probably not going to be starting a playoff game for a team with World Series aspirations. However, that team needs to make its way through 68 more regular season games before the postseason, and there are worse ways to take down innings than with an experienced arm who has shown flashes of brilliance in the past.
Add us as a preferred source on Google