Former beleaguered Guardians starter is turning career around with Athletics 

On Sunday, Aaron Civale got a chance to earn some revenge against the Cleveland Guardians. While it wasn’t the first start Civale had made against Cleveland since they traded him to the Rays during the 2023 season, it was one of his best. 

After the Guardians took the first two games of their weekend series against the Athletics, Civale helped turn the page by allowing one run over six innings in the A’s 7-1 win. 

It was another great start for Civale, who now has a 2.95 ERA in 36 2/3 innings across seven starts for an Athletics team that entered play on Tuesday leading the American League West. 

Aaron Civale has rebuilt his trade value with the Athletics 

While Civale was never the biggest name in the Guardians’ rotation during his five-year stint with the club, he was a mainstay in the rotation who peaked as the team’s No. 2 starter. 

Civale’s best season with the Guardians arguably came in his rookie season in 2019 when he posted a 2.34 ERA in 57 2/3 innings. Civale burst onto the scene by going six innings in the first four starts of his career and allowed just one run in 7 2/3 innings in his penultimate start of the year. 

He alternated between good and bad seasons in the four seasons since and had a 2.34 ERA in 77 innings through 13 starts with the Guardians in 2023 when the team decided to trade him to the Rays at the trade deadline for Kyle Manzardo (which has become one of the best trades in recent Guardians history). 

That trade kicked off a wild two-and-a-half year run where he posted a 4.67 ERA in 308 1/3 innings with four different teams. 

He was involved in two different trades and ended last season as a useful reliever out of the Chicago Cubs bullpen, which set up his one-year, $6 million contract with the Athletics. 

It’s been a match made in heaven, as Civale’s been able to rebuild his trade value despite pitching at the launching pad that’s Sutter Health Park, while the A’s are in a perfect spot to flip him at the trade deadline, should they choose. 

That said, Civale seems to be overachieving a bit, as he has an expected ERA of 4.19 while ranking in the 10th percentile or worse in average exit velocity (91.6 miles per hour), hard-hit rate (49.6%) and ground ball rate (29.4%). 

That theme played out in his start against the Guardians, as he allowed nine baserunners but only allowed one run on a Chase DeLauter solo home run. It’s hard to believe that’s not going to catch up to him eventually. 

But even if that regression comes, Civale has shown over the past 12 months that he can be a serviceable depth arm, whether it be in the bullpen or the back of the rotation. That’s a far cry from how the start of his time away from Cleveland went. 

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