This White Sox misstep shows how much of an advantage Guardians have in AL Central

This past June, the Chicago White Sox added to their pitching depth by trading for Aaron Civale from the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Even if Civale had a 4.91 ERA at the time of the trade, he’s been a successful major league pitcher in the past and was a familiar face due to the 4 1/2 seasons that he spent with the Guardians. In return, they gave up Andrew Vaughn, who they drafted with the No. 3 pick in the 2019 MLB Draft but was hitting just .189 at the time of the trade and was the poster child for the team’s failures in the 2020s. 

It’s a trade that continues to look worse and worse by the day. Civale ended up being an abject disaster with the White Sox and he finished the season with the Cubs, who included him on their postseason roster. 

Meanwhile, Vaughn hit .308 with the Brewers and just helped send them to the National League Championship Series with a go-ahead home run in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

Even if the White Sox are (theoretically) getting better, the ramifications of their ill-fated trade from earlier this summer are a prime example as to why the Guardians are still light years ahead of them in the American League Central. 

Andrew Vaughn’s postseason performance shows why the White Sox are nowhere near the Guardians 

After coming up in Chicago’s farm system, Vaughn made his major league debut in 2021 on a White Sox team that ended up winning the American League Central and making it to the American League Division Series. 

That ended up being the high point of his White Sox tenure. While he hit 21 home runs and had 80 RBI in 2023, it didn’t translate to any team success. That reached a crescendo earlier this year when he hit just .189 in 48 games. He was also “worth” -1.8 bWAR, making him one of the worst players in major league baseball. 

And then he got to Milwaukee and hit .365 with five home runs in July. While Vaughn has cut down on his chase rate since joining the Brewers (career-low 14.6% strikeout rate), he hasn’t undergone some huge overhaul since joining the Brewers — it just seems like he’s in a better spot and is doing more with pitches in the zone. 

Vaughn’s streakiness still carried over to Milwaukee (he hit just .250 in August), but by and large he’s looked like a different player and has already become a postseason hero. And the White Sox gave him up for essentially nothing not long after sending him to Triple-A. 

No front office is perfect (the Guardians have made their fair share of trades they’d like to take back), but a trade like this is emblematic of an organization in disarray. Even if the White Sox were better in 2025 (not hard to do when you set the record for losses the year prior), they’re at a point where they should be stockpiling players like Vaughn, not giving them away for a veteran pitcher who was so bad he needed to be let go. 

Vaughn’s going to be a staple of the Brewers’ NLCS roster, which means he should have plenty of chances to pick up a big hit against the Dodgers. And, if he does, it’ll be a reminder of the gap of success between the Guardians and White Sox.