The Athletics had seen enough. On July 16, Oakland designated right-hander Aaron Civale for assignment, cutting the 31-year-old loose after a $6 million free agent deal that started fine and ended in a full-blown collapse.
Athletics To Designate Aaron Civale For Assignment t.co/7jn3lZduUq
The stat line is brutal. Civale made 16 appearances for the A's, posting a 5.42 ERA over 74 and 2/3 innings, and he took the loss in all five of his outings since returning from a shoulder tendinitis stint that sidelined him from mid-May to June 17. That's 19 earned runs allowed in his last 19 innings of work — a stretch that made the move basically inevitable.
Righty Yunior Tur, a 6'6" flamethrower with a fastball touching 96 mph, takes Civale's spot on the active roster. Oakland is also reportedly calling up No. 7 prospect Tommy White from Las Vegas for his major league debut, so the DFA is really the first domino in a bigger roster shakeup as the trade deadline stretch heats up.
Veteran starter headed to DFA limbo after rough stint (but more encouraging home/road splits) with #Athletics: t.co/EjMzwOvvmp
That follow-up wasn't just piling on — it pointed to something real. Civale's home ERA at Sutter Health Park sat near 7.00 with hitters taking him deep at a rate of two homers per nine innings, but on the road he was a completely different pitcher: a 4.25 ERA and a 20% strikeout rate over 42 and 1/3 innings. That's the kind of split that makes a rebuilding club justify moving on rather than riding it out, but it's also the kind of split that could get another team interested during the 5-day DFA window.
Civale's stock has been all over the place since his breakout run in Cleveland years ago, and this Oakland stint was supposed to be a bounce-back after bouncing around Tampa Bay and Chicago. Instead it's now trending toward release and a minor league deal elsewhere if a trade partner doesn't emerge fast. For an A's team still hunting for stability in temporary digs, it's one more swing-and-miss on a veteran arm — but the road numbers mean this isn't the last anyone hears of him this summer.