Brewers' Civale requests trade after bullpen demotion

Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Aaron Civale asked for a trade after being removed from the starting rotation in favor of top prospect Jacob Misiorowski.

"The conversation was very professional," Civale's agent, Jack Toffey, said Thursday after speaking to Brewers general manager Matt Arnold, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. "I just very respectfully said that Aaron would really like an opportunity to continue his career as a starter. He's going to be a free agent at the end of the year."

Toffey added that Arnold told him Milwaukee was "exploring options."

Civale owns a 4.91 ERA with 1.36 WHIP and 19 strikeouts over 22 innings (five starts) this season. He's been a starter over his entire seven-year career, logging 658 1/3 innings (122 starts) between the Cleveland Guardians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Brewers.

"Aaron is not angry or banging his fist on the table," Toffey said. "But it's a little confusing because he did not pitch his way out of the rotation whatsoever. It's more of a subjective choice the organization is making."

Civale, who celebrated his 30th birthday Thursday, praised both the Brewers organization and the city of Milwaukee. However, he defended his desire to remain a starter, whether in Wisconsin or elsewhere.

"I'm not trying to leave this organization," Civale said, according to Steve Megargee of The Associated Press. "I'm in a position physically where I feel like I can contribute best as a starting pitcher. Right now, that's not in my plans here. That's not to say that can't change, but the reason that would change is not necessarily a good thing. That means something happened to somebody else."

"This is not a situation where I'm trying to leave this team," he added. "The other guys are great. The coaching staff's great. The players are great. I really love competing with all of them. It's just I feel like I still have more to contribute and more to this game, and I feel like I'm best suited to do that as a starting pitcher. I've worked very hard to get to this position."

Manager Pat Murphy said he was "not surprised" by his pitcher's trade request and believes that Civale won't let the situation affect his pitching as long as he remains in a Brewers uniform.

"We deal with players being unhappy all the time, and that's their right to do. Aaron's got a great history, and he's performed well for this organization, so he's got a right to feel the way he wants to feel," Murphy told reporters, according to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. "But now it's time for him to go behave. ... I'm confident he will behave well."

Civale concurred with his manager, noting he'll do "what's asked" of him as a reliever for the time being, per Megargee.

Civale is earning $8 million in 2025.