The Brewers right-hander to the bullpen yesterday in order to accommodate the promotion of top prospect . At the time, skipper Pat Murphy openly acknowledged that Civale an impending free agent whos never made a relief appearance in the majors or minors was not happy about the role change. Le s than 24 hours later, that Civale has requested a trade. Civales agent, Jack Toffey, tells Rosenthal and Sammon that the conversation he had with the Brewers baseball operations staff was very profe sional and that Civale would prefer to continue his career as a starter, especially with free agency on the horizon. Its an understandable position, particularly since Civale has generally been pitching well out of the rotation recently. The 30-year-old righty landed on the injured list due to a hamstring strain after one start this season but has returned with 19 innings of 3.32 ERA ball. Hes fanned 21.3% of his opponents against a 7.5% walk rate in that time and hasnt allowed more than two runs in any of those Jeferson Quero Jersey four appearances. The Brewers bought low on Civale last year. Hed gotten out to a rocky start to the 2024 campaign with Tampa Bay but righted the ship upon his trade to Milwaukee. In 14 starts over the seasons final three months, Civale logged a 3.53 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. Coupled with this years five starts, hes pitched 96 innings as a Brewer and turned in a 3.84 earned run average with a 20.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate all solid numbers for any teams fourth or fifth starter. Civale has generally averaged five innings per start, but thats due in large part to the Brewers own tendency to hook their pitchers quickly. Milwaukee lets pitchers face opponents a third time in a game le s often than all but one other team in baseball (Miami), and Civales career splits the second and third trip through a batting order are nearly identical; opponents hit him at a .257/.307/.451 clip their second time facing him in a game and .255/.310/.451 the third time. Hes markedly better facing opponents the first time in a game, but thats true of virtually any starting pitcher. During Civales four-plus seasons in Cleveland the club that originally selected him in the third round of the 2016 draft he averaged 5 2/3 frames per start and more regularly worked into or completed six innings. Two months ago, the Brewers having a glut of starting pitching so much so that one of their veterans requested a trade would have seemed laughable. Milwaukee was hit hard enough by injuries early in the year that they to bring in some rotation help, picking up righty from the Red Sox. In the nine-plus weeks since that time, Milwaukee has gotten healthier and has seen several young arms emerge Priester among them. Righty is one of the front-runners for NL Rookie of the Year honors. was brilliant in his first four MLB starts but was already optioned back to Triple-A Nashville because of Milwaukees depth. Misiorowskis production in Nashville (2.13 ERA, 31.6 K%) has forced his way into the big league picture. Meanwhile, veterans like and Civale himself have gotten healthy. Young lefties and are also back from the IL and are working in multi-inning relief roles. (Hall has also had a pair of three-inning starts as an opener ahead of Priester.) two weeks ago, noting that some tough decisions were likely on the horizon. Moving Civale to the bullpen falls into that category, particularly since a shift like that can come with precisely this type of ramification. Many fans will find a public trade request off-putting, which is a fair stance to take just as is the case with Civales trade request. As a 2016 draftee, hes been working nearly a decade to get to free agency and understandably does not love the idea of pitching in a new role that could impact his efficacy on the mound and/or his earning power on the market. Civale is earning $8MM in 2025, his final year before free agency. As of this writing, theres about $4.645MM of that sum yet to be paid out. In 122 major league starts, hes pitched 658 1/3 innings with a 4.06 ERA, a 21.8% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a 39.8% ground-ball rate. Oliver Dunn Jersey