Athletics To Designate Aaron Civale For Assignment

The A’s are designating veteran starter Aaron Civale for assignment, according to the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Righty reliever Yunior Tur is being selected onto the major league roster in his place.

The log also indicates that the A’s will recall southpaw Brady Basso from Triple-A Las Vegas and activate recently claimed utilityman Donovan Walton. First baseman Joey Meneses, catcher Brian Serven and lefty Mason Barnett are being optioned to Triple-A.

That leaves one opening on the active roster for another position player. Darell Hernaiz is the only position player on optional assignment who could be recalled for Friday’s series opener against the Nationals; Max Muncy needs to stay down until at least Saturday unless he’s being brought up to replace someone going on the injured list. They could add a hitter who’s not currently on the 40-man roster and transfer Brent Rooker to the 60-day injured list if they want to keep Hernaiz and Muncy in the minors.

Civale’s DFA makes for a disappointing end to his $6MM free agent deal. The righty took the ball 16 times and turned in a 5.42 earned run average across 74 2/3 innings. He also missed a couple weeks with shoulder tendinitis that sidelined him between mid-May and June 17. Civale has taken the loss in all five of his appearances since coming back, allowing 19 earned runs in as many innings.

The A’s have plummeted in the standings amidst a nine-game losing streak and dropping 13 of their last 14. They’re now third from the bottom in the American League and positioned as deadline sellers. They’ll technically still have five days to explore a Civale trade once they officially announce the DFA. His recent performance was going to diminish trade interest anyhow, and the likelier outcome is that he’ll be released within the next week.

Civale was a decent mid-rotation starter early in his career with Cleveland. He has bounced around as a strike-throwing fifth/sixth starter over the past few seasons. Civale’s fringy stuff doesn’t play well in a hitter-friendly park like Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, where he allowed two home runs per nine innings with an ERA approaching 7.00. He had a 4.25 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate over 42 1/3 frames on the road. If he is released, there’s a decent chance he’ll be able to find a big league deal for the league minimum salary on a team with a more pitcher-friendly home venue.

Jacob Lopez pitched in front of Civale as an opener in his most recent appearance on Friday. The A’s could build him back up to take the fifth rotation spot behind Gage Jump, Jeffrey Springs, J.T. Ginn and Jack Perkins.

They’ll also get their first look at Tur, a 6’6″ righty nearing his 27th birthday. The Cuban-born hurler didn’t enter pro ball until he was 23 years old. He had a nice 2025 season to put himself on the radar, with Baseball America and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs each ranking him at the back half of the team’s top 30 prospects over the winter.

Tur doesn’t have pristine command and moved to the bullpen this year. He’s still walking 12% of opponents but has fanned 29% of batters faced behind a fastball that sits in the 96 mph range. He also throws a cutter, slider and splitter but is most reliant on the heater — which scouting reports credit with plus life at the top of the zone.