Brewers Might Have Fleeced White Sox In Trade For Former 3rd Overall Pick

Aaron Civale's trade request might have been the best thing that could have happened to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Civale asked out on Thursday as the Brewers were getting ready to move him to the bullpen. And the Brewers wasted no time in honoring his wishes, shipping him off to the last-place Chicago White Sox, where he'll surely get the chance to stay in a big-league rotation.

However, the White Sox also gave up their 2019 first-round draft pick, first baseman Andrew Vaughn, in the trade. And while Vaughn was truly awful earlier this season, so much so that he was demoted to Triple-A, he might be an absolute steal for the Brewers.

You don't get to be the third overall pick in the draft without showing some serious skill. Vaughn was such a good prospect coming out of the University of California that he was picked immediately after the Baltimore Orioles' Adley Rutschman and the Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr., both of whom were All-Stars a year ago.

Vaughn slashed .189/.218/.314 in 48 games before getting sent down, and he hasn't been great in Triple-A yet either. But from 2021 to 2024, he was an above-average major league hitter, putting up 72 home runs and a .725 OPS.

There might be no tougher task in Major League Baseball than batting in the middle of a terrible lineup, and Vaughn's lineup became more terrible year after year. When he eventually gets to Milwaukee, he'll have much more competent hitters around him.

Back in the summer of 2022, this Brewers on SI writer had a chance to meet then-White Sox infielder Josh Harrison before a game in San Francisco. Harrison, who recently retired after a stellar 13-year career, asserted that he believed Vaughn was going to be a special player.

Baseball is the hardest sport out there for a reason, and just because a player shows promise early on doesn't guarantee future success. But the conviction with which Harrison backed the young slugger was noteworthy, and at the time, Vaughn was on the path to proving him right.

Whether he becomes part of the Brewers everyday lineup this year or has to wait his turn until Hoskins leaves, the guess here is that Vaughn becomes a real asset for Milwaukee. It might last a year and a half, or maybe a while longer if the Brewers extend him.

But this is what the Brewers do--turn lemons into lemonade. And turning the season Civale was having into a starting caliber first baseman would be sweet indeed.