This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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"I find myself wondering whether I’d be judging this trade differently if anyone but the Rays had made it. Aaron Civale doesn’t rely on a four-seamer, but when he throws it, it’s at 91-92, below the threshold for viability for a modern right-handed starter. Someone online referred to him as an “innings eater,” which is just wrong: Civale’s career high is 124 1/3 innings and he’s reached 100 innings once in four prior seasons. He’s living off a .242 BABIP allowed and a 5.6% HR/FB this year and, to me, still looks like a #4 starter with durability problems. If the Rockies or Marlins had traded for him, would I be dunking on this swap? It’s hard to not assume the Rays will just make Civale better, as they have done with so many of the pitchers they’ve acquired in recent seasons."
