The Tampa Bay Rays have bolstered their starting rotation, acquiring right-hander Aaron Civale from the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, a day before the MLB trade deadline.

The Rays are sending the Guardians their No. 4-ranked prospect, first baseman Kyle Manzardo.

Civale, who is under contract through the 2025 season, is enjoying a career year, going 5-2 with a 2.34 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP in 13 starts, yielding two runs or fewer in 11 of those outings.

The 28-year-old missed nearly two months earlier this season with a strained left oblique and has never made more than 21 starts in his five-year MLB career.

Although he doesn’t have a lengthy track record, he has been one of hottest pitchers in baseball this month.

His 1.45 ERA in six July starts trails only San Diego Padres left-hander Blake Snell’s 0.56 ERA for the lowest in the majors among the 69 pitchers with at least 25 innings.

However, while he’s done a masterful job of keeping the opposition off the scoreboard, he hasn’t been fooling many hitters.

In 37 1/3 innings this month, he’s struck out 25 batters for a strikeout rate of 6.03 per nine innings – the seventh lowest among those 69 qualifying pitchers.

On the season, opposing batters miss on 21.1 per cent of swings against Civale, which ranks 89th among the 108 pitchers with a minimum of 75 innings.

Civale threw six scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday in his final start for Cleveland, which entered Monday just one-half game behind the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins.

He now joins a Tampa Bay team that trails the first-place Baltimore Orioles by 1 ½ games in the AL East.

Manzardo, 23, is batting .238 with 11 homers and 19 doubles in 73 games this season for Triple-A Durham.

 

The rotation with the lowest ERA in the American League just got even nastier.

Welcome, @AaronCivale! pic.twitter.com/kMsnL9WpI6

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) July 31, 2023