Tampa Bay Rays Announce Debut Date For New Starting Pitcher Aaron Civale

After acquiring him from the Cleveland Guardians, the Tampa Bay Rays have announced that starting pitcher Aaron Civale will make his team debut on Saturday.

The following comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Civale is listed as the Rays' probable pitcher for Saturday's game against the Tigers at Comerica Park.

ANALYSIS
Civale will draw a favorable matchup for his Rays debut after Tampa Bay acquired him from Cleveland on Monday in exchange for first base prospect Kyle Manzardo. Prior to the trade, the 28-year-old right-hander had quietly been in the midst of a stellar season, posting a 2.34 ERA and 1.04 WHIP over 77 innings with the Guardians. Though Civale has excelled at limiting walks and neutralizing hard contact for most of his career, fantasy managers should view him as more of a middle-of-rotation arm than the ace that his ratios suggest he's been thus far. He's benefited from some good fortune on balls in play (.242 BABIP, career .274 BABIP) and especially flyballs (5.6 HR/FB%, career 12.4 HR/FB%), and he's striking out a career-low 19 percent of the batters he's faced.

Civale has made 13 starts for Cleveland this year and is 5-2. Lifetime, he's 29-23 with a 3.77 ERA. He'll be under team control in Tampa through 2025. 

The Rays were desperate to add pitching in the wake of season-ending injuries to both Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs.

Tampa Bay enters play on Tuesday at 1.5 games back in the American League East.

They'll take on the New York Yankees on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. ET.