It’s a 3-for-1 swap, plus a draft pick
The Athletics continue to add to their rotation depth. Mere days after signing starting pitcher Luis Severino to the largest contract in team history, the club has now further fortified the rotation by acquiring lefty starter Jeffrey Springs from the Tampa Bay Rays, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN:
The A's are finalizing a trade to acquire left-hander Jeffrey Springs from the Tampa Bay Rays, sources tell ESPN. Multiple players are going in both directions, but with the A's looking to spend, they get a rotation piece in Springs under club control for three more seasons.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 14, 2024
The move is now official, with the team announcing the transaction. Ths team is also acquiring reliever Jacob Lopez from the Rays, a promising young reliever in his own right.
There’s that next move. The club has reportedly been in on free agents but this is the first major trade of the offseason. We are on the board. The A’s have now added two starting pitchers within the past two weeks, fortifying a rotation with plenty of young arms but lacking in major league success. It’s safe to say we have our Day 1 & 2 starters on the roster now.
Springs comes from the Rays after spending the past four years in Tampa. Originally a 30th-round draft pick by the Rangers way back in 2015, Springs bounced around a bit but grew into himself in Tampa Bay, successfully transitioning into a starting pitcher in ‘22 and solidifying himself as a legitimate option to start. Before that he was a reliable setup man at the backend of the bullpen for the Rays but they clearly saw more, converting him to a starting pitcher and receiving great results in his first year as a starter.
While that first year as a starter was promising he paid for it with his health. That ramp-up to a starter’s workload caught up to him as he would undergo the dreaded Tommy John surgery in April of 2023. While it usually only takes a year to come back Springs dealt with some setbacks that ate into his 2024 season as well. Still, he looked like he was all the way back after that long layoff, starting seven games for the Rays in 2024 and posting a solid 3.27 ERA, looking just as sharp as he did pre-injury. Maybe even a touch better if you look at his peripheral numbers.
The Rays gave Springs a contract extension just a couple of months prior to that surgery, guaranteeing him a backloaded four-year, $31MM extension that the Athletics will mostly pay for. Springs is under contract for the next two seasons, earning a hefty $10.5MM in both years. The club does have an option year tacked on at the end that costs $15MM, though he will be entering his age-34 year at that point. There is a $750K buyout option if the club decides to move on. Hopefully he pitches well enough that that option becomes a no-brainer to pick up.
Going back to the Rays will be right-handed pitchers Joe Boyle, Jacob Watters, minor league outfielder Will Simpson, and the Athletics’ pick in the Competitive Balance Round A 2025 draft. Boyle is of course the most well-known of the package going back to Tampa after making 10 starts for the club in 2024, though to less than stellar results. Boyle originally came over from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for lefty reliever Sam Moll and excited fans with a quick start to his career but now finds himself as apart of the package in exchange for Springs. Watters joins Boyle on his way out as a former 4th-round draft pick that has seen very little success even in the lower minors, having spent the vast majority of the 2024 season in A+ before a late promotion to Triple-A where he made it into just one game before the season wrapped up. Simpson is the third piece of the deal. A 15th-round pick just two years ago, Simpson ranked as the club’s 28th best prospect after crushing the ball for the past couple of seasons in the minors, looking like a possible steal and giving hope that the club had found a gem late in that draft. Add on top of all that is the Competitive Balance round pick, which is more than just a throw-in. For a club that needs all the young, long-term talent that’s not nothing.
Still, at the end of the day the club is better. The high-ceiling that Springs brings outweighs the potential loss of players that are looking more like fringe, Quadruple-A players at best. The club has a ways to go but there can be no doubt that the team is getting better. The A’s have added two starting pitchers but still have a ways to go to hit the $105MM threshold to continue receiving revenue sharing. Now about third base…
