The Athletics and Rays have announced a multi-player trade that will see lefties Jeffrey Springs again Jacob Lopez destinations in West Sacramento. In return, the Rays will get a right hand Joe Boylethe Athletics’ Competitive Balance Round A pick for the 2025 draft, plus two minor leaguers Jacob Watters and first baseman/outfielder Will Simpson.
Considering how deep the Rays are in the rotation options, Springs was considered a reasonable trade candidate this winter, as he was about to enter the most expensive part of the back-loaded four-year, $31MM extension he signed with Tampa in January 2023. Springs is owed $10.5MM over the next two seasons, and there is an option for the club’s $15MM in his 2027 services that cannot be bought out for $750K.
In the first two years and $9.25MM of that extension, the Rays only 49 innings of work from Springs, though he has a 2.39 ERA. Tommy John surgery in April 2023 sidelined Springs for most of the past two seasons, and he returned to the mound last July to post a 3.27 ERA over seven starts and 33 innings before being shut down in early September due to a strained throwing elbow. It’s hard to get much data with a small sample size, but Springs still had an above-average hit and walk rate, and if anything he might have had better bottom line results if it weren’t for a .330 BABIP.
Before the injury, Springs looked like another success story in Tampa Bay’s depth improvement program. A 30th-round draft pick of the Rangers in the 2015 draft, Springs showed few flashes of quality in his first three MLB seasons while posting a 5.42 ERA in 84 2/3 innings with Texas and Boston. Traded from the Red Sox to the Rays in an under-the-radar trade in February 2021, Springs pitched to a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 innings for Tampa in the 2021 season, and had his best results since. transition to the first role in 2022. The breakout year saw Springs post a 2.46 ERA in 135 1/3 innings (along with a 26.2% strikeout rate and a 5.6% walk rate) as Springs finally seemed to avoid the home run issues that plagued much of his career. his.
Springs was able to cash in on his senior season with a life-changing contract extension, but his lengthy injury layoff turned him into the odd man out of the Rays rotation. Shane McClanahan, Ryan Pepiot, Hello Bradley, Shane Baz, Zack Littellagain Drew Rasmussen all lined up to start in 2025, not to mention other young startups that could come out of Tampa’s always-full farm system. With Springs’ price tag rising, many assumed the Rays would move his salary to a more needy team with cap space.
If the thought of the Athletics being a “cap-cap team” is still surprising to consider, the 32-year-old Springs is now the second the Athletics have made in their trade this winter, after already signing one. Luis Severino in a three-year deal, $67MM. Extending Springs’ contract brings the A’s closer to the minimum $105MM tax cap needed to remain eligible as a profit-sharing team, and avoid an appeal from the players’ union. RosterResource estimates the Athletics’ current tax figure at about $88.55MM, assuming the trade is completed.
Regardless of the top target, trading for Springs is a solid baseball move for an A’s team in need of rotation help. Severino and Springs have improved greatly from last season’s heavy-hitting transition, and the newcomers now stand as two of the top five starting lineups. JP Sears, Mitch Spenceagain Joey Estes.
Additional moves can’t be ruled out, as the Athletics still have a ways to go before hitting that $105MM figure. Still, Severino won’t be an easy sell for the A’s to convince free agents to play in the small ballpark in West Sacramento, so trading players (perhaps for unwanted contracts) has long been seen as a logical move for the Athletics. to both add payroll and support their inventory at the same time.
Lopez shouldn’t be ruled out as part of the Athletics’ situation in 2025, as the southpaw has already totaled 22 2/3 MLB innings with the Rays over the past two seasons. A 26th-round pick of the Giants in the 2018 draft, Lopez missed all of 2022 recovering from Tommy John surgery, but has a 2.99 ERA over 337 2/3 minor league innings. That includes a 3.54 ERA, a 27% strikeout rate, and a 12.87% walk rate in 168 innings of Triple-A ball, with Lopez starting 37 of 39 games for the senior team. Rays.
Despite the lack of speed, Lopez was able to miss a few at-bats, although this ability did not show up in his short time in the majors. It’s possible that Lopez might have gotten a big league look if he had been on a team that lacked Tampa Bay’s depth, and a new opportunity now presents itself to Lopez with this job. Lopez (who will turn 27 in March) was listed as part of the fifth starting lineup in camp but will likely start the year in Triple-A, serving as one of the first depth options in the event of an injury to a replacement member.
Turning to the Rays trade end, the inclusion of a Comp-A pick is very interesting, and may speak to league-wide interest in Springs’ services. Competitive Balance Rounds are bonus rounds within the draft that are awarded to the 15 teams below 10 in market size and revenue, as determined by a league formula that includes revenue, winning percentage and market results. CBR picks are the only draft picks eligible for trade, and while such trades are rare, we have seen these picks involved in some of the most prominent trades over the years. The Comp-A round takes place just before the start of the second round, and while the exact placement of the picks is yet to be determined, last year’s Comp-A picks were picks #34-39 in the 2024 draft.
It’s no small feat for a team to make such a choice, especially when building through the draft is so important to a low-spending team like the A’s. Still, getting at least two more years of control over Springs was worth the cost, since with the club option, the Athletics could have Springs for the entire three years they hold in Sacramento before their planned new stadium in Las Vegas is ready. Opening Date 2028.
As for the rest of the trade package, Boyle brings a Major League-ready arm to the Rays’ mix. Starting with a 1.69 ERA in three innings and 16 innings in 2023, Boyle had a 6.42 ERA in 47 2/3 innings last season, missing a month of back-to-back time and spending most of the year in the Triple-A. .
The 25-year-old is a hard thrower (97.7 mph average fastball velocity in the majors) who can use his stuff, as Boyle posted a career high in the minors and his 2024 season. stay at the Show. Fixing these control issues will determine whether Boyle can stick in the big leagues as a reliever or back-end starter, and given the Rays’ history of fixing pitchers, no one would be surprised if Boyle ends up in Tampa the same way. Springs and many other pitchers have done it over the years. Boyle has two minor league options remaining, giving the Rays more flexibility in using him as a new arm to slide back and forth between Triple-A and the active roster.
Baseball America ranked Simpson 16th in their Athletics’ top 30 rankings back in April, while MLB Pipeline had Simpson 28th in their assessment of the team’s lineup. A 15th-round pick in the 2023 draft, Simpson crushed a minor league hit in his two professional seasons and reached the Double-A level with 18 games in 2024. Simpson showed good pop in his bat and had a good performance. approach the plate – scouts like his “analytical intelligence,” as BA’s scouting report says, with the idea that Simpson can still open more and is exploring more ways to improve his hitting. Defensively, Pipeline is more focused on Simpson’s vision as a utility outfielder or corner, while Baseball America is more down on his overall glove work.
Watters was a fourth-round pick by the As in the 2022 draft, and has a 5.86 ERA, a 21.9% strikeout rate, and a 13.73% walk rate in 152 innings. Almost all of these deals are at the high level, though Watters skipped Double-A to make one appearance in Triple-A ball last season. Serving as a starter and reliever, Watters’ numbers are decidedly better out of the pen, so that could be the 23-year-old’s way of working.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan (multiple links) reported the trade with all players and draftees involved except for Lopez, whose involvement was not disclosed until the deal was officially announced.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
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