Tampa Bay Rays Trading Jeffrey Springs to Athletics in Multi-Player Deal, Per Report

Springs is due $10.5 million in both 2025 and 2026, plus $15 million in 2027 if his club option gets picked up. That had him on pace to be the Rays' highest-paid pitcher for each of the next three seasons, so the front office shipped his contract out of town.

The 32-year-old southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2023, three months after he inked a four-year, $31 million extension. He returned for seven starts in 2024, though, going 2-2 with a 3.27 ERA, 1.364 WHIP, 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings and a 0.9 WAR before he got shut down in September due to arm fatigue.

Over the course of his four-year stint in Tampa Bay, Springs went 18-8 with a 2.63 ERA, 1.079 WHIP, 268 strikeouts and a 5.7 WAR in 229.0 innings of work.

Springs now joins an A's rotation that already added former New York Yankees and New York Mets starter Luis Severino on a franchise-record three-year, $67 million contract last week. JP Sears, Mitch Spence and Joey Estes will presumably round out the five-man group in 2025.

Spending big on Severino and trading for Springs were necessary moves for the Athletics, who were going to have a tough time attracting talent as they prepared to play the next three seasons at a minor league park in Sacramento.

As for the Rays, they have now traded four viable starters in the last 12 months, starting with the deal that sent Tyler Glasnow to the Los Angeles Dodgers last December. In July, they traded Aaron Civale to the Milwaukee Brewers and Zach Eflin to the Baltimore Orioles.

And yet, Tampa Bay still has starting pitching depth in the former of Zack Littell, Taj Bradley, Ryan Pepiot, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen, plus ace Shane McClanahan returning from a UCL procedure of his own. Boyle could be an option as well, depending on Rasmussen and McClanahan's health.

Littell had been caught up in trade rumors ahead of the deadline and early in the offseason, but Springs wound up being the odd man out.

The Rays will also be setting up shop in a non-MLB stadium in 2025, playing their home games at the New York Yankees' Spring Training facility – George M. Steinbrenner Field – as Tropicana Field undergoes repairs in the wake of Hurricane Milton.