Rays Sign Eloy Jimenez To Minor League Deal
3:13 pm: Jimenez will earn a guaranteed $2MM salary if he makes it onto the team, reports Héctor Gomez of Z101 Digital. He can earn an additional $2MM in playing time incentives.
12:13 pm: The Rays are in agreement with designated hitter Eloy Jimenez on a minor league deal, per a report from Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The deal presumably includes an invite to major league Spring Training.
Jimenez, 28, signed with the Cubs out of the Dominican Republic as an international amateur and made his pro debut in 2014. He quickly rocketed up prospect rankings and was eventually included alongside Dylan Cease in the crosstown trade that brought Jose Quintana to Wrigley Field. Jimenez’s top prospect star continued to shine with the White Sox, and they eventually signed him to a long-term deal prior to his big league debut in 2019. The $43MM guarantee gave Chicago control over Jimenez for eight seasons in a record-setting deal for a prospect who had not yet made his big league debut.
The deal initially looked like something of a coup as the slugger burst onto the scene in the majors with a fourth-place finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2019 before Jimenez slashed .295/.332/.559 (138 wRC+) with 14 homers in just 55 games during the shortened 2020 season. Jimenez’s excellent offense helped to lead the White Sox to their first playoff appearance since 2008, and while they fell to the A’s in three games it seemed as though the South Siders were in position to compete for years to come with Jimenez as a key part of the core.
Things didn’t turn out that way, unfortunately. Jimenez was limited to just 139 games and 558 trips to the plate over the next two seasons due to a myriad of injuries, and while he posted a 125 wRC+ during that time the missed time combined with Jimenez’s lackluster defense in the outfield led Chicago to make him more or less a full-time DH going forward. While Jimenez stayed healthy enough to play 120 games in 2023, his offense left much to be desired as he slashed just .272/.317/.441 with 18 homers in 489 trips to the plate. That was good for a 105 wRC+ which, while above average, left him as a roughly replacement level DH (0.6 fWAR).
After losing 101 games in 2023, the White Sox were surely hoping Jimenez would rebound enough in 2024 to build up his trade value and bring in an interesting piece or two for the rebuild they had kicked off by trading away Dylan Cease and declining Tim Anderson‘s club option during the offseason. Unfortunately, the slugger did anything but as he turned in by far the worst performance of his career in 2024. In 98 games with the White Sox and Orioles, Jimenez hit a paltry .238/.289/.336 and was worth -0.9 fWAR. That below replacement level production made it an easy decision for Baltimore to cut him loose this winter, making him a free agent for the first time in his career.
That’s led him to the Rays, who are coming off a disappointing 2024 season in large part thanks to a lackluster offense. Given Jimenez’s own offensive struggles, he’s hardly a guarantee to help with that. But adding a bat with his potential upside on a minor league deal can’t hurt the club’s efforts to but forth a stronger lineup in 2025, and even if Jimenez only manages the 105 wRC+ he posted 2023 that would still be an upgrade over the 97 wRC+ the Rays got out of their DH slot last year. Should Jimenez make the roster out of camp, he’d join youngsters like Christopher Morel, Jonathan Aranda, and Jonny DeLuca in vying for playing time in the outfield and at DH.
Wil Myers Ends Playing Career
Wil Myers has decided to call it a career after 11 big league seasons, the longtime Padres first baseman/outfielder told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. While Myers stressed that he wouldn’t ever “officially” retire, he made his decision in June 2023 after he’d been released by the Reds and was dealing with some shoulder problems.
“I had a great career. I loved what I did. I made a lot of great friends. I have no regrets,” Myers said. “If you had told me the day I was drafted that this would be your career, I would’ve taken it in a heartbeat. I loved what I did, and now it’s just kind of onto the next chapter of life.”
Myers, who just recently turned 34, will hang up his glove after an even 1100 career games with the Rays, Padres, and Reds from 2013-23. Myers hit .252/.326/.437 with 156 home runs over 4290 plate appearances, good for a 107 wRC+ during his time in the Show. He spent the majority of his time in the field as a first baseman and right fielder, but also with a big chunk of time at the other two outfield positions and some time at third base (primarily in 2018, when the Padres had several first base/outfield types they were trying to fit into the lineup).
A third-round pick for the Royals in the 2009 draft, Myers quickly became one of baseball’s most highly-touted prospects, and made headlines before his MLB career even began due to his involvement in a blockbuster trade. In December 2012, the Royals sent Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and third-base prospect Patrick Leonard to Tampa Bay in exchange for James Shields, Wade Davis, and Elliot Johnson. Kansas City’s farm system was viewed as deep enough that it could afford to move even a top prospect like Myers in exchange for win-now help, and the decision paid off — K.C. won the AL pennant in both 2014 and 2015, and Davis was one of the relief aces of the Royals’ 2015 World Series title team.
For the Rays, the deal paid some immediate dividends, as Myers won AL Rookie of the Year honors in 2013 on the strength of 13 homers and a .293/.354/.478 slash line over 373 plate appearances. However, Myers then battled wrist injuries and the sophomore slump in 2014, leading to his involvement in an even bigger trade. The Rays, Padres, and Nationals combined on a mammoth three-team, 11-player deal that is perhaps best remembered today as the swap that brought Trea Turner to Washington (and thus setting the table for the Nats’ 2019 World Series championship).
From Myers’ perspective, the deal kicked off an eight-year run in San Diego that was overall a success, albeit with plenty of ups and downs. Much of his time with the Padres is viewed through the lens of the six-year, $83MM extension he signed prior to the 2017 season, which at the time was the largest contract in San Diego franchise history. The big salary inevitably led to higher expectations that Myers didn’t entirely fulfill, as injuries and a propensity for strikeouts limited Myers’ production.
That said, Myers still had plenty of notable performances over the length of the deal. Myers was an All-Star in 2016, hit 30 homers during the 2017 season, and was one of the best hitters in baseball during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. That 2020 campaign was particularly notable since the Padres earned a wild card berth, marking San Diego’s first postseason appearance since 2006 and the official end of the team’s lengthy rebuild. Ironically, Myers’ contract made him difficult to trade amidst the Padres’ other cost-cutting moves, and as a result, Myers ended up being “the one player on hand for the entirety of the franchise’s turnaround,” Cassavell writes.
As the 2022 season rolled along, Myers became a part-time player and was again hampered by injuries, so it was no surprise when the Padres declined their $20MM club option on Myers’ services for the 2023 season. A free agent for the first time in his career, Myers landed in Cincinnati on a one-year deal worth $7.5MM in guaranteed money, but he hit only .189/.257/.283 in 141 PA over what will end up as his final season in the majors.
MLBTR congratulates Myers on a fine career and we wish him all the best in his post-playing endeavors.
Rays Notes: Littell, Outfield, Caballero, Front Office
The Rays made a long-awaited trade from their rotation depth last week when they packaged left-hander Jeffrey Springs and reliever Jacob Lopez in a deal with the A’s that brought back right-hander Joe Boyle, two minor leaguers, and a pick in Competitive Balance Round A of the 2025 draft. Prior to that deal, Springs was viewed alongside right-hander Zack Littell as the two most likely Rays hurlers to be moved this winter. Now that Springs is off the board, however, ESPN’s Jeff Passan suggests that the Rays are “less likely” to part with Littell this winter.
That’s not exactly surprising. After all, while the Rays have a considerable rotation surplus with a number of excellent potential arms, those arms generally come with question marks. Shane McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen will both have recently returned from elbow surgery and could see their innings managed, while youngsters like Shane Baz, Ryan Pepiot, and Taj Bradley have never even thrown 150 innings in a big league season before in their careers. That leaves Littell, who threw 156 1/3 innings of work across 29 starts for the Rays last year, as potentially the club’s most durable arm headed into 2025. Given the frequency with which pitchers get hurt in the modern game, having a sixth starter locked and loaded is hardly a bad idea in case of injuries for any club, to say nothing of the value it could provide a club with a rotation that sports as many injury risks as the Rays’ does.
Of course, it’s impossible to rule out a trade completely when discussing a player with just one year remaining before free agency on the Rays. The club’s front office typically attempts to cash in their players on the trade market before they reach free agency, and even if Littell starts the season with the Rays a midseason trade can’t be ruled out. With that said, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times recently suggested that the club might be more or less done making moves after dealing Springs and adding Danny Jansen in free agency. One place Topkin suggests the club could look to make an addition is in the outfield, particularly if a lefty bat were to fall into the club’s lap in free agency or via trade. Topkin makes particular mention of Joc Pederson and Jurickson Profar as hypothetical options, though he’s quick to note that either player would surely need to see their market in free agency crater before they’d become realistic options for the Rays as things stand.
A more likely outcome in Topkin’s view seems to be going with internal options. That could include giving infielder José Caballero a serious look in the outfield. With Josh Lowe locked into one starting outfield spot and some combination of Jonny DeLuca, Christopher Morel, and Richie Palacios slated to handle the rest of the playing time on the grass as things stand, mixing Caballero in would give the club additional depth in the outfield should they fail to make an external addition. It’s easy to imagine Caballero’s strong glove at shortstop translating fairly well to the outfield grass, and getting a speedster who stole an AL-best 44 bases in just 483 plate appearances last year into the lineup more regularly could help to spark the club’s offense. With that being said, Caballero’s .227/.283/.347 (83 wRC+) slash line last year likely isn’t enough to make it as an outfield regular unless he proves to be a plus defensive option in center.
Turning to off-the-field matters, Topkin also reports that the club currently has no plans to install a GM beneath president of baseball operations Erik Neander. Current Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix served as GM of the Rays under Neander before taking his current gig with Miami last winter, but Topkin suggests that the club’s current set up of two vice presidents and four assistant GMs serving as Neander’s top lieutenants suits the Rays just fine and that Bendix’s title will remain unfilled for the foreseeable future.
Rays, Joey Gerber Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rays are in agreement with reliever Joey Gerber on a minor league contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The right-hander receives a non-roster invitation to MLB camp.
Gerber, 27, is attempting to get to the big leagues for the first time in five years. The Illinois product debuted with the Mariners during the shortened 2020 season. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) across 15 2/3 innings. A forearm injury essentially robbed him of the next two years, leading the Mariners to release him midway through the ’22 season. Gerber caught on with the Yankees shortly after being released by Seattle, but injuries continued to plague him. He missed all of 2023 and spent the first half of this past season on the minor league IL.
In late June, Gerber was finally healthy enough to be reinstated. The Yankees assigned him to Double-A Somerset. He struck out 18 while only allowing three runs across 15 1/3 frames. That earned him a bump to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Gerber wasn’t quite as dominant as he’d been in Double-A. He tossed 14 innings and allowed 10 runs (six earned). He punched out 15 and issued eight walks.
Gerber’s fastball averaged 93.5 MPH during his Triple-A work this year. That’s in line with his velocity from his 2020 debut campaign. He got swinging strikes on a solid 13.4% of his offerings for Scranton. The arm strength and swing-and-miss were intriguing enough for the Rays to give him a non-roster camp invitation. If Gerber is able to stay healthy, he could find his way into Kevin Cash’s bullpen at some point.
Naoyuki Uwasawa Signs With NPB’s SoftBank Hawks
Right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa‘s foray into North American ball will come to a close after one season. The SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced this week that they’ve signed the 30-year-old righty to a four-year contract (link via The Mainichi).
Uwasawa signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Rays last offseason as he looked to make the jump to Major League Baseball on the heels of a nice nine-year run with NPB’s Nippon-Ham Fighters. He only spent spring training with Tampa Bay, however, as he triggered an assignment clause in his minor league deal at the end of camp when he was told he wouldn’t make the team. That prompted a trade to the Red Sox, who sent cash back to the Rays and selected Uwasawa to the 40-man roster the following day.
Uwasawa only wound up pitching in two games with Boston. He gave the Red Sox four innings of one-run ball across those two appearances but didn’t get a longer look, due in large part to his struggles down in Triple-A Worcester. The soft-tossing righty was hammered for a 7.63 ERA over 59 1/3 innings, during which time he fanned 16.8% of his opponents against a 12.9% walk rate. For a pitcher who was never a big strikeout arm in Japan but offset the lack of punchouts with sharp command, the walks were as uncharacteristic as they were problematic.
The Red Sox passed Uwasawa through waivers unclaimed in July. He was assigned outright to Triple-A and became a minor league free agent at season’s end. While there may have been some interest from other MLB clubs on a minor league deal, a four-year guarantee to return home to Japan understandably appears to have been too tempting for the right-hander to overlook.
Uwasawa will head back to Japan and look to build on what’s already a fine track record in NPB. He’s pitched 1118 1/3 innings at Japan’s top level and turned in a 3.19 ERA, a 70-62 record, a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 7.5% walk rate (though his strikeout rate has dwindled as his walk rate has improved further in recent NPB seasons).
MLBTR Podcast: Kyle Tucker To The Cubs, And Trades For Devin Williams And Jeffrey Springs
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Cubs acquiring Kyle Tucker from the Astros for Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski and Cam Smith (1:45)
- The Yankees acquiring Devin Williams from the Brewers for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin (17:20)
- The Athletics acquiring Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez from the Rays for Joe Boyle a draft pick and two prospects (27:55)
- The Orioles signing Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year deal (36:00)
- The hot pitching market could push pitchers onto the trade market, including Luis Castillo of the Mariners, Dylan Cease of the Padres and Jesús Luzardo of the Marlins (40:25)
Check out our past episodes!
- Winter Meetings Recap – listen here
- Blake Snell, Dodger Fatigue, And The Simmering Hot Stove – listen here
- Yusei Kikuchi, The Aggressive Angels, And The Brady Singer/Jonathan India Trade – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Latest Developments In Rays’ Stadium Situation
On Tuesday evening, the Pinellas County Commission voted by a 5-2 margin to approve roughly $312.5MM in public funding for the proposed $1.3 billion project to construct a long-term stadium for the Rays. However, the tension between the organization and county officials is far from resolved. Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times and Kate Payne/Curt Anderson of The Associated Press were among those who covered the news.
The Rays did not attend the meeting. Team president Matt Silverman released a statement after the vote that read:
“It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how important the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium development agreement are to this community and its citizens. As we have made clear, the County’s delay has caused the ballpark’s completion to slide into 2029. As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the County and City wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.”
The dispute stems from the county’s decision to delay previous votes on the stadium bonds, which were initially scheduled for October 29. At the time, the county was in the immediate aftermath of the consecutive hurricanes which devastated the area. The storms ripped the roof from Tropicana Field, necessitating significant repairs to the Rays’ current home. Between the storm damage and a changed council membership after November’s elections, the county decided to postpone the vote on multiple occasions.
Last month, the Rays released a statement criticizing the delays. According to the organization, the postponements made it unfeasible to have the park constructed for the 2028 season. The team wrote that constructing a stadium for ’29 “would result in significantly higher costs,” which the team does not want to fully absorb. The stadium deal had been agreed upon between the county and the Rays in July, with the bonds expected to be rubber stamped at October’s vote. The July deal left the responsibility for all cost overruns on the Rays.
While the team has not publicly stated how much more expensive it believes construction will be, one county official said (via Wright) that the team has privately put that number around $200MM. County officials have expressed skepticism about that sum, arguing that a delay of less than two months could not cause such significant expenditures.
In any case, the ball is back in the Rays’ court. The Tampa Bay Times writes that the Rays have the ability to withdraw from the deal via a termination letter. The organization must meet various benchmarks by March 31, 2025, or the deal will automatically become void. The Rays seem likely to push for more negotiations to try to unlock additional public funding in the coming months. County commissioners and St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch have stated they’re not willing to commit more public money beyond what was approved on Tuesday, according to The Tampa Bay Times.
Rays Sign Jake Brentz To Minor League Deal
The Rays have signed left-hander Jake Brentz to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on his MLB.com player profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to big league Spring Training.
Brentz, 30, was an 11th-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2013. He was subsequently traded to the Mariners and Pirates early in his minor league career before being released by Pittsburgh in 2019 after struggling at the Triple-A level. The Royals took a chance on the southpaw and signed him to a minor league deal, though he only got 5 1/3 innings of work in for the club at Double-A before the end of the season arrived. His first full season as a Royal was further delayed by the cancelled minor league season in 2020, but the remained firmly in the Royals’ orbit as a player pitching at their alternate site during the 60-game MLB season.
He found enough success between his time at the alternate site and the subsequent Spring Training that he earned a spot in the Royals’ Opening Day bullpen despite not having thrown a pitch at Triple-A as a member of the organization. That didn’t stop Brentz from making a strong first impression in the majors, however, as he pitched to a solid 3.66 ERA in 64 innings of work across 72 games as the Royals’ top left relief option. The lefty’s 13.3% walk rate held him back from becoming a truly elite relief option, but the combination of a 27.3% strikeout rate, a 49% groundball rate, and a 97mph heater from the left side all made Brentz, then 26, an extremely intriguing bullpen option who figured to be a fixture of the Royals relief corps for years to come.
Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass. Instead, Brentz managed just 5 1/3 brutal innings in 2022 where he surrendered 15 runs (14 earned) while walking ten and striking out just nine. Given that disastrous performance, it was hardly a shock when Brentz eventually required UCL reconstruction surgery later in the season. Brentz’s predicament led the Royals to non-tender him in November, but they eventually re-signed him to a two-year deal big league deal that guaranteed him $1.9MM. Unfortunately, Brentz saw his 2023 wiped out by a combination of rehabbing from the previous year’s elbow surgery and a subsequent lat strain.
Brentz was slowed further in his return this year by a hamstring strain in March and looked extremely rusty when he finally made it back to the mound. In 30 innings of work between Double- and Triple-A this year, Brentz posted a brutal 11.40 ERA in 30 innings. He struck out just 18% of opponents while walking an eye-popping 29% and hitting another 7.9% of opponents with pitches. That complete loss of control made it no surprise when the Royals opted to designate Brentz for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot, and he eventually elected free agency following the season in search of opportunities elsewhere.
He’s now found one with the Rays, who are widely considered to be among the very best organizations in baseball for pitcher development. The fit between the two sides is somewhat obvious, as Brentz will have the opportunity to get his career back on track in a development-focused organization while the Rays will have the opportunity to help a once-excellent lefty with obvious potential what made him such an exciting rookie for the Royals back in 2021.
Rays Notes: Boyle, Springs Trade, Shortstop, Soto
The Rays swung a prominent trade with the Athletics yesterday, bringing in three players and a Competitive Balance Round draft pick in exchange for left-handers Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez. Tampa president of baseball operations Erik Neander told MLB.com’s Adam Berry and other reporters that the decision to move Springs was “really, really difficult,” and that the trade was “a situation where the A’s really stepped forward and really wanted Jeffrey.”
On paper, it was widely assumed that the Rays would be dealing from their rotation depth this winter, with Springs and Zack Littell viewed as the likeliest trade candidates since they were the two highest-paid of the rotation candidates. The surplus is still technically in place since they still have six starters (Shane McClanahan, Shane Baz, Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Drew Rasmussen, and Littell) on the roster, plus now Joe Boyle acquired in the Springs trade. Berry writes that that despite all these available arms, the Rays aren’t expected to trade any more starting pitching.
“Right now, we’re looking at more starters than we have rotation spots and kind of navigating the different ways to resolve that while also knowing you can never have enough,” Neander said.
Boyle has big league experience in the form of 63 2/3 innings with the A’s over the last two seasons, but of the seven potential starters, he seems like the clearest candidate to begin the season in Triple-A. The hard-throwing Boyle has battled his control in both the major and minors, and Neander suggested that the Rays view him as a bit of a work in progress, with plenty of potential.
“Joe Boyle is somebody that has the physicality and the stuff to fit at the front of the rotation,” Neander said. “I think there’s signs of progress on the strike-throwing, and he doesn’t need to be a sharpshooter to be really effective….The upside, I think, is something that warrants great patience when it comes to his development.”
Trading from the rotation depth was one of the top checkpoints on Tampa’s offseason to-do list, and it remains to be seen what else Neander has in store to upgrade the roster ahead of what will be an unconventional season at George M. Steinbrenner Field rather than Tropicana Field. In terms of lineup help, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times feels the Rays will mostly look within their organization, but they could add outfield depth and the team is “at least open to a more offensive-oriented shortstop.”
Since Wander Franco‘s time with the Rays is almost surely over, Taylor Walls is penciled in as the starting shortstop, and Walls is still looking for a breakout at the plate. Over parts of four MLB seasons, Walls has hit only .188/.288/.293 over 1243 plate appearances — Walls’ 71 wRC+ is the fourth-lowest of any player with at least 1000 PA since Opening Day 2021.
What Walls brings to the table is glovework, though public defensive metrics aren’t unanimous in their approval of Walls’ work at shortstop. The Outs Above Average metrics has given him negative grades in each of the last three seasons and he drew negative UZR/150 scores in 2022 and 2023 before a huge +15.3 UZR/150 last season. The Defensive Runs Saved metric, meanwhile, has given Walls +35 DRS over his 1983 2/3 career innings at shortstop.
The Rays seem to lean more towards the DRS view, as Topkin notes that the club has a “fervid appreciation” for Walls’ glovework. As such, a trade offer or free agent opportunity would have to pass “a high bar” to inspire Tampa Bay to reduce Walls’ playing time. Any kind of acquisition at shortstop would also be a short-term add anyway, since top prospect Carson Williams could be in line to make his MLB debut at some point later in the 2025 season.
Still, Neander and his front office can never be ruled out for making a creative move. We saw evidence of this in early November when reports indicated that the Rays were one of the many teams who had been in contact with Juan Soto at the opening of the free agent market. The check-in was perhaps largely but due diligence, but Topkin reports that “the Rays pitched a short-term deal…supposedly with opt-outs after each season.”
It is probably safe to assume that this offer didn’t gain much traction within Soto’s camp, but there was no harm in floating a unique offer Soto’s way to see if there was any interest. It was just last season that several other Scott Boras clients signed shorter-term, player option-heavy contracts after not finding the long-term deals they were hoping to land in free agency, though there was much less chance that Soto would come up short in his bid for a record-setting contract.
Athletics Acquire Jeffrey Springs In Multi-Player Trade With Rays
The Athletics and Rays have announced a multi-player trade that will see left-handers Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez head to West Sacramento. In return, the Rays will receive right-hander Joe Boyle, the Athletics’ pick in Competitive Balance Round A of the 2025 draft, and two minor league players in righty Jacob Watters and first baseman/outfielder Will Simpson.
Considering how deep the Rays are in rotation options, Springs was viewed as a logical trade candidate this winter, as he was about to enter the more expensive portion of the backloaded four-year, $31MM extension he signed with Tampa in January 2023. Springs is owed $10.5MM in each of the next two seasons, and there is a $15MM club option on his services for 2027 that can be bought out for $750K.
For the first two years and $9.25MM on that extension, the Rays only 49 innings of work from Springs, albeit with a 2.39 ERA. A Tommy John surgery in April 2023 shelved Springs for the majority of the last two seasons, and he returned to the mound last July to post a 3.27 ERA over seven starts and 33 innings before he was shut down in early September due to fatigue in his throwing elbow. It’s hard to gain much data from a small sample size, but Springs still had above-average strikeout and walk rate, and if anything might’ve gotten better bottom-line results if it wasn’t for a .330 BABIP.
Prior to the injury, Springs seemed like yet another success story for Tampa Bay’s pitching development system. A 30th-round draft pick for the Rangers in the 2015 draft, Springs showed only a few flashes of quality over his first three MLB seasons while posting a 5.42 ERA in 84 2/3 innings with Texas and Boston. Dealt from the Red Sox to the Rays in a relatively under-the-radar trade in February 2021, Springs emerged to post a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 bullpen innings for Tampa during the 2021 season, and he then had even better results after transitioning into a starting role in 2022. The breakout year saw Springs deliver a 2.46 ERA in 135 1/3 innings (as well as a 26.2% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate) as Springs finally seemed to avoid the home run problems that plagued most of his career.
Springs was able to cash in on his big season with a life-changing contract extension, but his long injury layoff turned him into an odd man out of the Rays’ rotation. Shane McClanahan, Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz, Zack Littell, and Drew Rasmussen are all lined up to get starts in 2025, not to mention whatever other young starters could emerge from Tampa’s ever-loaded farm system. With Springs’ price tag rising, many figured that the Rays would move his salary to a pitching-needy team with payroll space to spare.
If the idea of the Athletics being a “team with payroll space to spare” is still surprising to consider, the 32-year-old Springs is now the second splurge the A’s have made on their rotation this winter, after having already signed Luis Severino to a three-year, $67MM deal. Adding Springs’ contract brings the A’s a step closer to the minimum $105MM luxury tax figure required to continue qualifying as a revenue-sharing team, and to avoid a grievance from the players’ union. RosterResource estimates the Athletics’ current tax number at roughly $88.55MM, assuming the trade is completed.
Ulterior motive notwithstanding, trading for Springs is also a solid baseball move for an A’s team in need of rotation help. Severino and Springs are big upgrades to a rotation that struggled badly last season, and the newcomers now stand as the top two members of the starting five that includes JP Sears, Mitch Spence, and Joey Estes.
More pitching moves can’t be ruled out, since the Athletics still have a ways to go before hitting that $105MM figure. Severino notwithstanding, it can’t be an easy sell for the A’s to convince free agents to pitch in a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento, so trading for players (perhaps on unwanted contracts) has long seemed like a more logical move for the Athletics to both add payroll and bolster their roster at the same time.
Lopez shouldn’t be ruled out as part of the Athletics’ pitching situation in 2025, as the southpaw has already amassed 22 2/3 MLB innings with the Rays over the last two seasons. A 26th-round pick for the Giants in the 2018 draft, Lopez missed all of 2022 recovering from a Tommy John surgery, but he has a 2.99 ERA across 337 2/3 career minor league innings. That includes a 3.54 ERA, 27% strikeout rate, and 12.87% walk rate in 168 innings of Triple-A ball, with Lopez starting 37 of 39 games for the Rays’ top affiliate.
Despite a lack of velocity, Lopez has been able to miss quite a few bats, though this ability hasn’t manifested itself in his brief time in the majors. It could be that Lopez might’ve gotten more big league looks if he’d simply been on a team that didn’t have Tampa Bay’s pitching depth, and a fresh opportunity now presents itself for Lopez with this trade. Lopez (who turns 27 in March) figures to be part of the fifth starter competition in camp but will probably begin the year at Triple-A, acting as one of the first depth options in the event of an injury to a rotation member.
Turning to the Rays’ end of the trade, the inclusion of the Comp-A pick is particularly interesting, and it might speak to the league-wide interest in Springs’ services. The Competitive Balance Rounds are bonus rounds within the draft that award picks to 15 teams within the bottom 10 in market size and revenue, as determined by the league’s formula that factors in revenue, winning percentage and market score. The CBR picks are the only draft selections that are eligible to be traded, and while such trades tend to be rare, we’ve seen these picks involved in some 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 traded pick has yet to be determined, last year’s Comp-A picks were selections #34-39 in the 2024 draft order.
It is no small thing for a team to deal such a pick, especially when building through the draft is of particular importance to a low-spending team like the A’s. Still, getting at least two years of control over Springs was apparently worth the cost, as with the club option, the Athletics could have Springs for the entirety of their three-year stint in Sacramento before their planned new ballpark in Las Vegas is ready for Opening Day 2028.
As for the other parts of the trade package, Boyle brings a Major League-ready arm to the Rays’ pitching mix. Debuting with a 1.69 ERA in three starts and 16 innings in 2023, Boyle had a 6.42 ERA in 47 2/3 innings this past season, missing about a month of action with a back strain and spending the bulk of the year at Triple-A.
The 25-year-old is something of a classic case of a hard-throwing (97.7mph average fastball velocity in the majors) pitcher who can’t harness his stuff, as Boyle has posted elevated walk totals in the minors and during his 2024 stint in the Show. Fixing these control problems will determine whether or not Boyle can stick in the big leagues as a reliever or back-end starter, and given the Rays’ history of fixing pitchers, nobody would be surprised if Boyle ends up figuring it out in Tampa just as Springs and many other hurlers have done over the years. Boyle has two minor league options remaining, giving the Rays more flexibility in using him as a fresh arm to shuttle back and forth between Triple-A and the active roster.
Baseball America ranked Simpson 16th on their ranking of the Athletics’ top 30 prospects back in April, while MLB Pipeline has Simpson 28th in their evaluation of the team’s system. A 15th-round pick in the 2023 draft, Simpson has crushed minor league pitching in his two pro seasons and made it to the Double-A level for 18 games in 2024. Simpson has shown some good pop in his bat and he has a good approach at the plate — scouts like his “analytical aptitude,” as BA’s scouting report puts it, with the idea that Simpson can still unlock more as he explores more ways to upgrade his hitting. Defensively, Pipeline is more bullish on the idea of Simpson as a serviceable first baseman or corner outfielder, while Baseball America is more down on his glovework in general.
Watters was a fourth-round pick for the A’s in the 2022 draft, and he has a 5.86 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, and an inflated 13.73% walk rate in 152 pro innings. Almost all of this experience is at the high-A level, though Watters skipped Double-A to make one spot appearance in Triple-A ball last season. Working as both a starter and reliever, Watters’ numbers have been decidedly better out of the pen, so that might be the 23-year-old’s eventual career path.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan (multiple links) reported the trade and all of the players and picks involved except for Lopez, whose involvement wasn’t revealed until the deal was officially announced.
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