{"id":13211,"date":"2025-07-21T15:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/13211\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T15:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:34:07","slug":"as-listening-on-jeffrey-springs-jp-sears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/13211\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s Listening On Jeffrey Springs, JP Sears"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u2019s righty Luis Severino<\/a> is a known trade candidate after his struggles pitching at home in West Sacramento and his public criticism<\/a> of the playing environment there, but he\u2019s not the only A\u2019s starter on the market this summer. The former Oakland club is also listening to offers on lefties Jeffrey Springs<\/a> and JP Sears<\/a>, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not at all surprising that the A\u2019s would listen on Springs, given the way the season has played out. The A\u2019s acquired Springs and fellow lefty Jacob Lopez<\/a> from the Rays in an offseason deal sending righty Joe Boyle<\/a>, minor leaguers Jacob Watters<\/a> and Will Simpson<\/a>, and a Competitive Balance (Round A) draft pick the other direction. Springs, signed through 2026 with a 2027 club option, gave the A\u2019s an immediate rotation upgrade while also coming with the allure of additional trade value if their season went south.<\/p>\n

Things have indeed gone poorly for the A\u2019s in their first season away from Oakland. After a decent start, the A\u2019s dropped 11 straight games in late May, picked up one win, and then dropped another nine in a row. The Athletics are 17 games under .500 and nowhere close to the playoff picture. They\u2019ll be surefire deadline sellers, and the two-plus years of control over a solid and affordable veteran like Springs \u2014 who sat at No. 7 on our list of the Top 40 deadline trade candidates<\/a> earlier this month \u2014 should pique the interest of pitching-hungry organizations.<\/p>\n

[Related: Athletics Trade Deadline Outlook<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Springs, 32, originally signed a four-year, $31MM extension with the Rays after a breakout showing in 2021-22. A 2023 Tommy John procedure wiped out most of the first two seasons of that deal, though the southpaw looked quite sharp in his first 33 innings back from surgery late last year. That was enough to convince the A\u2019s to make the swap.<\/p>\n

Springs hasn\u2019t replicated his breakout form or last year\u2019s late success, but he\u2019s still been a solid arm for skipper Mark Kotsay<\/a>. In 114 innings, he\u2019s pitched to a 4.18 ERA. His 18.8% strikeout rate isn\u2019t close to the 29% mark he showed with Tampa Bay from 2021-24, however. His 7.9% walk rate is better than average but still an increase over the 6.5% he turned in during that four-year stretch with the Rays. Springs\u2019 90.5 mph average four-seamer is also down from the 91.9 mph he averaged during his best seasons as a Ray.<\/p>\n

Even with diminished stuff and results, Springs has been a source of solid innings who\u2019s kept the A\u2019s in the game most times he\u2019s taken the field. He\u2019s had the odd clunker here and there, but Springs has a dozen outings of at least six innings and three or fewer earned runs this season (not all technically \u201cquality starts,\u201d since two followed an opener). He\u2019s had another three starts where he pitched into the sixth and yielded two or fewer runs but didn\u2019t complete that sixth frame and get the quality start. At the end of the day, he\u2019s been a respectable fourth starter.<\/p>\n

Springs is being paid $10.5MM this year and next. His 2027 club option comes at a $15MM rate and contains a $750K buyout. There\u2019s about $3.9MM of this year\u2019s salary yet to be paid out, bringing the total guarantee on his one-plus seasons to about $15.15MM. If Springs can get back closer to peak form, that $15MM option will look eminently reasonable. Even if he continues on as a roughly league-average starter, it\u2019s not an egregious price to pay, considering older veterans like Max Scherzer<\/a>, Justin Verlander<\/a>, Charlie Morton<\/a> and Alex Cobb<\/a> all received salaries of $15MM on one-year deals this past offseason ($15.5MM, for Scherzer).<\/p>\n

Sears is a less-conventional trade candidate, as he\u2019s controlled three years beyond the current season. He\u2019s not performing up to past standards, due primarily to a huge spike in home runs that can be somewhat attributed to his new home park. In 101 2\/3 innings, Springs has a 5.13 ERA. His 6% walk rate is a career-low mark, and this year\u2019s 19.4% strikeout rate is up from last year\u2019s 18.1% mark (but also down from 2023\u2019s 21.9% rate).<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Sears has yet to reach arbitration eligibility but will do so for the first time this winter. He\u2019s not a playoff-caliber starter but could solidify the back of a contending club\u2019s rotation down the stretch \u2014 particularly if said club plays in a park that\u2019s not quite so homer-friendly. Even more borderline contenders \u2014 the D-backs, for instance \u2014 could look at Sears as someone who can provide some durable innings at an affordable rate next season and beyond. Sears made 32 starts in both 2023 and 2024, and he\u2019s never been on the major league injured list. He\u2019s a fourth starter at his best, but he\u2019ll likely earn under $4MM in his first trip through arbitration, making him a budget-friendly option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019s righty Luis Severino is a known trade candidate after his struggles pitching at home in West Sacramento…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,12319,12320,12321,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-13211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-j-p-sears","11":"tag-jeffrey-springs","12":"tag-luis-severino","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}