Breaking Down Athletics' Rotation in Wake of Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs Additions

The A's swung a massive trade for Tampa Bay Rays lefty Jeffrey Springs on Saturday, a week after spending $67 million on former New York Mets and New York Yankees righty Luis Severino.

Apr 2, 2023; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs (59) throws a pitch against the Detroit Tigers during the first inning at Tropicana Field. / Dave Nelson-Imagn Images

The Athletics have left Oakland behind, and as they prepare for a three-year stay in Sacramento, the front office has apparently decided that their pitching staff was due for a makeover.

A week after the A's dropped a record-breaking amount of cash on former New York Mets and New York Yankees right-hander Luis Severino, they dealt away three players to pick up left-hander Jeffrey Springs in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. Severino had declined his qualifying offer from the Mets, forcing the Athletics to part ways with a compensatory draft pick, and then they also included another pick in their deal with the Rays.

On top of the draft capital, the Athletics will pay Severino and Springs a combined $30.5 million in 2025. No other player on the roster is slated to make more than $3.5 million.

Fans left stranded in Oakland surely wish the team had been willing to commit this amount of resources over the past three years, when the A's went 179-307. But, as they head off to Sacramento, here is what the Athletics' starting rotation looks like for 2025:

1. Luis Severino, RHP
2. Jeffrey Springs, LHP
3. JP Sears, LHP
4. Joey Estes, RHP
5. Mitch Spence, RHP

Severino hasn't made an All-Star appearance since 2019, but the 30-year-old southpaw enjoyed quite the resurgence this past season.

After going 4-8 with a 6.65 ERA, 1.646 WHIP and -1.5 WAR with the Yankees in 2023, Severino went 11-7 with a 3.91 ERA, 1.242 WHIP and 1.6 WAR with the Mets in 2024. He then proceeded to go 1-1 with a 3.24 ERA and 1.380 WHIP in three playoff starts.

Severino also exceeded 30 starts for the first time since he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020. That, plus a shoulder issue in 2019 and a groin injury in 2021, limited to Severino to just 18.0 innings over that three-year span.

Between 2017 and 2022, Severino 42-18 with a 3.10 ERA, 1.064 WHIP and 11.8 WAR. He showed in 2024 that he still has some of that ace potential inside of him, which the Athletics are hoping to fully untap in 2025.

Springs also has a spotty injury history, undergoing Tommy John surgery of his own after just three starts in 2023. He returned to make seven starts in 2024 before getting shut down with elbow fatigue.

But with those ailments seemingly in his rear-view mirror, Springs has a shot to truly break out in his age-32 season. He has shown flashes before – considering he went 18-8 with 2.63 ERA, 1.079 WHIP and 5.7 WAR across his four seasons with the Rays – so the stuff is certainly there.

Moving past the pair of headlining additions, Sears is the top returning starter to the Athletics' rotation.

Sears was once a top prospect in the Yankees' farm system, even making his MLB debut with the Bronx Bombers in 2022. He got traded to the A's at the deadline that year, though, helping New York acquire Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino.

In each of the past two seasons, Sears has made exactly 32 starts. He put up a 2.6 WAR in 2023 and a 2.3 WAR in 2024. For his career, the 28-year-old is 22-30 with a 4.36 ERA and 1.251 WHIP.

The final two spots are slated to go to Spence and Estes, who both exhausted their rookie eligibility in 2024. The 26-year-old Spence went 8-10 with a 4.58 ERA, 1.381 WHIP and 1.6 WAR in 151.1 innings, while the 23-year-old Estes went 7-9 with a 5.01 ERA, 1.230 WHIP and 0.7 WAR in 127.2 innings.

Ken Waldichuk and Luis Medina – both of whom came over from the Yankees alongside Sears in 2022 – would have been candidates to contend for a rotation spot too if they hadn't each undergone Tommy John surgery in 2024.

The Athletics likely won't get any high-end reinforcements from their farm system anytime soon, since their top pitching prospect – 22-year-old righty Luis Morales – has yet to advance past High-A. Their 2024 second round pick, Gage Jump, isn't expected to make it to the majors until 2027, either.

So because of injuries and mismatched timelines, the A's don't have much depth behind their top five starters heading into 2025. That means another move could be on the horizon, even if the rotation seems solid at the moment.

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