What the A's lost in the Jeffrey Springs trade with Tampa Bay

The A's gave up three players and a draft pick to acquire an intriguing lefty.

Sep 25, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Joe Boyle (35) pitches the ball against the Texas Rangers during the fourth inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

The Athletics sent three players: right-handed pitcher Joe Boyle, infielder prospect Will Simpson, and pitching prospect Jacob Watters, along with their 2025 Comp-A draft pick, to the Tampa Bay Rays for left-handed pitchers Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez.

Joe Boyle is the biggest name of the three, acquired by the A's in the trade that sent Sam Moll to the Cincinnati Reds at the 2023 trade deadline.

Boyle is a high-octane pitcher with a four-seam fastball that averages 97.7 mph and touches triple-digits. He pairs it with a slider that produces a 37.9% whiff rate and an occasional curveball with fifteen inches of drop. On paper, Boyle has some of the nastiest stuff in baseball, but what Boyle struggles with is finding the zone. He recorded the worst walk percentage among pitchers at 17.7% in 2024.

Boyle was slotted to be in the A's bullpen to start 2025, but since the A's have been unsuccessful in helping Boyle overcome his missing the strike zone problem, they moved on. The Rays are notorious for taking on "project pitchers" and turning them into very effective MLB pitchers. Some refer to this as the "Rays pitching lab," and Boyle will be the next guy they look to help. If Boyle can iron out his zone issues, he will become a very dangerous weapon for the Rays with six years of control.

The A's also included prospects Will Simpson and Jacobs Watters. Watters was the A's fourth-round draft pick in 2022 but has struggled in the minor leagues since being drafted. Watters has 152 career innings in the minor leagues, with 153 strikeouts and a 5.86 ERA. He will look to take the next step in his young career with the Rays minor league affiliates.

Simpson was a fan-favorite prospect for some, a 2023 15th-round pick turned into a hitting machine in just 163 minor league games. Simpson holds a .290 career minor league batting average, with a .872 OPS and 72 extra-base hits, including 24 home runs. Simpson earned his promotion to Double-A Midland at the end of last season, and many thought he wouldn't stay there long in 2025.

The presumption around Simpson was he would hit his way to Triple-A quickly in 2025 and had an outside shot of making his MLB debut next season as well. Those opinions may be a little far-fetched, but the way Simpson is playing, they are not that crazy. If Simpson continues to play as well as he did with A's organization, the Rays organization may have a gem on their hands.

The final piece of the trade was the A's 2025 Comp-A draft pick that stands at 36th overall. That now belongs to the Rays, giving them two Comp-A draft picks at 34 and 36 overall. This is viewed as arguably the most valuable part of the trade, but baseball draft picks are not as much of a guarantee to produce good players as in other sports.

Overall, the A's had to pay a pretty penny to acquire Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez, and rightfully so. Springs is a very underrated pitcher who, if he can stay healthy, could turn out to be a monster for this young, up-and-coming A's team.