TAMPA, Fla. -- With starting pitching to spare, the Rays swung a trade Saturday that brought their rotation into clearer focus and further fortified their highly regarded Minor League system.

The Rays dealt starter Jeffrey Springs and left-hander Jacob Lopez to the Athletics for high-ceiling/MLB-ready starter Joe Boyle, first base prospect Will Simpson, pitching prospect Jacob Watters and a Competitive Balance Round A pick in the 2025 Draft.

Tampa Bay had been expected to trade away a starter due to the club’s rotation surplus and the incredible demand for starting pitching this offseason. The Rays aren’t expected to move another starter, but they still have six high-upside candidates to crack their Opening Day rotation in Shane McClanahan, Shane Baz, Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell and Drew Rasmussen.

“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,” Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “And this is a situation where the A's really stepped forward and really wanted Jeffrey.”

TRADE DETAILS
Rays get: RHP Joe Boyle, 1B Will Simpson, RHP Jacob Watters, 2025 Competitive Balance Round A Draft pick
Athletics get: LHP Jeffrey Springs, LHP Jacob Lopez

The 32-year-old Springs joined the Rays in a February 2021 trade with the Red Sox, made an impressive transition from the bullpen to the rotation in 2022 and signed a four-year, $31 million extension with Tampa Bay in January 2023. He got off to a brilliant start that season but only pitched three times before undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Springs returned to the mound for the Rays in July, posted a 3.27 ERA over seven encouraging starts then finished the year on the injured list due to elbow fatigue. He was due $10.5 million next season and the same salary in 2026, with a $15 million club option (or $750,000 buyout) for the ’27 season.

Dealing Springs was “really, really difficult,” Neander said, despite the depth behind him. But the Rays are excited about what they got back, a return headlined by the hard-throwing Boyle.

Boyle, 25, went 3-6 with a 6.42 ERA in 13 appearances (10 starts) for the Athletics this past season after making his MLB debut in 2023. But his size, stuff and past peripherals are more intriguing. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound right-hander’s average fastball velocity last season was 97.7 mph, which ranked in the Majors’ 96th percentile. He complements that with a slider that generated a 37.9% whiff rate and two other breaking balls.

The obvious concern is Boyle’s lack of strike-throwing, as the 25-year-old walked 17.7% of the batters he faced for the A’s this year and has averaged 7.3 walks per nine innings in the Minors. But the Rays have had success with big, tall, talented, wild pitchers like him before -- Tyler Glasnow comes to mind -- and think they can help Boyle in a similar way.

Boyle has Minor League options remaining and seems likely to break camp in Triple-A Durham’s rotation, giving the Rays plenty of time to harness his dynamic arsenal.

“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.”

Simpson, 23, put up impressive numbers and turned some heads in the A’s system. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound first baseman hit .290/.376/.496 over his first two seasons in the Minors after being selected in the 15th round out of Washington in 2023. He was the Athletics’ No. 28 prospect at the time of the trade, according to MLB Pipeline, and reached Double-A last season.

Simpson has mostly played first base, but he could see time in the outfield or at third base to get more playing time.

“We're really fortunate to have a lot of talent spread throughout our system, but when you look at the profiles we have, right-handed hitters that are driven by their bat -- we don't have as much of that,” Neander said. “He's somebody that has the ability to impact the baseball from the right side and is driven by his bat.”

Watters, 23, posted a 5.04 ERA in 17 outings (10 starts) for High-A Lansing last season. Neander said the Rays had previous interest in Watters, a fourth-round pick out of West Virginia in the 2022 Draft.

The extra Draft pick was also important to the Rays. They will now have three picks within the top 40 and five within the top 70, depending on how some compensation picks shake out this offseason, giving them more opportunities to replenish their system.

“Just looking at how we're spreading talent across our organization, from the big leagues all the way down through, not just for this year but beyond, that's a big get for us,” Neander said.