The Rays announced they signed left-handers Jeffrey Springs to a four-year contract extension. The southpaw is guaranteed $31 million over the course of the deal, but there are also incentives and a $15 million club option for 2027 with a $750,000 buyout. If Springs fulfills all Cy Young awards incentives and escalators and the club exercises the option, he will earn $65.75 million over five years. The exact details of these incentives and escalators are not known. He will earn a salary of $4 million this year, $5.25 million next year, followed by $10.5 million in each of the two subsequent seasons. Springs should reach free agency after 2024, which could allow the Rays to secure him for three more seasons if they end up triggering that option.
Springs, 30, has had a unique baseball journey. As the Rangers’ 30th-round draft pick, he drew little fanfare from potential reviewers in his early pro seasons. Although he was given rotation work for a few years, in 2018 Rangers used him solely as a relief to achieve good results. That year he threw 56 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. The 4.13 ERA may not seem very impressive, but it was certainly inflated by a .438 batting average on balls in play. He kept his walks at a reasonable 8.1% while eliminating an incredible 41.7% of batters faced. That year he made his MLB debut, throwing 32 innings over 18 appearances with a 3.38 ERA.
He took a step back in 2019, missing a few months with left bicep tendinitis and posting a 6.40 ERA. Texas designated him for use until 2020 and then traded him to the Red Sox Sam Travis. The change of scene didn’t help Springs get back on track as he posted a 7.08 ERA in the abridged 2020 campaign. He was re-designated for action and then switched to the Rays next to it Chris Mazza for interested parties Ronaldo Hernandez and Nick Sogard.
The move to Tampa appears to have been what Springs needed as its results have completely changed since then. He recorded a 3.43 ERA across 43 appearances in 2021, hitting 35.2% of the batsmen he faced while walking just 7.8% of them. In 2022 he started in the bullpen but the club began stretching him into a starter as the season progressed. He responded well to the change, eventually throwing 135 1/3 innings with a 2.46 ERA, 26.2% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate, and 40 ground ball rate .9%.
After a few years of fidgeting and struggling, it’s no big surprise that Springs would jump at the chance to lock up some life-changing money here. He reached arbitration for the first time in 2022, but only earned $947.5,000, a slight increase above the league minimum of $700,000. He was forecast by MLBTR staffer Matt Swartz for a jump to $3 million this year, though he and the club failed to reach an agreement before the filing deadline earlier this month. He submitted a figure of $3.55 million while the Rays submitted $2.7 million. Instead, he’ll make $4 million and secure some eight-figure salaries going forward.
For the Rays, they clearly believe Springs is capable of continuing to be an effective starter, although there is some risk here. Springs had stellar results in 2022, but it’s still just a season, and it wasn’t even a full one. As previously mentioned, Springs started the year in the bullpen and was not stretched out until the end of May. He was also on the injured list for a couple of weeks in July because he was tense in his right lower leg. Concerns aside, the Rays are confident enough in the left-hander that they’re willing to take a chance on him.
For a low-spending team like the Rays, overtime is an important part of having talent on the roster. Not typically buying at the top of the free agent market, they need to keep people around by locking them up before they approach the free market and increase their earning power. In recent years they have helped players such as Kevin Kiermaier, Blake Snell, Brandon Lowe, Wander Franco, Manuel Margot and Tyler Glasnowwith Springs now joining them on this list.
This won’t have a huge impact on the club’s 2023 payroll but will add some decent commitments for 2025 and 2026. The club now have three players who are firmly linked with Franco and in the earlier season Zach Eflin there in the books, along with a club option for Lowe. In exchange for putting that money on the table, the Rays now have arguably the most rotational stability they’ve had in years. For the past few seasons they’ve relied on bullpen plays and openers to get them through a season, but now they’ve got Springs, Glasnow, Eflin, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahanwith depth options like Yonny Chirinos, Luis Patino and Josh Fleming. Most of this group are still in their pre-arbitration years, giving the club affordable control for years to come. Neither of them are slated for free agency after this year, and Glasnow is now the only one coming to open market after 2024. The club also has one of the best pitching prospects in the sport Taj Bradleywho graduated from Triple-A last year and could make his debut this year.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the four-year-old first reported The deal and many of the details. Joel Sherman of the New York Post was the first with the annual salary breakdown.
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