Tampa Bay’s Jeffrey Springs Is Baseball’s Best Pitcher That The Casual Fan Has Never Heard Of

Jeffrey Springs has always been under the radar.

After graduating from South Point High School in Belmont, North Carolina back in 2011, Springs enrolled at Appalachian State University, and played college baseball between 2012 and 2015. At that time, only five players in history had ever made it into an MLB game coming out of the Mountaineers programme, and none had done so since Mike Ramsey in 1975.

Although the Sun Belt is one of the better conferences in Division I college baseball, Appalachian State had not won it since 1987. Springs, then, was not exactly arriving at a powerhouse.

Nevertheless, in Springs’s rookie season, they did indeed win, picking up their first Sun Belt title and NCAA Tournament appearances for 35 years. But Springs himself was only a bit-part player in that success; across 12 appearances with five starts, he pitched to a 4.80 ERA and 1.80 WHIP across 30 innings.

As it turns out, that limited freshman campaign would go on to arguably be his best collegiate season. In his sophomore campaign, those numbers would balloon to a 6.28 ERA and 2.04 WHIP over 53 innings as he battled significant control problems, and although he was able to bring those numbers down to 5.06/1.36 in his junior season and 4.46/1.51 as a senior respectively, they still did not pop off the page.

This is not exactly the résumé of a player who would go on to be a frontline quality starter on a competitive MLB playoff team. Not so far, at least. But from these relatively humble beginnings, there began a significant growth spurt.

Notwithstanding his limited college performance, Springs was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 30th round of the 2015 MLB Draft, and signed with them for a $1,000 signing bonus. Aged 23 and in Low-A ball, he had to come out of the gate storming, and he did. Over the course of the next two seasons, Springs finally got on top of his control problems and worked his way through short stints at various stops in the Rangers organisation before rising to High-A, spending the whole of the 2017 season at that level with the Down East Wood Ducks.

There, in his age-25 season, Springs put together a full season of eye-catching numbers. Across 112.1 innings, he gave up only 104 hits, a much-improved total of only 37 walks, and also became a strikeout guy, racking up 146 Ks at a rate of 11.7 punch-outs per nine innings. From a man who had averaged only 8.0 K/9 across his four years in the Sun Belt, it was quite the transformation.

Within twelve months, Springs was in the big leagues. A short but spectacular stint at the Double-A Frisco RoughRiders (where he recorded 68 strikeouts and 7 walks in only 37.1 innings), and an even shorter one at the Triple-A Round Rock Express (31K in 19.1 IP) saw him promoted to the majors with the Rangers for the final two months of the 2018 MLB season. After seven years of slow progression, Springs had, in the course of only two more, been fast-tracked to the top.

Even then, though, he still had plenty to prove at the top level, and after all that speed-running to the majors came the inevitable wobble. Despite making the Rangers’ 2019 Opening Day roster, Springs endured a difficult injury-affected season, and after his control problems returned, he laboured to a 6.40 ERA across 32.1 innings before being designated for assignment at season’s end. What goes up, must come down.

Ultimately, Springs was traded to the Boston Red Sox, who intended to put him back in AAA for the 2020 season. But when the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to the entire minor league system, Springs came back to the majors, where unfortunately he continued to struggle. Across 20.1 innings in multiple stints being ferried back and forth between the big league club and the alternate training site, Springs gave up 30 hits on his way to a 7.08 ERA; as good as the two-season run from High-A to the majors had been, the next two had proved only to be a rude awakening.

Nevertheless, what Springs did do in his one season with the Red Sox was get his strikeout rate back. On top of all those swings-and-misses, he was also able to illicit a fair amount of soft contact, much more than the statline attested to. And he was able to do much of this with one pitch in particular; the change-up.

This tandem in turn piqued the interest of the Tampa Bay Rays, who in recent seasons have had some amazing successes taking cast-offs from other teams, reshaping their pitch selection, and turning them into studs. (See also; Jason Adam, Pete Fairbanks, and others.) In a deal that seemed to matter little at the time, the Rays traded formerly-prized catching prospect Roberto Hernandez along with Nick Sogard in exchange for Springs and Chris Mazza, and from there, he has become the best fifth starter in the game.

After a strong first season with the Rays, in which he appeared in 43 regular season games out of the bullpen and worked to a 1.10 WHIP and 4.5/1 strikeout/walk ratio, Springs moved back into the rotation for 2022. Working him back into a longer role from the reliever he had become, the Rays gave Springs 25 starts, which slowly got longer and longer as the season went on. And this time, Springs responded with some astonishing numbers; 135.1 innings, a 2.46 ERA, 144 strikeouts, 114 hits allowed and only 31 walks. No matter how underwhelming his arsenal may have appeared on the surface, opponents just could not get on base against him.

At no point in his journey has Springs blown anyone away with his stuff. A fastball that only just ticks over 90MPH does not wow in the modern era, and he is only a three-pitch pitcher. But subtle changes to his pitching repertoire and his deployment thereof in his time in Tampa have seen him go from reclamation relief prospect to a 2.46 ERA starter in the course of only two years. What goes down, often comes back up again.

Wherever Jeffrey Springs goes, success seems to follow. Finally with some contract security after signing a four-year, $31 million extension before this season began, the Rays have found a left-handed James Shields, a man against whom opponents are always off-balance and whose change-up no one can seem to pick. The depth in starters at the Rays’ disposal (highlighted by the sheer explosion of Shane McClanahan and Tyler Glasnow at the top of the rotation) may overshadow his consistent sneaky effectiveness. But being overlooked is nothing new to Jeffrey Springs.