Athletics acquire LHP Jeffrey Springs in multiplayer deal with the Rays

Sport

Athletics acquire LHP Jeffrey Springs in multiplayer deal with the Rays

2024-12-15 05:22 Last Updated At：05:30

The Athletics are building a new-look rotation for their big move to Sacramento.

The A's added to their pitching depth on Saturday, acquiring Jeffrey Springs in a multiplayer trade with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The A's also received fellow left-hander Jacob Lopez from Tampa Bay in exchange for right-handers Joe Boyle and Jacob Watters, infielder Will Simpson and a competitive balance pick in the 2025 amateur draft.

The addition of Springs is another notable move for the A’s ahead of their first season in West Sacramento. They are planning to play at Sutter Health Park for the next three years before they hope to move into a new stadium in Las Vegas.

The A’s finalized a $67 million, three-year contract with veteran right-hander Luis Severino this month.

The A’s went 69-93 this year, and then left Oakland after 57 seasons.

“I've been pretty open about looking for starting pitching since the offseason started and the fact that hopefully signing Severino wasn't going to be the only move we made,” general manager David Forst said. “We've been exploring more options in free agency and having this trade discussion with the Rays probably since middle of October. It got a little momentum in the last couple days and couldn't be more excited to add Jeffrey Springs to our rotation and also add Jacob Lopez who we see as another option for our rotation.”

The 32-year-old Springs had Tommy John surgery on April 24, 2023. He returned to Tampa Bay in July and went 2-2 with a 3.27 ERA in seven starts before he was shut down in September because of elbow fatigue.

Springs is slated to make $10.5 million in each of the next two seasons as part of a $31 million, four-year contract. There is a $15 million team option for 2027 with a $750,000 buyout.

Springs had his best season with the Rays in 2022, going 9-5 with a 2.46 ERA in 33 games, including 25 starts. He also had 144 strikeouts in 135 1/3 innings.

Forst figures Springs wouldn't have been available via trade had he stayed healthy the past two years.

“The way he started out 2023, he looked like he was on track to be one of if not the best pitcher in the big leagues that year with his first three starts,” Forst said. “And then unfortunately he got hurt but was able to come back and make seven starts last year and pitch really well. It's not easy going through that rehab and coming back and competing in the big leagues the following season. Those things were all factors.”

Lopez, 26, made his big league debut in August 2023. He is 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA and one save in eight career games, including two starts.

Tampa Bay is looking to rebound from a disappointing 80-82 finish this year. The Rays went 99-63 and made the AL playoffs as a wild card in 2023.

The 6-foot-7 Boyle was a fifth-round pick by Cincinnati in the 2020 amateur draft out of the University of Notre Dame. He was traded to the A's in July 2023.

Boyle, 25, has a big arm, but he has struggled with control at times. He is 5-6 with a 5.23 ERA in 16 major league games, including 13 starts. He has struck out 71 and walked 45 in 63 2/3 innings.

Simpson, 23, batted .282 with 18 homers and 90 RBIs in 127 games over two minor league stops this year. He was a 15th-round pick in the 2023 draft.

Watters, 23, is 9-12 with a 5.86 ERA in 43 career minor league appearances. He was a fourth-round selection in 2022.

AP Baseball Writers Ronald Blum and Jay Cohen contributed to this story.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

US officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that ousted Assad, Blinken says

2024-12-15 05:14 Last Updated At：05:20

AQABA, Jordan (AP) — American officials have been in direct contact with the terrorist-designated rebel group that led the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday.

Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Jordan, was the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that drove Assad from power and into asylum in Russia last weekend.

Along with counterparts from eight Arab nations and Turkey and senior officials from the European Union and United Nations, Blinken signed off on a set of principles meant to guide Syria’s transition to a peaceful, nonsectarian and inclusive country.

Blinken would not discuss details of the direct contacts with HTS but said it was important for the U.S. to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period.

“Yes, we have been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken said in the port city of Aqaba. He added that “our message to the Syrian people is this: We want them to succeed and we’re prepared to help them do so.”

HTS, once an affiliate of al-Qaida, has been designed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department since 2018. That designation carries severe sanctions, including a ban on the provision of any “material support” to the group or its members.

The sanctions do not, however, legally bar U.S. officials from communicating with designated groups.

In an interview Saturday on Syrian television, the group’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, did not address any direct contact with the United States, but said the new authorities in Damascus are in touch with Western embassies.

He also said that "we don’t intend to enter any conflict because there is general exhaustion in Syria.”

HTS has worked to establish security and start a political transition after seizing Damascus and has tried to reassure a public both stunned by Assad’s fall and concerned about extremist jihadis among the rebels. Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past.

Blinken also stressed that “the success that we’ve had in ending the territorial caliphate” of the Islamic State group remains “a critical mission.” And citing the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish fighters who in recent years drove IS out of large areas of Syria, he called it ”very important at this moment that they continue that role because this is a moment of instability” in which IS “will seek to regroup and take advantage of.”

A joint statement after the meeting of foreign ministers urged all parties to cease hostilities in Syria and expressed support for a locally led transitional political process. It called for preventing the reemergence of extremist groups and ensuring the security and safe destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles.

“We don’t want Syria to fall into chaos,” Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told journalists.

A separate statement by Arab foreign ministers called for U.N.-supervised elections based on a new constitution approved by Syrians. Their statement condemned Israel’s incursion into the buffer zone with Syria and adjacent sites over the past week as a “heinous occupation” and demanded the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

U.S. officials say al-Sharaa has been making welcomed comments about protecting minority and women’s rights but they remain skeptical that he will follow through on them in the long run.

On Friday, the rebels and Syria’s unarmed opposition worked to safely turn over to U.S. officials an American man who had been imprisoned by Assad.

U.S. officials are continuing their search for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared 12 years ago near Damascus. "We have impressed upon everyone we’ve been in contact with the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home,” Blinken said.

In other developments:

—Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus, becoming the first country to do so since the end of Assad’s rule. The embassy suspended operations 12 years ago due to insecurity during Syria's civil war.

—Al-Sharaa said in the TV interview that “the pretexts that Israel uses have ended” for its airstrikes that have destroyed much of the Syrian army's assets in recent days. He said “the Israelis have crossed the rules of engagement” but that the insurgent group is not about to enter a conflict with Israel.

—The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants said the group has lost its military supply line through Syria but that the new authority there might reinstate the route.

—A Syrian war monitor and a citizen journalist said gunmen attacked members of a Syrian insurgent group, Failaq al-Sham, in the country’s coastal region, killing or wounding 15 of them on Saturday. That region is home to many members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.