WEST SACRAMENTO -- It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s behind Athletics left-hander Jeffrey Springs’ first-inning struggles in 2025.
To A’s manager Mark Kotsay, it “could be a mindset thing,” or perhaps a lack of command. Springs, meanwhile, wondered if he might be “giving some stuff away to hitters.”
Whatever it is, if the A’s hope to win the left-hander’s starts, it simply can’t continue.
That seemed to be the consensus reached after yet another poor first inning put Springs and the A’s behind the eight-ball for good in Saturday’s 10-3 loss to the White Sox at Sutter Health Park. The lefty allowed four extra-base hits and four runs before his offense ever came to the plate, and the A’s never recovered.
“You can’t give up four in the first inning,” Springs said. “It just puts the team behind and kills all momentum. We’ve been playing really good baseball, and when you give up four in the first … it can’t happen.”
Unfortunately for Springs and the A’s, it keeps happening. Springs also gave up a four-run first on Sunday in Milwaukee, when he was dehydrated and cramping due to food poisoning, and allowed a Divisional Era-record six stolen bases in the opening frame alone. He gave up three runs in the first inning in each of the two starts before that and owns a 16.50 ERA in the first inning this season.
On Saturday, Springs allowed a solo home run to Luis Robert Jr. with one out in the first, then gave up three consecutive two-out doubles. Two singles and an error led to a pair of unearned runs against Springs in the second inning.
“I thought from Jeffrey’s standpoint, they took some really good swings early in the game,” Kotsay said of the White Sox. “They seemed to be on everything, whether it was a fastball or a changeup. They had a good approach.”
Unlike his 2 1/3-inning, six-run outing against the Brewers, Springs at least made up for his early struggles. Just as he did April 8 against the Padres, he settled in after a tough first to complete six innings and bail out the A’s bullpen a bit.
“There’s going to be some good ones and bad ones,” Springs said. “The last one was one of the really bad ones. This one wasn’t much better, but I was able to go six after giving up a bunch in the first.”
Acquired from the Rays this offseason, Springs has certainly been better the deeper he has gone into games. The final run he allowed, on a sixth-inning Jacob Amaya sacrifice fly, was the first run Springs has allowed in the fourth inning or later all season.
Springs’ ERA by inning, 2025
1st: 16.50
2nd: 9.00
3rd: 1.69
4th: 0.00
5th: 0.00
6th: 3.00
His early-game struggles appear to be new. Prior to 2025, Springs’ highest ERA in any of the first six innings was 4.31 in the fourth, with a 3.13 combined ERA in first and second innings.
How could the A’s mitigate the impact of Springs’ poor performance early in games? One potential strategy was on display Friday and Saturday in West Sacramento -- from the visiting side. The White Sox deployed left-hander Tyler Gilbert as an opener in both contests, letting him face the A’s top lefty batters in the first inning before giving way to a “bulk” pitcher behind him.
Right-hander Jonathan Cannon filled that bulk role for Chicago on Saturday, completing 7 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and three runs allowed. The A’s could do something similar with Springs to keep him from facing opponents’ best right-handed hitters in the first inning, and they appear open to it.
“We can talk about it, definitely,” Kotsay said. “From our standpoint, we’ve used openers in the past, so it definitely could be a discussion.”
If Springs is able to straighten things out, it might not have to come to that. The lefty flashed his talent in his first A’s start, striking out nine Mariners across six scoreless innings on April 28.
Things haven’t gone well since then -- Springs has allowed three or more runs in his five other starts, and his ERA sits at 6.04 -- but as the final four innings of Saturday showed, he’s clearly capable of pitching efficiently and getting outs.
He’ll just have to start earlier.
“I feel like I’m right there,” Springs said. “I’ve just got to do a better job of making better pitches from pitch one.”