Jeffrey Springs Becomes First A's Starter to Experience the "Severino Room"
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WEST SACRAMENTO -- Located at the end of the dugout, just before the restroom, is the new relaxation area for A's starters this season, lovingly dubbed the "Severino Room" after starting pitcher Luis Severino expressed his frustrations with not having a place to unwind during his starts at home.
The reason for this is because the dugout is not connected to the clubhouse at Sutter Health Park, so if a player wants to go to the clubhouse mid-game, they have to walk the length of the field, past the outfield fence to get there. Severino made it clear early on that this was why he believed his home and road splits were so drastic last season.
On Friday night for the A's home opener, Jeffrey Springs was able to experience the room for himself. It's hard to argue with the first impression of the new addition, given that Springs lasted six innings, gave up just two hits, one earned run, walked one and struck out seven.
At the end of last season he talked about the mental hurdle of getting ready to pitch in games at Sutter Health with a deck or two missing from the ballpark. He figured out how to "trick his brain" into getting ready for those starts, too, and on Friday those results carried over.
Springs on the Severino Room
"Yeah, it's nice for me. I kind of have a routine of—I like to watch the game. Personally like to watch the other guy. But to have a minute or two where you can go somewhere and kind of regroup so to speak, it's kind of something that I've done for years now.
"When you don't have it, not tonight, but like you need a minute freak out or whatever. Like, you just need a minute to yourself [away from the cameras and where the fans can see]. That little bit of two seconds by yourself is nice, because in most big-league parks you walk down the tunnel and get away from everybody.
"It was a great addition. Whomever did it, thank you!"
There are two chairs in the room, along with a cooling device, but Springs seemed confident that they'd be adding a little more to the new space as the season goes along.
Changeup in progress
At the end of last season, Springs also said that his goal for the offseason was to continue to work on his changeup, which wasn't where he wanted it to be for much of 2025. On Friday night, he utilized the change 22% of the time, slightly up from last season, and he generated four whiffs on ten swings.
It produced the same number of whiffs as his four-seamer, but he also had 25 swings on the heater to work with, so it was a much more effective pitch in terms of whiff rate.
Springs spoke about his changeup after the game.
"I think it was good. Obviously, being able to establish a fastball, my pitches have to play off of one another. So better fastball command, a better fastball overall characteristics, profile, everything—I'm in a much better spot than I was pretty much all of last year.
"Worked really hard this offseason to clean some things up. I'll look at [the tape] tomorrow, but from the swings and stuff, I feel like I'm putting it in a good spot, and that's what I want to do with it. Take the success and I'll build off it, and we'll go from there."
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Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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