Good morning everyone! For today’s Season In Review we picked right-handed reliever Justin Sterner for the deep dive. It was a bit of a roller coaster season for the rookie, with lots of highs and a few lows in his first full season as a major leaguer. But overall not a terrible first year with the Athletics and an arm that should easily be in the Opening Day bullpen next season.
Sterner began his professional career with the Miami Marlins, signing on as an undrafted free agent after he wasn’t selected during the shortened 2020 MLB Draft. A starter in college he was never expected to be a top pitching prospect but a move to the bullpen could help his stuff play up and that’s what the Marlins did. Though he wouldn’t stick around in Miami for long, soon getting traded (while still in Single-A) to the cross-town Rays in exchange for David Hess after just half a season in their system. At least they kept him in-state.
He’d stick around in the Tampa farm system for a while, ascending quickly and making it all the way to Triple-A in just his second pro year. He’d remain there for a couple more years before finally getting called up to the majors for the first time on May 31st, 2024. The right-hander would only make two appearances for the Rays before getting demoted back to the minors, where he’d spend the rest of that season.
The Rays attempted to quietly pass Sterner through waivers that offseason but the A’s, being frugal and on the lookout for any sort of bullpen help, put in a claim for Sterner on November 4th and won it, adding Sterner to the 40-man roster. He’d keep that spot all winter long, an early indication of the Athletics’ thoughts on the then-28-year-old.
What were the expectations?
Another waiver claim that mostly went unnoticed at the time. The addition of Sterner was seen as another depth move by a front office trying to shore up a weak unit across the system. After all he’d only made two career appearances in the big leagues, was already 28 and had never been considered a hot-shot prospect. If Sterner provided some innings during the dog days of Summer that’d have felt like a boon.
Still, with the unsettled bullpen situation there were chances to make an impression. Sterner began Spring Training with a decent enough shot to crack the Opening Day roster for the first time but would need a strong camp. The bullpen was mostly up for grabs outside of a few key arms but there were definitely spots available. Sterner took full advantage of that opportunity. The righty made 10 appearances and didn’t allow an earned run in 12 full frames during Spring Training. What was even more impressive was his 17-to-2 K/BB ratio. Not much more you can do if you’re trying to make the coaches’ decision easy.
That strong spring earned Sterner a ticket to Seattle on the Opening Day roster. And he not only kept it up during the regular season, he surpassed his Spring Training stats early on. Sterner began his A’s tenure with 18 straight scoreless relief outings, pitching 18 2/3 innings without allowing a run. That’s the longest streak by an Athletics reliever since Jake Diekman began his season with 18 1/3 in 2020. During this time he also racked up an impressive 24-to-9 K/BB ratio.
But he wasn’t the Second Coming of Brad Zeigler and when he finally gave up runs, he gave up runs. An actual implosion saw the righty yield five earned runs without finishing an inning against the New York Yankees, which boosted his season ERA up from 0.00 to a still-nice 2.33 mark. He’d follow that with six more scoreless appearances, making that Yankees game look like the aberration.
Things would start to come apart at the end of May though. It started with a tough outing against Houston that saw Sterner pick up his first career loss and that was immediately followed by three more appearances that saw him give up runs, blow leads, and take losses. Something was suddenly wrong with an arm that was beginning to gain huge amounts of trust and the A’s did the sensible thing and sent him to Triple-A to figure out what was going wrong.
Sterner didn’t stay down in Vegas for long. He made only three appearances for the Aviators, allowing three runs in three innings of work. Not the best on-field results but enough for the bullpen-desperate A’s to recall him. He had a few more hiccups in his firth month back, allowing six runs in 12 innings in the month of July. But after the calendar flipped to August he began resembling the guy that dominated early in the season. Over the final two months of the season he allowed just 4 earned runs in 15 2/3 frames (including just one run in September), good for a 2.29 ERA to wrap his first big league season. Overall he finished the season with a 3.18 ERA in a team-high 59 appearances with no
The A’s are looking for additional bullpen help this winter and rightfully so, but Sterner mostly looked good in his first full year in the big leagues and feels like a shoe-in to again be on the Opening Day roster as one of Mark Kotsay’s primary setup pitchers. If the A’s fail to sign any more relief arms Sterner could even get one of the first looks as the closer, though he has just 15 career saves in the minors and none in the bigs. Ideally he’s the setup man in the bullpen come Opening Day, behind a more experience arm for the ninth inning, but if he’s the option for the ninth come next season the A’s could certainly do worse. What’s he going to do for his follow-up campaign in 2026?