A's claim reliever from Tampa Bay Rays

Jason Burke | Nov 5, 2024

May 31, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Justin Sterner (65) throws a sixth inning pitch against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The A's recently announced that they have claimed right-handed reliever Justin Sterner off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays. The 28-year-old made his MLB debut on May 31 in Baltimore, tossing two scoreless innings in relief, allowing two hits, walking two (one intentionally), and striking out two. His only other appearance in the bigs also came on the road, against Miami, and he tossed another two innings, but was touched up for two runs (one earned), gave up three hits, and struck out another pair.

He holds a career 2.25 ERA with a 1.50 WHIP. Despite the high WHIP in a small sample size, his FIP was still a solid 1.92.

The rest of his season was spent in Triple-A, where he held a 3.28 ERA across 46 2/3 innings with a 31.4% strikeout rate to go along with a nice 8.9% walk rate. At every stop across the minor leagues, Sterner has held a strikeout rate of more than 10 per nine innings.

Part of the reason that he had to be appealing for the A's is because he still has options remaining--two of them in fact. That means that they can shuttle him in between Las Vegas and Sacramento over the course of the season when they need some innings covered.

While his sample size was limited, there are still ways to see how effective he could be at the big league level. One of the most interesting of those options is to look at his Stuff+ and Location+, which will show what kind of a pitcher he is without much need for innings.

Sterner's Stuff+ came in at a 97 (100 is league average), while his Location+ was a 104, giving him a total Pitching+ of 106. That could put him in the Tyler Ferguson range of reliever if the A's decide to roll with Sterner. Ferguson figures to be a late inning option for the A's next season.

The righty went undrafted in the five-round 2020 Draft, ultimately signing with the Rays in August of that year out of BYU.

In his four innings of work in the big leagues, he relied almost exclusively on his four-seamer and his cutter, while also tossing one sweeper. In terms of stuff, FanGraphs didn't like his cutter much, giving it a 69, while his fastball earned a 108. That heater sat at 93 miles per hour, while the cutter came in at 86. They also deem his sweeper a slider, and gave it a great stuff grade at 128, but his location on the offering was a lowly 14.

And all of that together may be why the Rays decided to place him on waivers in the first place. It would appear that the four-seamer is his main quality pitch, and he threw it 65% of the time. In order to have a decent amount of success with the Athletics, he'll need a second pitch.

Sterner will be an intriguing pickup, and he's on the 40-man, so there's a good chance we'll see him in some capacity in 2025, but it would appear that there's some work to be done before he's a bonafide big leaguer.