Justin

Sterner

This move doesn’t come as a surprise as Sterner underwent season-ending knee surgery last week. It was done as a procedural move to free up a spot on the team’s 40-man roster for the addition of Joe Rock on Sunday.

Sterner finishes with a rough 6.12 ERA in 46 appearances for the Athletics in 2026, a far cry from the 3.18 ERA he posted in 2025. The 29-year-old will remain under contract with the Athletics next season.

Sterner was shellacked for six runs over just 1/3 of an inning against the Nationals on Friday, and apparently wasn’t close to 100 percent. He’ll be out at least two weeks, but knee injuries often will have longer stints on the injured list. Geoff Hartlieb is up to take Sterner’s place on the active roster.

Sterner was tasked with holding onto a one-run lead in the 10th inning and did the job here. The game-changing at-bat came when he struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong with a runner on third and one out after a tough battle. This may have little to do with the Athletics’ closer hierarchy as Hogan Harris came on for the bottom of the ninth in a tie game after nabbing the save on Tuesday. Continue to keep an eye on this bullpen.

Brought into a 2-2 game, Sterner retired Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho on groundouts to start the bottom of the ninth. After that, though, he gave up a single to Kazuma Okamoto, a double to Ernie Clement and a game-winning single to Andrés Giménez. He already appeared to be behind Hogan Harris and Mark Leiter Jr. in line for saves on the A’s, and this one won’t improve his standing.

The 29-year-old right-hander finally looked sharp in this one, getting Andrew Vaughn on a fly ball to center, Garrett Mitchell on a swinging third strike and Luis Rengifo on a ground ball to short. Sterner got three whiffs on 11 pitches on the day, posting a CSW of 36 percent. His fastball velocity was in line with what we saw during the 2025 season at 93.1 mph (-0.4 mph). He remains a candidate to open the season in the closer’s role for the A’s, though he’ll probably need to replicate Friday’s outing at least a few more times in order to do so.

Sterner will rejoin the A’s pen after just three minor league appearances. He had a 4.28 ERA and a 30/14 K/BB in 27 1/3 innings before being sent down earlier this month.

Sterner started the season on fire — or as on fire as a middle reliever can start, anyway — but has struggled lately and gets the boot from the roster after giving up a run as the opener vs. the Twins on Thursday. The move clears a spot for T.J. McFarland on the active roster with McFarland coming off the injured list.

It’ll be reliever Justin Sterner taking the ball to open Wednesday’s contest against a right-handed stack of hitters atop Minnesota’s lineup. There isn’t much of a takeaway here for fantasy purposes, but the move should help prevent Springs from facing a couple challenging right-handed bats.

The A’s picked Sterner up on waivers from the Rays in November and then kept him on the 40-man all winter. He’s making a great case for a bullpen spot, as he’s allowed only an unearned run and posted an 11/1 K/BB ratio in eight innings this spring.