Justin Sterner has now entered his second season with the Major League Baseball team with no-city-to-call-their-own, the Athletics, and his third season in The Show.
As a right-handed relief pitcher last season he registered a 3.18 ERA. Through eleven games this season his ERA is 2.25. However, he didn’t get here overnight.
Fresh off his mission to Samoa, Sterner walked on at BYU. He was nervous to play ball again. A major question popped into his head: will I still be able to play?
“That first year at BYU was really hard. Not playing baseball for two years then throwing [again] was a lot,” Sterner said. “It took me almost a year to get all the way back.”
Sterner said he is grateful for his time at BYU. The coaches were patient with him. They gave him opportunities to regain his old form. Those opportunities have catapulted him to where he is today.
He shared that his mission helped him learn valuable lessons that he still applies to his life.
“You’ve gotta just roll with the punches, [just] adjust and adapt and figure things out as best as you can,” Sterner said.
He pitched in Provo from 2018 until 2020, and after going undrafted, he signed a free agent minor league contract with the Miami Marlins. He worked his way through the minor leagues, and after several trades, he made his major league debut in 2024 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
“It’s kind of just been my whole life, having to earn things,” Sterner said. “You keep working hard, you keep seeing how long it will go, until you get where you want to be.”
Sterner played his first full season as a professional in 2025. He learned a lot. He had to adjust to the extreme highs and lows of playing at the major league level. Now, with a full season under his belt, he hopes to continue to improve.
“[I want to] hopefully build off of last year, and hopefully win some more games, and make a push for the playoffs as a team,” he said.
Justin is not the only Sterner to have played at BYU. Current BYU baseball coach Trench Pratt joked that it has been almost 10 years of Sterners playing at BYU.
“It’s pretty cool to think about, it's a dream come true,” Sterner said. “Growing up, all of us wanted to go to BYU, and the fact that we were all able to go there and play is pretty crazy to think about.”
Along with Jeremy Guthrie and Taylor Cole, Sterner is a part of an elite club of athletes that pitched at BYU, served a mission, and played in the MLB.
Sterner proved that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible, even pitching in The Show.