Good morning everyone! Today we look back on a young left-handed starter that got his first chance in the big leagues with the A’s. While he’s not around anymore after a mid-season trade, for roughly three
years JP Sears provided meaningful innings for a team desperate for someone who could be relied on for 32 starts a year and help soak up innings. He just never took that next step into a mid-rotation starter.
How was he acquired?
Sears was one of four players the Athletics received in the 2022 Frankie Montas trade. Sears, a former 11th-round pick by the Seattle Mariners in 2017, came over along with pitching prospects Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina, and second base prospect Cooper Bowman. At the time it was believed that Waldichuk was the centerpiece of the return haul, but Sears was the one who was the most MLB-ready having already made his big league debut earlier in ‘22 and he immediately stepped into the rotation upon joining the Athletics.
What were the expectations?
Sears had shown flashes in the minors and during his first two full seasons with the A’s but was also going through the expected growing pains of acclimating to the big leagues. During his first two years he was the Athletics’ best pitcher on two really bad teams, making all of his starts in each season while being a young leader of an even-younger pitching staff. Over 64 starts he went 16-27 with a 4.46 ERA, which in itself isn’t bad for a rookie. But he was being asked to be the top starter in the rotation and that probably didn’t help take the pressure off of him.
Entering 2025 the bar felt a little higher. Now 29, the A’s saw that Sears could be a workhorse. Now he’d need to sharpen his game and take a step forward in his third full season. And there were signs that Sears had figured possibly something out down the stretch to end the 2024 campaign too. With the addition of Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs to head the top of the rotation, hopefully the pressure would be off a bit more for Sears and he could relax and develop into the solid mid-rotation arm the A’s were hoping he’d be when they acquired him.
2025 Results
The left-hander started the season on absolute fire. Over his first eight games Sears was the Athletics’ best pitcher and one of the better pitchers in the American League to boot, pitching to a 2.80 ERA with the A’s winning six of those eight starts. He was consistently pitching into and past the fifth inning while keeping the other team’s offense mostly in check. It looked like he’d finally figured something out that’d allow him to take that next step in his development.
And then things suddenly started going off the rails. It began back in the Bay Area with a short start on May 16th when he allowed four runs in just four innings against the San Francisco Giants. Then it really came off the rails in his next two outings as he allowed 15 combined runs to the Angels and Astros. From that stretch on Sears would revert back to his inconsistent ways that had plagued him the previous two years, posting a 6.40 ERA over his final 14 starts in an Athletics uniform.
The A’s ultimately decided to move on from Sears after that dreadful stretch, shipping the 29-year-old along with flamethrowing closer Mason Miller to the San Diego Padres for a large haul of prospects, including baseball’s #3 rated overall prospect in Leo De Vries. It’s hard to know how the trade came together but the front office wouldn’t have let Sears get in the way of bringing in an elite prospect like De Vries.
Sears would immediately join the San Diego starting five but not for long. After getting torched for 10 hits and five runs in his Padres debut Sears was optioned to Triple-A, where he looked good in four starts before getting recalled in late August. He looked much better in his first start back in the big leagues but then gave up nine runs over his next three starts. The lefty-hander ultimately finished the season with a 5.04 ERA across 27 starts between the A’s and Padres, a career-high mark. Shocking considering how he began the season.
2026 Outlook
Sears has three more seasons of club control so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. San Diego has lost multiple, multiple starters to either injury (Yu Darvish), free agency (Dylan Cease, Michael King), and trades (Stephen Kolek, Ryan Bergert). Then you have former ace Joe Musgrove, who is no sure thing to return to peak form after his Tommy John surgery last year. To say that the Padres have question marks in their rotation would be an understatement.
That mass exodus of pitching is likely why they were interested in getting Sears in the first place. Even with his down year in 2025 Sears should have an excellent shot to land a starting spot during Spring Training. His track record should afford him an early leg-up on any competition he has, and the ability to take the ball every fifth day is an underrated aspect in baseball. Sears looks likely to begin next season in the backend of the Friars’ starting rotation but they’ll likely want to see more from him than his first showing with the Padres. Will they be able to do what the A’s could not and coax more out of the soon-to-be 30-year-old?
