Levi Sterling first Jewish ballplayer to be picked, by Pirates, in ’24 MLB Draft

Jewish baseball fans have yet another player to root for as Levi Sterling was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates this week in the Major League Baseball Draft. The 17-year-old right-handed pitcher was taken with the 37th pick on Sunday in Arlington, Texas, by the Bucs as the club opted to go for the high school product out of Notre Dame in California.

In 2023, six Jewish ball players were selected in the draft, with Jake Gelof (whose brother Zack is currently starring with the Oakland A’s) going 60th overall to the Los Angeles Dodgers, while in 2022 two Orthodox Jews were taken in Jacob Steinmetz and Elie Kligman, selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals.

The Notre Dame High School program has recently produced a pair of stars in Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene and New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton, along with a number of other major leaguers, and should Sterling follow in their footsteps, the Pirates will have a real winner on their hands.

Sterling will have to now make a decision whether he will turn professional and head to the Pittsburgh minor league affiliates to hone his trade or attend the University of Texas, where he had recently signed his National Letter of Intent to play for the Longhorns.

Standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing in at 202 pounds, Sterling had a 2.62 ERA in 45.1 innings with a 55:16 K/BB ratio during his senior season at Notre Dame, while he also played shortstop and hit .319/.396/.500, but he was drafted as a pitcher and was one of the youngest players in the draft.

Sterling's potential

It’s clear that the Pirates saw something special in Sterling with a huge amount of potential as he was not a full-time pitcher in high school and played the field on non-pitching days while being ranked 55th by Baseball America, 58th overall by MLB.com and 92nd by The Athletic.

In addition, Sterling was a 2024 end-of-season Baseball America second-team High School All-American and was the No. 6-rated right-handed pitcher by the Perfect Game Website, who had him tabbed at 31st overall.

One MLB scout said, “While Sterling played shortstop and pitched once a week during the high school season, it’s his upside on the bump that has the industry excited. He has a loose, clean arm action coming from a three-quarters slot and a lean, athletic body that points to a lot of projection. He’s already throwing his fastball in the 92-mph range, touching 94 with ride and run, and he can really spin the baseball with a plus 80-mph curve he can throw for strikes and an effective mid-80s sweeper.

“His changeup is an emerging pitch and could eventually give him a fourth above-average-or-better offering. There were times this spring when his stuff trended in the wrong direction, though some scouts felt that might have been a matter of fatigue from playing shortstop regularly when he wasn’t pitching. He should be a solid strike-thrower in the future, and there should be more in the tank velocity-wise to come as he matures. The Texas recruit is still only 17, which is another factor working in his favor.”

Sterling represented the United States and played on the U18 National Team, where he appeared in five games including two starts on the mound and went 1-0 with a 1.68 ERA. He turned in four shutout innings with three strikeouts, yielding just three hits to earn the win against Venezuela and then pitched 4.1 innings and allowed two runs with a pair of strikeouts in the Super Round versus Puerto Rico.

Prior to the draft, the Pirates brass, including general manager Ben Cherington and amateur scouting director Justin Horowitz, felt that college players provide deepest pool but ended up taking three high school players – Konnor Griffin with the ninth overall pick, Wyatt Sanford at 47th, along with Sterling with the Competitive Balance Round A pick at 37th overall.

Cherington said afterwards that taking a trio of high school players wasn’t originally in the plans.

“[We had] no emphasis on that. [We took] the best players on the board when it came to our picks. In all three of those spots, I felt very strongly that those were the best talents on the board. We think we got three very different kinds of high school players tonight, all of whom have real upside and a chance to blossom in our system. We’re excited about all of them.”

Horowitz also spoke about what the Pirates saw in Sterling that persuaded them to select him.

“He does things really easy. Very projectable in the sense physically, but also with his stuff – he’s got an effective fastball. He already has some present velocity that we think is going to get even better as he continues to add strength. He’s got a nasty changeup, gets a ton of whiffs with that pitch, and a developing breaking ball, too.”

Should Sterling sign with Pittsburgh, he will work with Jeremy Bleich, another member of the tribe who pitched for the Israel National Team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Bleich, who is the Assistant Director of Pitching for the Pirates, will be able to share plenty of his knowledge to Sterling that he gained while featuring in both the minor and major leagues.

With that, Sterling understands that there is a tremendous amount of weight that comes with being a Day 1 draftee and that there are expectations about their character and intangibles, explained Cherrington.

“The character piece is important both in terms of the grind of baseball and working through that and being resilient through the tougher days. Also, there is a little more attention on a first-rounder, and that player is going to need to carry themselves and be a positive influence, etc. All of those guys are different in their own way. They are certainly all different personalities.”

The Pirates understand that Sterling is a long away from pitching at PNC Park in Pittsburgh with the Roberto Clemente Bridge sitting in its backdrop, but they are very confident that he will be able to do just that in a few years from now.