Good things come to those who wait, we’re so often told as children, and Tomoyuki Sugano waited a long time to come to Major League Baseball.
The three-time MVP of Nippon Professional Baseball‘s Central League and two-time winner of the Eiji Sawamura Award, Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award, played 12 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants of NPB, only coming to the United States as a 35-year-old.
But Sugano has been a solid addition to the rotation for the Baltimore Orioles, where he signed as a free agent this past offseason, in his first season in North America. This past week, Sugano made two starts, throwing 11 innings and striking out 12 while posting a 1.64 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP and allowing two earned runs on nine hits and three walks, earning him World Baseball Network’s International MLB Player of the Week honors.
On April 28, Sugano was stellar in his first start against the New York Yankees, MLB’s equivalent of the Yomiuri Giants, striking out eight and walking one across five shutout innings as the Orioles won 4-3. Five days later, he provided the O’s with a quality start, allowing two runs in six innings, walking one and striking out four in a 4-3 loss to Kansas City.
Sugano has a six-pitch repertoire, but relies heavily on his splitter, sweeper, and four-seam fastball, throwing those three for 355 of his 585 pitches through seven starts this season. He doesn’t have overpowering stuff — his four-seamer averages 92.4 mph and his sinker clocks in at 92.2 mph — but he mixes his pitches and throws pitches with serious movement, often from the same arm slot, fooling hitters as he does in the video below from @PitchingNinja on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Tomoyuki Sugano, 94mph Fastball and 88mph Splitter, Overlay. pic.twitter.com/8y4JaZjIhJ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 29, 2025
Throwing with relatively average velocity but explosive movement, Sugano’s cutter (30 inches), sweeper (37.7 inches) and curveball (57.7 inches) all show significant vertical break, and compliment his sinker and splitter, which have horizontal breaks of over 12 inches.
Though American fans had to wait for Sugano to come to MLB, it’s not because he didn’t try. Following the 2020 NPB season, Sugano was posted by the Yomiuri Giants, and he didn’t sign with an MLB club, opting to return to the Giants. Unlike Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, Sugano doesn’t have eye-popping velocity with a fastball that averages 92, and perhaps that hurt him when he was posted five years ago. It undoubtedly drove his price down this past offseason, when he signed a one-year contract with Baltimore for $13 million.
So far, though, Sugano has posted a 3.00 ERA and a 1.128 WHIP through his first 39 innings of work with Baltimore and has an ERA+ of 125, suggesting he’s pitching well above average. He’s made three quality starts (six or more innings with three or fewer runs allowed by a starter) in seven appearances.
For Baltimore, he might be the bargain find of the offseason, and if he keeps pitching well, he’ll command a much higher price next year, when he’ll be a free agent once again.
Photo: Baltimore Orioles pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Baltimore, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
