Orioles bolster pitching with signing of Japanese MVP pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano
By Kayla Morton
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BALTIMORE (WBAL) — The Orioles added to their pitchers’ room on Monday by signing Japanese right-handed pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano.
The move comes as time runs low on options in MLB’s free-agent pitching market for Baltimore.
Sugano comes from the Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League in Japan. The 35-year-old spent all 12 years of his professional career with the league’s Yomiuri Giants.
The two-time Sawamura Award winner — equivalent to MLB’s Cy Young — signed a one-year deal.
Sugano won the MVP award in 2024 after finishing 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 156 2/3 innings (24 starts).
With Sugano having more than nine years of professional baseball experience, MLB.com clarified that he was “not subject to the contract negotiation rules of the NPB posting system” — the system players such as Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish and others had to use to join MLB.
Sugano has little experience pitching in the United States but did appear in the 2017 World Baseball Classic for Japan. He pitched the semifinal game — against Team USA — inside Dodger Stadium. He allowed one unearned run on three hits and one walk with six strikeouts in six innings.
Baltimore fans can expect to see Sugano lean on his four-seam fastball and cutter when he arrives in Baltimore. Those two pitches combined for 46% of his pitches thrown last season.
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