MLB contract grade: Orioles pick up the second-most coveted NBP pitcher on the market
With Juan Soto off the board, most of the attention has shifted over to arguably the most intriguing free agent out there, Roki Sasaki. Sasaki chose to make the move from the NPB over to MLB as a 23-year-old, so he cannot sign the kind of contract that Yoshinobu Yamamoto did last offseason and will instead sign a minor league deal with a signing bonus. Sasaki being as young, gifted, and cheap as he is makes him a top target for all 30 teams.
While all 30 teams would love to sign Sasaki, it's ultimately up to him completely where he ends up, as money isn't a factor. For a guy like Tomoyuki Sugano, the second-best starting pitcher from the NPB to come to MLB this offseason, that isn't the case. He's 35 years old, doesn't have comparable stuff to Sasaki, and likely did not generate interest from all 30 teams.
He wasn't in the spotlight, but Sugano did sign a deal on Monday, inking a one-year, $13 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano and the Baltimore Orioles are in agreement on a one-year, $13 million contract, sources tell ESPN. Sugano, 35, was one of the best pitchers in Japanese baseball this year, posting a 1.67 ERA and walking 16 against 111 strikeouts over 156.2 innings.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 17, 2024
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Orioles pick up second-most coveted NPB pitcher on one-year deal
The Orioles entered the offseason with a glaring need in their rotation given Kyle Bradish's injury and Corbin Burnes hitting the free agency market. Sugano does address their rotation, but is this really enough?
His numbers throughout his 12-year NPB career were nothing short of splendid, and his three MVP awards show just that. Sugano had a 2.45 ERA in 281 appearances in his NPB career, and had a 1.67 ERA in 24 appearances and 156.2 innings of work this past season. Notably, he walked a total of 16 batters in 2024 and surrendered just nine home runs all season. He also only struck out 111 batters.
The command is there for this right-hander, but he doesn't throw particularly hard and doesn't generate much swing and miss. Nobody will or should care about how hard he throws or about his lack of swing-and-miss if he has a 1.67 ERA, but how likely is it for him to have close to those results at a higher level without swing-and-miss stuff?
Sugano is a fine risk to take for a team like the Orioles if they had a frontline starter, but that's not the case. Bradish is hurt and isn't expected to make his 2025 debut until sometime in the second half of the season. Burnes, as mentioned prior, is a free agent, and all signs point to Baltimore being unwilling to match or top the gaudy offer he's going to get on the open market.
Sugano isn't a bad addition, especially on a fairly cheap one-year deal, but he doesn't fit the mold of a frontline starting pitcher that the team really needs. He has a decent floor, but nowhere near an ace ceiling. If this move prevents them from landing one, which it very well might, then Orioles fans have reason to be frustrated.
Tomoyuki Sugano contract grade: B-
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