Around 3 weeks ago, I went to a sports card shop. The main reason to go to that shop was that I would like to say hello to the owner. Secondly, I wanted to check what’s new there.
Unfortunately, the owner went on vacation and would come back in a month. However, I saw some hobby packs of the 2025 Topps Heritage High Number there. I decided to buy some hobby packs, trying to see if I could find something cool. After opening the second pack, I found a Tomoyuki Sugano rookie card. Sugano is a well-known pitcher in Japan. While looking at this card, I just began to think about his first season in the majors.
In 2025, Sugano made 30 starts for the Orioles, posting a 4.64 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP over 157 innings. Opponents hit .276 against him. At the same time, he threw 106 strikeouts. Taking a closer look, 30 starts were the most among the Orioles starters. 157 innings ranked 2nd among the Orioles starters. Moreover, among the Orioles starting pitchers who tossed 100+ innings in 2025, Trevor Rogers was the only one with an ERA below 4. Rogers finished the 2025 season with a great 1.81 ERA. Meanwhile, Tomoyuki Sugano and Dean Kremer each finished the season with an ERA over 4 but below 5. The other starters each owned an ERA over 5.
In addition, Sugano’s WHIP of 1.33 ranked 3rd among the Orioles pitchers who made at least 10 starts in 2025. Trevor Rogers was the only one with a WHIP below 1. Furthermore, looking at the BAA, opponents hit .180 against Trevor Rogers. In the meantime, Dean Kremer owned a .248 BAA. Charlie Morton had a .276 BAA as Sugano did.
In addition, let’s compare him with other rookie pitchers from Japan. Roki Sasaki made 8 starts for the Dodgers and Shinnosuke Ogasawara made 2 starts for the Nationals. Well, Sasaki owned a 4.46 ERA, which was lower than Sugano’s 4.64 ERA. Also, Sasaki had a .221 BAA, which was lower than Sugano’s BAA of .276. However, Sasaki’s WHIP of 1.43 was higher than Sugano’s WHIP of 1.33. And another thing is that Sasaki and Ogasawara didn’t reach 100 innings as Sugano did.
When we looked back at Sugano’s first season in the majors, well, his performance wasn’t very impressive. Nonetheless, the Orioles starting pitchers didn’t perform well in the 2025 season. And Sugano was a consistent choice in the rotation. In particular, he was able to eat more than 150 innings last season. In the meantime, looking at the Japanese rookie pitchers, Sugano was the only one who threw 100+ innings in 2025. Roki Sasaki and Shinnosuke Ogasawara didn’t reach 40 innings last season. So, Sugano’s rookie season isn’t very bad. Nevertheless, he’s still a free agent now. As he already turned 36, there’s surely a potential risk in signing him. However, he’s a pitcher that can eat innings, but it’s hard to expect that he’ll be dominant on the mound. As spring training will begin next month, we can keep watching if a team will sign him soon. Perhaps, we should focus on watching his performance in the World Baseball Classic first.
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