Right-hander Roki Sasaki has been talked about for years as fans wait for his eventual MLB arrival, but there’s now another Japanese starting pitcher who will be available to sign in free agency this offseason and he’s right in Jed Hoyer’s wheelhouse.
According to ESPN’s national baseball reporter Jeff Passan, veteran pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano is expected to sign with an MLB team this winter as an international free agent. The soon-to-be 35-year-old has spent his entire professional baseball career pitching in the NPB in Japan.
Via ESPN.
Sugano, who turns 35 in a week, is in the midst of a renaissance season that has seen him post a 1.67 ERA over 24 starts for the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants. He is a two-time winner of the Sawamura Award — the equivalent of the Cy Young — two-time Central League MVP and four-time ERA champion, and his reemergence paved the way for him to finally reach MLB.
Unlike players who are posted, international free agents have no restrictions on their signing. Players in NPB earn the right to international free agency after nine seasons. Sugano has spent a dozen years with the Giants, going 136-75, including a league-high win total at 15-3 this year, and he is still primed to pitch for Yomiuri in the Central Climax Series. He led the Central League in ERA four times, first as an MVP in 2014 and then three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018. He also was an MVP in 2020.
Sugano isn’t going to blow guys away with high velocity, averaging 92mph with his fastball, but as Cubs fans have seen with fellow Japanese star Shōta Imanaga, you can dominate in other ways. Sugano has done it with a six-pitch mix that has befuddled hitters in the NPB to go along with pinpoint command.
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The right-handed pitcher averaged 4.5 strikeouts for every walk during his career with the Yomiuri Giants. That 111/16 strikeout to walk ratio this year for Sugano didn’t feature the high strikeout total that Imanaga had in his final season pitching in Japan, but the 7/1 ratio was close. One thing Sugano did do better than Imanaga was keeping the ball in the yard, only giving up six home runs in 156.2 innings.
The Cubs are expected to go after a top of rotation arm in free agency (or trade) this offseason and while Sugano doesn’t necessarily fit that description I could see a scenario in which Sugano’s market isn’t strong because of his age and then boom, Jed Hoyer swoops in and adds more pitching depth.
Maybe a long-shot and although he won’t be at the top of any free agent lists, Sugano is another intriguing pitcher to consider. Overall in 12 seasons, Sugano has a career 2.43 ERA in 1,857 innings pitched.
