{"id":564625,"date":"2026-02-10T19:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/564625\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:12:17","slug":"colorado-rockies-news-colorado-rockies-sign-rhp-tomoyuki-sugano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/564625\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Rockies news: Colorado Rockies sign RHP Tomoyuki Sugano"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After signing Michael Lorenzen to their rotation earlier this off-season, the Colorado Rockies indicated that they were still in the market for another veteran starting pitcher. It would appear that starting pitcher has been selected, as the Rockies have reportedly signed Japanese right-handed pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2021282048011321839\" rel=\"nofollow\">to a one-year deal worth $5.1 million<\/a> for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sugano, 36, hails from the coastal prefecture of Kanagawa in Japan and put together a strong 12-year body of work with Nippon Professional Baseball\u2019s Tokyo Yomiuri Giants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He is the first Japanese player to play for the Rockies organization since Kazuo Matsui in 2007, and the first Japanese pitcher since Mac Suzuki in 2001.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Working both as a starter and reliever, Sugano has a career 2.43 ERA across 276 NPB appearances. He attempted to enter the posting system following the 2020 season, but went unsigned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Baltimore Orioles signed Sugano to a one-year, $13 million deal for the 2025 season. During his \u201crookie\u201d campaign, he worked exclusively as a starter and posted a 4.64 ERA over 30 starts and 157 innings while tallying 106 strikeouts. It is also worth noting that Sugano led the American League in home runs given up at 33\u2014the third-most in Major League Baseball\u2014but also had one of the better walk rates in the league.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sugano\u2019s primary pitch is a split finger that averaged 87.3 MPH last season, backed up with a sweeping slider. He throws two fastballs, a four-seam and a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shuuto\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shuuto<\/a>\u201d that is sometimes identified as a sinker. Both pitches averaged close to 93 MPH last season. Sugano also throws a curveball, a cutter, and has worked with a forkball during his time in NPB.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sugano will report to the Rockies\u2019 spring training facility in Scottsdale with the rest of the team\u2019s pitchers and catchers on Thursday. He is also expected to pitch for Samurai Japan in this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purplerow.com\/rockies-analysis\/80005\/the-colorado-rockies-at-the-2026-world-baseball-classic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Baseball Classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After signing Michael Lorenzen to their rotation earlier this off-season, the Colorado Rockies indicated that they were still&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,38706,4,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-564625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-colorado-rockies-news","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-toronto","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","15":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116047927818261534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}