TORONTO – In an especially slow-paced off-season, deadlines of any kind offer a little nudge for teams otherwise content to bide their time. And with the next of those deadlines approaching Thursday, the starting pitching market might start moving again. If nothing else, the decision Tomoyuki Sugano makes will provide teams in that market with some clarity.
Sugano, a 31-year-old starter, has until Thursday at 5 p.m. ET to decide whether to sign with an MLB team, or return to Japan, where he has twice won the Sawamura Award – NPB’s top honour for starting pitchers. He has interest from MLB clubs and the Blue Jays appear to be at the forefront of those talks, but his longtime team, the Yomiuri Giants, would also like to retain him after an excellent 2020 season in which he posted a 1.
All of that creates a potentially tough decision for Sugano. Presumably he wouldn’t have flown to California unless he was thinking seriously about making the leap to MLB. But Ken Rosenthal ofreported Wednesday that Sugano isn’t getting his desired number, setting up the possibility of a return to Japan.that Yomiuri’s four-year offer includes three opt-out clauses, which would give Sugano maximum flexibility in future seasons.
Of course, some within the game view that information as posturing designed to raise teams’ final offers. As for the Blue Jays, they’ve done lots of background work on Sugano, who certainly has the skills to help their starting rotation. According to Rosenthal, that interest even led to a ‘strong bid.’ Until the deadline arrives other clubs could always jump in late, but some observers suspect the Blue Jays may now be frontrunners among MLB teams.
It was just last year that the Blue Jays signed one of Sugano's former teammates to a contract that helped assert their increasing presence in the Pacific Rim. One year in, the two-year, $6.35-million deal Shun Yamaguchi signed hasn't worked out, as the right-hander posted an 8.06 ERA with 17 walks in 25.2 innings, most of which were low-leverage.
bnicholsonsmith Yall just making stuff up at this point.
FAN590 bnicholsonsmith The blue jays are front runners to land every baseball player in the world according to Canadian media but end up signing nobody...
FAN590 bnicholsonsmith It's almost as if the Blue Jays have Rudy Giulliani. representing them. They've been that good at this whole free agent thing.
bnicholsonsmith You guys are 0-17 on every other post about the blue jays and free agents. So let’s make that 0-18?!?!?
bnicholsonsmith Good 😌 chance he goes back to Japan 🇯🇵 to pitch. Taking to long to make decision.