Baltimore Orioles Rookie Has Stellar Spring Training Debut Against Pirates

It has been a long time since Baltimore Orioles pitching Tomoyuki Sugano was regarded as a rookie.

He made his professional debut with the Yomiuri Giants in 2013. 12 years later, at 35 years old, he is a rookie again, coming stateside to pitch in the MLB for the first time in his career.

Sugano was excellent in his career in Japan, making 276 appearances in the NPB, recording a 136-74 record with an impressive 2.43 ERA across 1,857 innings pitched.

While it would be unrealistic to expect him to step into an ace role as he occupied with the Giants, the Orioles are relying on him to help fill the void left by their top starter in 2024, Corbin Burnes, departing in free agency.

Burnes signed a six-year, $210 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which led to Baltimore adding Sugano and fellow veteran Charlie Morton in free agency to help replace the production lost.

After going through days of preparation in spring training, Sugano made his much anticipated Major League debut on Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

His manager, Brandon Hyde, had some words of advice before he took the mound for the first time.

“It’s a first spring training outing, so it doesn’t mean anything,” Hyde explained, via Roch Kubatko of Masn. “Just want him to get his work in.”

He did exactly that, as Sugano worked two scoreless innings against the Pirates.

The team wanted him to throw somewhere between 35-40 pitches during his debut, which looked like a tall task with how quickly he worked through the first inning.

After giving up a single to Tommy Pham to start the inning, he got Bryan Reynolds to hit into a tailor-made double play.