Orioles Star Rookie Could Be Helpful for Contenders Seeking Depth

Even though the Baltimore Orioles have been playing a bit better lately, they still have a lot of ground to make up if they are going to become contenders this season.

To begin the year, not much was going right for the Orioles. Injuries certainly played a part in their struggles, but this was also a team that had multiple players underperforming.

After a coaching change and some players getting healthy and performing better, Baltimore is starting to play better. However, they dug themselves into quite a hole in the American League East with June now here.

They are going to have to get ridiculously hot if they are going to get back to .500, so more than likely, becoming a seller is still going to be the course of action at the trade deadline barring something wild happening.

If that ends up being the case, they will have no shortage of players that will be desirable to trade.

Will Talented Rookie Tomoyuki Sugano Be Dealt?

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently wrote about Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano potentially being a trade target for teams looking for some depth in their starting rotation.

“He doesn't get himself in trouble with free passes, and his reliance on his splitter and sweeper makes it tough to square him up. Even if he is a back-end starter, he's useful.”

Even though he is well over 30 years old, Sugano carries the rookie designation in his first season in the Majors after coming over from Japan this past winter.

So far, the right-hander has been the best pitcher in the rotation for Baltimore all year with a 5-3 record and 3.04 ERA.

While the numbers are very good for Sugano in terms of wins, ERA and WHIP, the one downside is that he doesn’t strike many batters out.

With the ability to ring guys up being so important these days, there is some concern that regression could come for the right-hander. However, despite a low strikeout total, he has been a front-end arm to date and should be viewed as such by others around the league.

With Baltimore on a bit of a run of late, it will be interesting to see what happens with the availability of Sugano in the coming months.

If the team looks to trade him, he would likely be valued more as a depth piece and a back-end starter for a contender, but that certainly can provide value.

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