Tomoyuki Sugano — 2026 Season

2026 Season Stats

Pitching stats and MLB-wide rank · 2026 Season

Stat	2026	MLB Rank
ERA	5.19	—
WHIP	1.35	—
W	12	MLB #15
L	8	—
K	79	—
IP	131.2	—
SV	0	—
GS	25	—

2026 Season Highlights

As of September 1, Tomoyuki Sugano remains a fixture in the Colorado Rockies' starting rotation. He has picked up plenty of wins this season, though his run prevention has been up and down at times. Still, being trusted with a starter's workload deep into the season speaks to the team's confidence in him. A former ace for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, he continues to hold his own on the major league stage.

Tomoyuki Sugano, a 2x NPB Sawamura Award winner and former Yomiuri Giants ace, made his MLB debut with the Orioles in 2025, going 10-10 with a 4.64 ERA. He proved his ability to compete at the major league level over a full season. In 2026, Sugano moves to the Rockies, where pitching at hitter-friendly Coors Field presents a new challenge for the veteran right-hander and his crafty pitch arsenal.

1Sugano has remained a regular in the starting rotation this season, racking up wins while showing some game-to-game inconsistency in run prevention.
2In Japan's NPB, he won the prestigious Sawamura Award and led the league in wins multiple times as the ace of the Yomiuri Giants.
3With the season heading into its final stretch, the key storyline is whether he can find more consistency while continuing to hold his rotation spot.

DETAIL · ANALYSIS

Detailed Analysis

In-depth metrics aggregated from every at-bat and pitch.

Data as of: 2026-09-06

Expand detailed analysis ▾

Recent Form (Last 10 Starts)

Older games on the left, most recent on the right. Color shows how they played.

Best: 6IP+ / ≤1ER · Good: 5IP+ / ≤2ER · OK: 4IP+ / ≤3ER · 4ER · ≥5ER (blowup)

Pitch Arsenal

Current season pitch data by type. Velocity, spin rate, movement, whiff rate, and CSW% at a glance.

Pitch	Usage	Velo (mph)	Spin	H-Mvmt	V-Mvmt	Whiff%	CSW%
Splitter	21.1%	86.8	1,655	-6.6"	+3.7"	28.1%	20.5%
Four-Seam Fastball	20.8%	92.5	2,416	-3.9"	+8.5"	12.8%	22.1%
Sinker	18.9%	92.4	2,303	-8.2"	+6.6"	3.7%	26.0%
Cutter	11.5%	88.9	2,490	+0.1"	+3.4"	16.3%	21.2%
Slider	10.8%	85.2	2,591	+1.4"	+0.4"	18.8%	18.4%
Sweeper	9.1%	83.7	2,582	+4.4"	+1.4"	20.5%	28.4%
Curveball	7.8%	79.9	2,697	+3.1"	-4.9"	19.2%	23.5%

H-Mvmt/V-Mvmt (inch): movement vs. a spinless ball. + = toward 3B / up, − = toward 1B / down. Whiff% = whiffs / swings, CSW% = (called strikes + whiffs) / pitches.

Handedness & Home/Away Splits

Situational splits for the current season. See strengths and weaknesses by scenario.

vs Handedness

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
vs RHB	.296	.799	7	34	9
vs LHB	.271	.891	20	45	21

Home / Away

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
Home	.278	.820	11	39	15
Away	.286	.883	16	40	15

Year-over-Year Performance Trend

Career-long performance trends for every key stat. How does this year compare to history?

Season	G	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	K
2025	30	157.0	4.64	1.33	6.08	2.06	106
2026Now	25	131.2	5.19	1.35	5.40	2.05	79

Full Game Log (Pitching)

All 25 games of the 2026 season. Showing latest 10; click to expand.

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
09/03	vs BAL	6.0	6	3	1	4	4.50
08/29	@ ATL	4.0	10	6	1	4	13.50
08/24	vs CLE	3.0	9	5	1	2	15.00
08/18	vs LAD	5.0	7	6	1	3	10.80
08/12	@ ARI	6.0	6	2	0	5	3.00
08/06	vs TB	5.0	5	3	2	3	5.40
08/01	vs KC	6.2	5	1	0	2	1.35
07/25	@ MIL	5.1	6	2	1	5	3.38
07/19	vs CIN	6.1	6	3	0	3	4.26
06/27	@ MIN	5.0	8	7	1	2	12.60

SHOW REMAINING 15 GAMES ▾

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
06/21	vs PIT	6.0	4	1	0	5	1.50
06/15	@ OAK	5.0	8	6	2	2	10.80
06/10	vs CHC	5.0	6	3	2	3	5.40
06/03	@ LAA	5.0	5	2	2	5	3.60
05/28	@ LAD	4.2	6	3	1	3	5.79
05/23	@ ARI	6.2	6	2	1	3	2.70
05/17	vs ARI	5.0	7	2	2	1	3.60
05/11	@ PHI	5.0	7	5	1	2	9.00
05/05	vs NYM	5.1	3	4	2	1	6.75
04/30	@ CIN	5.1	4	0	3	2	0.00
04/23	vs SD	5.2	5	1	1	4	1.59
04/18	vs LAD	4.0	9	5	2	3	11.25
04/11	@ SD	6.0	4	2	0	3	3.00
04/06	vs PHI	6.0	4	1	1	5	1.50
03/31	@ TOR	4.2	2	1	2	4	1.93

Year-over-Year (2026 vs 2025)

Green = improvement, red = decline. "—" means no data in the same month last year.

Pitching

	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
ERA	-2.57	+0.21	+1.92	+0.38	-2.80	+4.06	-2.11
K	+3	+1	-8	+0	-9	-7	-7
WHIP	-0.64	+0.12	+0.38	-0.28	-0.69	+0.54	-0.24

AI · SEASON ANALYSIS

Tomoyuki Sugano 2026 Season AI Analysis

Comprehensive 2026 season analysis generated by Claude AI from stats data (as of Sep 7, 2026).

Overview

Sugano's 2026 line sits well below MLB average across the core rate stats: a 5.19 ERA versus the 3.60 league average (worse than P50 3.71, nowhere near P75 3.04 or P90 2.55), and a 1.35 WHIP against a 1.19 average (below P50 1.18). Across 25 starts and 131.2 innings, the volume of work is intact, but the per-batter results place him in the bottom tier of qualified starters this season rather than the mid-rotation profile his track record suggests.

Strengths

Walk rate remains the clear asset: 2.05 BB/9 beats the MLB average of 2.79, clears the P50 mark of 2.71, and sits just outside the elite P90 threshold of 2.01. That control has held up even as other numbers slipped, indicating the command profile that defined his career is still functional. Innings durability is also a positive -- 131.2 IP across 25 starts is a full workload, so the underlying issue is not health or usage but what happens once contact is made.

Areas to Improve

Strikeout rate is the primary drag: 5.4 K/9 is roughly 3.3 whiffs below the 8.73 MLB average and far off the P75 mark of 9.96, leaving little margin to offset contact when it goes for hits. That shortfall shows up directly in the ERA and WHIP, both trailing league average by wide margins. The strikeout decline is also a continuation of a trend rather than a new development -- K/9 has fallen from 6.08 in 2025 to 5.4 now, suggesting reduced swing-and-miss stuff rather than a one-season blip.

Looking Ahead

With walks under control but missed bats scarce, results going forward likely hinge on contact management and sequencing rather than a strikeout rebound at this point in the season. Given the 25-start sample, a shift back toward the 2025 ERA level (4.64) would require better fortune on balls in play or a mechanical adjustment to regain some swing-and-miss, since the walk rate alone cannot carry the profile. Absent a clear change in stuff, the current 5.19 ERA / 1.35 WHIP pace is a reasonable expectation for the remainder of the season.

AI-generated content (Claude) · Based on stats as of Sep 7, 2026

Detailed Analysis

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Season Analysis

Season Progress

ERA

↓ Lower is better

WHIP

↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Monthly Stats

ERA

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

WHIP

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Season Analysis

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Splits vs LHP / RHP

Season stats vs right-handed and left-handed batters

vs RHP/RHB

.296OPS .799 / HR 7

vs LHP/LHB

.271OPS .891 / HR 20

Metrics Deep Dive

MLB-wide percentile rank, defensive and pitching metric summaries, pitch-type stats, and batted-ball distribution.

Pitching — MLB-wide Standing

WHIP ranks in the top 84% of MLB. The rest sit closer to league average.

ERA5.19

WHIP1.35

strikeouts79

K/95.40

Bars show percentile rank among MLB-wide qualified players.

PITCHER · FIP

What is Tomoyuki Sugano's FIP? 5.32 in 2026

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) measures a pitcher's true skill using only home runs, walks, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts — outcomes the pitcher controls. By stripping out defense and luck, it tracks real ability more closely than ERA.

Tomoyuki Sugano's 2026 FIP is 5.32, rated as "below average". That's 1.32 above the MLB average of about 4.00, leaving room to improve.

Compare with other Japanese pitchers in the FIP ranking

Pitch Type K% & BA Against

K% / BA-against / Whiff% by pitch type this season. K% is based on at-bats where each type was the strikeout pitch.

Pitch	Usage	K%	BAA	Whiff%
Splitter	21.1%	21.1%	.236	28.1%
Four-Seam Fastball	20.8%	17.2%	.396	12.8%
Sinker	18.9%	6.1%	.375	3.7%
Cutter	11.5%	5.7%	.355	16.3%
Slider	10.8%	19.0%	.302	18.8%
Sweeper	9.1%	8.6%	.400	20.5%
Curveball	7.8%	16.2%	.233	19.2%

K%: rate of strikeouts among plate appearances where this pitch type was the final pitch. Whiff%: whiffs per swing. Types with fewer than 10 pitches excluded.

Splits by Batter Handedness

BA / OPS against and WHIP vs right-handed and left-handed batters this season. Spot weaknesses by batter type.

Split	BAA	OPS	WHIP	K	IP
vs RHB	.296	.799	1.34	34	58.0
vs LHB	.271	.891	1.37	45	73.0

Game Log

2026 Season Appearance Log

25 starts · 79 total strikeouts

Season Best K

Wed, Aug 12 @ ARI

Season Debut

Tue, Mar 31 @ TOR

4.2IP · 4K

Date	Opp	IP	K	HR	BB	Dec
9/3	vsBAL	6.0	4	-	1	-
8/29	@ATL	4.0	4	1	1	L
8/24	vsCLE	3.0	2	-	1	L
8/18	vsLAD	5.0	3	2	1	L
8/12	@ARI	6.0	5	2	0	W
8/6	vsTB	5.0	3	1	2	L
8/1	vsKC	6.2	2	1	0	W
7/25	@MIL	5.1	5	2	1	W
7/19	vsCIN	6.1	3	2	0	W
6/27	@MIN	5.0	2	2	1	-
6/21	vsPIT	6.0	5	1	0	W
6/15	@OAK	5.0	2	1	2	W
6/10	vsCHC	5.0	3	1	2	W
6/3	@LAA	5.0	5	-	2	W
5/28	@LAD	4.2	3	2	1	L
5/23	@ARI	6.2	3	-	1	-
5/17	vsARI	5.0	1	-	2	W
5/11	@PHI	5.0	2	3	1	L
5/5	vsNYM	5.1	1	1	2	L
4/30	@CIN	5.1	2	-	3	W
4/23	vsSD	5.2	4	-	1	W
4/18	vsLAD	4.0	3	1	2	L
4/11	@SD	6.0	3	2	0	-
4/6	vsPHI	6.0	5	1	1	W
3/31	@TOR	4.2	4	1	2	-