Baltimore Orioles Have Unique Motivation To Keep Star Pitcher at Trade Deadline

The 2025 MLB regular season looks to be a lost one for the Baltimore Orioles.

They entered the year with incredibly high expectations, with many people believing them to be one of the true contenders in the league. The Orioles have fallen woefully short of those expectations for a number of reasons.

Their pitching staff was underwhelmed. The strategy used to fill out the starting rotation over the winter was questioned and the doubters have been proven correct with how dreadful the team has been on the mound.

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At the plate, their young core has not performed up to the standard set. Several players are struggling, with the team owning a 25-37 record, already 14 games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East.

While Baltimore may not be ready to accept the harsh reality of being sellers, that is the direction which they are heading in, especially with their playoff odds being microscopic.

There are several players on the roster who will garner some attention on the trade block, such as slugger Ryan O’Hearn, who has been their most consistent hitter thus far this season.

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Center fielder Cedric Mullins will be another popular name, along with starting pitcher Zach Eflin.

All three of those players, along with another starting pitcher, Tomoyuki Sugano, are free agents after the year and would have some real value to contending teams.

However, there is a unique reason why the Orioles should hold onto Sugano even if they are selling off multiple assets: building a pipeline overseas to sign international players.

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“It will be interesting if the Orioles do wind up selling if they hold onto him as a show of good faith to future Japanese stars considering Baltimore,” wrote Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report, highlighting the veteran righty as one of the bright spots in an underwhelming season.

Sugano has been excellent with a 3.04 ERA across his first 71 MLB innings. He has a strong 124 ERA+ and the pinpoint control he showed overseas has carried over with only 11 walks and an elite 3.9% walk rate.

Plenty of contending teams would love to add him to the backend of their rotation as a reliable innings eater. He generates a good amount of chases despite not having great velocity or strikeout stuff.

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Sugano would fetch a solid return on the trade market, but keeping him and building those inroads in Japan means more to the Orioles than one or two prospects coming back in a return package.

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