Latest Orioles injury reinforces offseason need to add real starting pitching depth

Orioles injury scare exposes desperate need for rotation depth

Eric Cole

Los Angeles Dodgers v Baltimore Orioles / Greg Fiume/GettyImages

When teams like the Baltimore Orioles don't create real starting pitching depth on their roster, every single injury and hiccup is amplified. You can afford to have an arm or two deal with minor injuries or regress if you actually build a proper pitching staff. However, when you are in a position where you are relying on the ghost of Charlie Morton and a rotation held together with twine and Elmer's glue, you can find yourself in a bit of a situation, and Tomoyuki Sugano's injury is just the latest example.

The Orioles have been killed all season long for how they handled their pitching staff last offseason, but Sugano has been a bright spot for them. He has proven to be quite durable (a big plus in today's game), and his performance lately has been extremely encouraging.

Unfortunately, that was all put at risk after Sugano was hit in the foot by a line drive and was forced to leave his start early on Sunday.

Tomoyuki Sugano's injury should be a warning to Orioles' front office

Sugano was hurt on a grounder up the middle that he tried to knock down with his foot. Good on Sugano to try and make a play, but the move ultimately put his availability in jeopardy as he immediately went to the ground while regretting his life choices.

The good news is that it appears as though Sugano has avoided serious injury, as X-rays were negative after the game. Baltimore is being tight-lipped at the moment about whether Sugano will miss any time or need a stint on the IL, but it doesn't seem like the worst-case scenarios are in play, and the ball didn't seem to catch him as square as it could have.

Whether or not Sugano will miss his next start or not, the Orioles need to take notice here. They just got Kyle Bradish back, which was great, but Baltimore is still operating with a skeleton crew pitching staff, especially after culling their roster at the trade deadline. The Orioles need to get serious about building their pitching staff this offseason. If not, history may be doomed to repeat itself, and 2026 may be just as tough as this season has been.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.