When it rains, it pours.

Just a few hours after learning that Francisco Lindor was traded to the New York Mets, we also learned that Tomoyuki Sugano, a Blue Jays&#8217; free-agent starting pitching target, won&#8217;t be signing with the team.
According to Jeff Passan, Sugano is going to return to Japan and give big-league free agency another try next winter&#8230;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Japanese star Tomoyuki Sugano did not come to an agreement on a contract with a major league team before his posting window expired and will return to Nippon Professional Baseball for 2021, sources tell ESPN. He will be eligible to come to MLB as a free agent before 2022 season.
&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1347302486823088128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
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To be honest, this is a little surprising. Sugano is 31 years old and he&#8217;s coming off of the best season of his career, posting a 1.97 ERA over the course of 20 starts, a showing that was good enough to earn Central League Most Valuable Player.
Obviously the hope for Sugano is that there&#8217;s a better financial landscape in a year and that there more teams are in the mix next off-season because of it, but he&#8217;s also taking a decent risk not cashing in on such a good season.
Sugano would have been a nice add for the Jays, but there are plenty of other mid-rotation types on the open market, like Jake Odorizzi, Masahiro Tanaka, and Taijuan Walker who could fit the bill.

When it rains, it pours.



Just a few hours after learning that Francisco Lindor was traded to the New York Mets, we also learned that Tomoyuki Sugano, a Blue Jays' free-agent starting pitching target, won't be signing with the team.

According to Jeff Passan, Sugano is going to return to Japan and give big-league free agency another try next winter...

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1347302486823088128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1347302486823088128%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsnet.ca%2Fmlb%2Farticle%2Freport-sugano-returns-japan-failing-reach-deal-mlb-team%2F

To be honest, this is a little surprising. Sugano is 31 years old and he's coming off of the best season of his career, posting a 1.97 ERA over the course of 20 starts, a showing that was good enough to earn Central League Most Valuable Player.

Obviously the hope for Sugano is that there's a better financial landscape in a year and that there more teams are in the mix next off-season because of it, but he's also taking a decent risk not cashing in on such a good season.

Sugano would have been a nice add for the Jays, but there are plenty of other mid-rotation types on the open market, like Jake Odorizzi, Masahiro Tanaka, and Taijuan Walker who could fit the bill.

Tomoyuki Sugano will return to Japan for the 2021 season

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