Some extras on Tomoyuki Sugano's bullpen session

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles pitching coach Drew French was eager to begin working with Tomoyuki Sugano even before the Japanese right-hander agreed to a $13 million contract. The deal became official and French approached interpreter Yuto Sakurai with a favor. Simple in nature but hugely meaningful.

“I said I need to start learning his language a little bit,” French said. “I’ve done some things to try to help myself, but ultimately woke up the next day and forgot them.”

French had a specific translation request. He wanted to know how to say, “good job.” It’s like he anticipated what would happen during the first bullpen session.

“Ultimately, that’s the phrase I went with today,” French said, “and hopefully tomorrow I can learn another one.”

Might I suggest “great job?”

Sugano wove a five-pitch mix into a 35-pitch outing. He painted corners and made the baseball dart and dance. He was as masterful as you can be without facing any hitters.

“I like his stuff, I like the locations of his stuff, I like the routine in which he went about his work today and the pace that he did it,” French said. “For somebody so close to where you guys (reporters) were standing, it can be a little fast for some guys, but he seemed to have a really slow heartbeat and just kind of going about his work in a really professional way.”

The Orioles especially were impressed with the splitter. Sugano threw everything he owns except for the slider.

“We think that there is a way to fit all those pieces into one really, really nice puzzle. But ultimately, watching some of his outings from the years past and understanding his preference and how he likes to do things, and then starting to drip some of these new ideas and some areas to explore with some of his pitch types is kind of the next thing for us,” French said.

"I think he has six pitches that he can throw in any quadrant. I think everything in due time will be an adjustment for him, but ultimately, he’s been super receptive to the information that we’ve given him, and the conversations that we’ve had. He knows he’s walking into a different baseball league, and he knows there’re adjustments that need to be made, and he was executing those things today.”

The club mapped out a schedule for Sugano but is letting him dictate the pace, such as delaying the bullpen session until yesterday due to his jet lag.

“We want him to be really comfortable with how he’s recovering and how he’s sleeping,” French said, “before we kind of make the decision on what’s next for him.”

Sugano isn’t going to appear in Saturday’s exhibition opener against the Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium. He won’t be ready to pitch competitively. Manager Brandon Hyde knows the starter but isn’t ready to announce it.

Make your predictions and let’s see who’s right.

Hyde remembers Yefry Ramírez starting the first spring training game in 2019, followed by Chandler Shepherd in 2020, Thomas Eshelman in 2021, Spenser Watkins in 2022, Drew Rom in 2023 and ace Corbin Burnes last year.

Sugano will be worked into the mix, but he’s got more bullpen sessions ahead of him, along with the live batting practice that’s a daily feature on the stadium field.

Gary Sánchez caught Sugano yesterday and homered off Bryan Baker, his second this week. Adley Rutschman homered twice Monday and stroked an opposite-field single yesterday off Corbin Martin. I also have a walk and double in my notes from another afternoon.

“He came in camp ready to go,” Hyde said. “Great shape, worked his butt off this offseason defensively and offensively. He’s really inspired right now and I’m just really happy with where he’s at in all phases.”

Rutschman is determined to bury the failures of the post-break 2024 season. It takes a large shovel.

“He’s disappointed in the second half he had,” Hyde said. “He had a great first half, disappointing in the second half, and he wants to get back to that player he was in the first half, which is the player he is. He did everything he could this offseason to work on some things. He looks great right now.”

The clues that Rutschman is back aren’t hard to find. Watch his approach at the plate and what he does with the ball.

“I think it always goes back to Adley is his swing decisions and his knowledge of the strike zone,” Hyde said. “That’s such an elite skill that he has. And the ability to hit the ball to all fields. He pulled two homers in live batting practice but he also can slap a line drive single to left field. The ability to swing at strikes, use the whole field, be on time.

"He’s a line drive hitter first with big-time power and for me that’s what he was up until the second half, when he got a little bit long and tried to press a little bit.”