Japanese Ace Impressed During His First Baltimore Orioles Live Pitching Session

Early returns are good for the Baltimore Orioles new pitcher after his first live pitching session of spring.

Orioles right-hand pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano gets warmed up before his session in the bullpen on Tuesday. The Baltimore Orioles held their first full-squad workout of the 2025 spring training season on Tuesday, Feb. 18th in Sarasota, Florida / Mike Lang / Sarasota Herald-Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles got their first look one of their newest pitchers on Friday.

35-year-old Japanese sensation Tomoyuki Sugano faced live hitters for the first time this spring, and even though he threw against three prospects -- Enrique Bradfield Jr., Dylan Beavers and Jud Fabian -- he still impressed those who saw how he worked.

"Amazing, amazing. Super fun to catch. First time really working together instead of just talking about stuff. Great experience so far and fun to catch him," Adley Rutschman said per Roch Kubatko of MASN. "Every pitcher's unique, and for him, just his location. He's got a six-pitch mix. Splitter's really good, and I think he's got the weapons to be able to attack guys in a lot of different ways."

The actual results might not be anything to get fired up about.

Kubatko reported Beavers hit two doubles on hard-hit line drives, Fabian got a base knock after striking out twice and Bradfield grounded out and hit a liner to left that he estimates would have been caught.

Lot of contact. Not a lot of strike outs.

But it should be pointed out that these aren't just any prospects.

All three are ranked inside the top 10 of the team's pipeline rankings and the Orioles expect big things from them at some point in their careers.

Friday was also not about being a shutdown pitcher.

"Definitely today was more about just seeing as many pitches as we could, even if it's not what we would throw to them in a game setting. We just kind of wanted to play around with some stuff, really get a feel for each other and what he's able to do. Just get different looks. So today was definitely more about just throwing as many pitches as possible and just trying to get comfortable," Rutschman added.

That's par for the course.

Nobody expected Sugano to come in during his first live throwing session of the year and completely dominate, especially since he's getting used to his new reality of living in the United States and pitching in a completely different environment.

Sugano has also been impressive in more ways than on the field since coming to Baltimore.

Former pitcher Ben McDonald is a guest instructor at camp this year, and he was blown away by the willingness for the 35-year-old veteran to get better and how he wants to fit into what the Orioles are doing.

"He seems like just a wonderful guy. What I love about him is, he's had so much success, but he is willing to learn ... But just sitting in on his meeting after he pitched, he made it clear that, 'Whatever you guys want to do, if you think my sequencing needs to be different than what it is, I'm up to learning and doing whatever you guys think,'" he told Kubatko.

True success will be determined by what Sugano does on the mound.

He believes he can come in an make an impact for Baltimore.

Time will tell, but he had a good showing during his first live throwing session of the spring that hopefully will carry over into the start of the season.

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