SARASOTA, Fla. — Follow the crowd of reporters, follow the camera lenses, and there you’ll find Tomoyuki Sugano at Orioles spring training. The right-handed pitcher, signed this winter after a storied career in Japan, has been a central focus throughout Baltimore’s camp.

At every press conference for manager Brandon Hyde, expect an update on Sugano’s day-to-day schedule. When Sugano speaks, jostle for position in a scrum of reporters that rivals — and likely surpasses — the size of those for other Orioles stars, such as Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman.

Asked if he was surprised by the large group of reporters present to hear his first words upon arriving to Sarasota, Sugano shook his head.

“I’m not so surprised,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai, “because with the Yomiuri Giants, it was like this every day.”

Sugano will be a force of his own. There’s interest in Baltimore, of course, to see how the 35-year-old will transition to Major League Baseball. But there could be even more eyes coming from abroad, as Japanese baseball fans focus on the Orioles more than ever before.

Once the regular season begins, Sugano will become the third Japanese player to feature for the Orioles, following Koji Uehara and Shintaro Fujinami. The media presence surrounding Sugano outpaces that of Uehara and Fujinami, however, and it comes now for multiple reasons.

By himself, Sugano is a bigger name. He’s a three-time MVP in Nippon Professional Baseball who boasts a career 2.45 ERA across 12 seasons. He played those seasons for the Yomiuri Giants, one of the most popular and successful clubs in Japan. His uncle, Tatsunori Hara, was a famous player and manager for the Giants, and it led to Sugano being closely followed since he was young.

And, with the superstar status of Shohei Ohtani, MLB’s footprint in Japan has only increased. This year, for instance, the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers are playing a two-game series in March at the Tokyo Dome as part of the league’s efforts to drive interest around the world.

The Dodgers, with Ohtani, have leaned into welcoming Japanese fans. There are Japanese-language signs around Dodger Stadium, along with specialty food items. An Ohtani bobblehead night last season led fans to line up hours before first pitch, hoping to receive one of the most coveted giveaways around.

It remains to be seen how Camden Yards will adapt, although the Orioles’ official social media channels have taken to posting Sugano content in Japanese. Sugano, of course, isn’t as big a name as Ohtani. But in Japan Sugano will still warrant attention, and it brings the Orioles into an international limelight they haven’t experienced much.

“The Japanese media, mainly news agencies like mine, are following him,” said Nobutaka Kawabe, a sports correspondent for Kyodo News who is based in New York. Kawabe, who has been at the Ed Smith Stadium complex each day, covered Sugano while he played for the Giants in 2019 and 2020.

“The U.S., especially the East Coast, is far away, so it is difficult for Japanese media to cover the area,” Kawabe said. “But in Japan it’s getting attention. His results will be widely reported in Japan.”

There’s a geographical advantage for West Coast franchises when targeting Japanese stars, but Sugano chose Baltimore. He said he saw eye to eye with the front office’s stated desire to win a World Series, and that goal resonated with Sugano so much that his first words to his teammates, via an interpreter, were: “Let’s go win a world championship.”

Yuji Tokiwa, a freelance production coordinator working for Tokyo Broadcasting System, said Sugano’s popularity is more in line with Yu Darvish than Ohtani. But he and others plan to be in Baltimore or on the road for each of Sugano’s starts.

“However, it depends on how he is doing in the team,” Tokiwa said. “Most media will cover Ohtani for people in Japan.”

Added Kodai Kawamura, a Japanese baseball writer for Full Count: “Most of the attention is given to Roki Sasaki and the Dodgers. But, of all the players who moved to MLB this year, Sugano is the most talented. He doesn’t get as much attention as Sasaki, but I think everyone wishes him well.”

Still, the early attention in camp has been noticeable. Even for Sugano’s first bullpen session, there was a level of focus from reporters and analysis not usually seen from a 35-pitch sample in February.

It’s nothing new for Hyde, though. He coached for the Chicago Cubs from 2014 to 2018. He experienced a wave of Japanese talent that included Darvish, Tsuyoshi Wada, Munenori Kawasaki and Kosuke Fukudome.

“I became really close friends with Yu, and my son and his son are good friends,” Hyde said. “So I understand the more media and everything else that comes along with it, and we’re really excited to have him [Sugano] here.”

As Baltimore expanded its international scouting department under the direction of general manager Mike Elias, the first major focus was to improve in Latin America. But there could be additional growth in Japan, with Elias saying last month that the Orioles are “going to make a very strong effort to expand our reach into that country, into that league.”

“We see the growth of Japanese baseball and how it’s impacting the major leagues, and we want to be a part of that,” Elias added before noting the geographical realities that come with being a small-market East Coast city targeting Asian players.

Despite that, Orioles owner and control person David Rubenstein has strong ties to Japan, personally and financially. He has visited the country every year since 1970, he said, and The Carlyle Group, the private equity firm Rubenstein co-founded, launched in Japan almost 25 years ago.

Rubenstein said he welcomes the continued emergence of international markets in baseball that lead to a wide range of player backgrounds. On his team, which he has owned for almost a year, some of the top players are from the Dominican Republic and Cuba — long-standing baseball hotbeds. If more Japanese players are available, he’d welcome the chance to add them.

“I love Japan and the Japanese love of baseball,” Rubenstein said. “If we can get more really good Japanese players, we’d be happy to do so. Sugano is one of the best out there, and we’re very pleased to have him.”

The Orioles signed Sugano because of his elite command and the belief that he will bolster the starting rotation, even with his inexperience in the majors. His track record in Japan is impressive and well worth a $13 million investment.

Everything else that comes with Sugano is a bonus — the media attention that will come to Baltimore and the potential fan support that will follow.

“If he does well, I think the number of Orioles fans will increase,” Kawabe said. “Just as Shohei Ohtani has increased the number of Dodgers fans in Japan, Tomoyuki Sugano may increase the number of Orioles fans in Japan. Japanese fans are rooting for him to take on the MLB challenge at that age.”