Tomoyuki Sugano didn’t need to do this. He could’ve remained in his native Japan, where he was a superstar for the Yomiuri Giants, and only further cemented his name in the record books of the Nippon Professional Baseball league.

He knows all this, and he readily admits the lack of certainty that he would be able to replicate the success he achieved in Japan upon jumping to Major League Baseball as a 35-year-old.

He also knows this: “Not everybody gets this opportunity,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai.

And he should know, because he turned down this opportunity once before. The critical piece in this, then, is timing — and the timing aligned with Sugano coming off his third MVP award.

Sugano signed with the Baltimore Orioles this winter for $13 million, and he’s scheduled to make his fifth start of the season Wednesday against the Washington Nationals. He will be in another new ballpark against a lineup he’s never seen before. He’ll continue adapting to a league full of the best hitters in the world. This was a choice — leaving relative comfort and stardom in Japan for the unknown.

“I had a great career in Japan. I felt like I did all I could there,” Sugano said during his introductory press conference in December. “It’s always been a dream of mine to come play in the States and in MLB, so I’m very excited to take this path.”

And how is it going so far?

Pretty well. Amid a disastrous start for Baltimore’s rotation, Sugano has carried himself well with a 3.43 ERA in 21 innings. He is the first and only Orioles starter to complete seven innings this year. And while Sugano didn’t come here searching for validation of his ability, he’s proving to be adaptable even as he’s inundated with a firehose of information.

“It’s gonna be a lot of ‘firsts’ for him,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “He’s going to be pitching in a lot of different ballparks against teams and players he’s never played before a lot through this first season.”

Pitching coach Drew French saw it in spring training, how a 35-year-old can still be wide-eyed when making the leap to this level. In a spring training start against the New York Yankees, Sugano faced Aaron Judge.

After the game, Sugano laughed, saying that Judge, by far, is the tallest batter he had ever pitched against. And during the game, the Japanese star found himself momentarily star-struck by the internationally famous slugger.

“You see these guys, they’re popular,” said pitching coach Drew French. “It’s obviously worldwide. The media attention, the popularity of these players, the more international games that are happening, plus the friends he has over here. I think at times, mentally, it is a little bit more, ‘Holy cow, I can’t believe Aaron Judge is in the box right now.’”

French said Sugano, a 12-year pro in Japan, quickly redirected his focus to the task of throwing strikes and recording outs. But there was still some amazement. He really was here.

“I think it’s maybe a little bit of shock, like, ‘Wow,’” French said. “The perspective of, every new park, every new team, it’s guys that he knows of and knows how good of players they are. We don’t like to give too much credit, obviously, and we like to be directly focused on the job at hand and what it’s going to take to get these out efficiently, and he seems very, very quick to readjust or shift his focus back to those things.”

The learning curve extends beyond the teams he faces and the stadiums in which he pitches. It includes the ball itself. When Sugano pitched in the World Baseball Classic in 2017, he first noticed that the American baseball was slightly larger than the Japanese ball. He felt that again when he arrived in Florida for spring training, but the minute difference in size was easy to get over.

What’s more unusual is the variability between baseballs in America.

“They’re not all the same,” Sugano said. “In Japan, I think the grades are, if you don’t meet a certain quality, they won’t go out to be used in the games. I think that level of consistency is a little lower over here.”

Both are aspects that could rattle a more tightly wound pitcher. But French has noticed that “there’s not a lot of anxiety. He seems very tension-free and very relaxed when he pitches.”

The strike zone is different in MLB than NPB, as well, and when watching on television for years, Sugano saw how high fastballs are more frequently called strikes in MLB than he was used to with Yomiuri. He almost immediately incorporated that into his repertoire.

Traditionally a low-zone thrower, Sugano has thrown 18% of his pitches this season just above the strike zone, according to Statcast. And while Sugano still generates most of his whiffs below the zone (54% of swings on pitches just below and to the left of the plate, from Sugano’s perspective, result in whiffs), the stats are favorable when Sugano elevates.

The danger in that, however, is if Sugano misses lower into the top portion of the zone. Opponents hold a 1.000 slugging percentage on pitches there, per Statcast. And 75% of the balls in play against high in-zone pitches have been hard-hit.

Still, the Orioles are giving Sugano the leash to elevate more, because they trust his command is good enough to avoid the sort of misses that will be hit for damage.

“He is using the top a little bit more because the command shows up when he does it, and that’s what gives us sort of peace,” French said. “This guy is sort of a four-quadrant guy with all of his pitch types, that if it’s not one harder offering that’s upstairs, it can be something else.”

In four starts, Sugano hasn’t drawn many whiffs or strikeouts. His 9.2% strikeout rate is in the second percentile in the majors. All the contact against him, too, lands him with an expected ERA of 6.42, much higher than his actual ERA of 3.43. Much of that, French said, is down to the teams he has faced — contact-oriented offenses, such as the Cleveland Guardians.

“He’s chasing outs as fast as he can get them, and he has no ego for the strikeout and the big chest puff and things like that,” French said.

Instead, Sugano has limited the runs against him by limiting walks (five) and forcing early contact that — to this point — has found defenders.

Sugano had the opportunity to make the jump to MLB after the 2020 season, when he earned his second MVP award. The “offer presented wasn’t that great,” Sugano said, and he decided to postpone — or even forgo — the possibility of pitching in the majors to remain with the Yomiuri Giants.

The circumstances worked out this time, though, and Sugano is here. He is under no illusions that he’ll be the best pitcher in this league.

One might think, then, that Sugano felt it important to test himself in MLB rather than continue in NPB for the rest of his career. Well, not so much.

“I don’t think I would’ve regretted at all,” Sugano said. “If I had stayed in Japan, continued to pitch over there, there must’ve been really good things going on. I might’ve been successful until I retire. But you never know, right? I come here, I might not be successful. Who knows?”

There’s only one way to find out: continue pitching.