SARASOTA, Fla. — Dylan Beavers, the first hitter in Orioles camp to face Japanese star pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, strode to the plate as curious as anyone else.

“What does he have?” he asked catcher Adley Rutschman, for whom the live batting practice session was just as important as the man on the mound.

“Well, he’s got six,” Rutschman quipped: a pair of fastballs, a splitter, a curveball, a sweeper and a slider.

He and Beavers laughed. Figuring out which will come when will be a problem, Sugano and the Orioles hope, for major league hitters during the regular season. Rutschman is excited for how they can tailor the game plan around their opponents, emphasizing one pitch or another in given spots. This session on the mound was a little about that.

As low stakes as it could be — and there was an emphasis on that as Sugano prepared to take the mound — it was a foundational point for a relationship between pitcher and catcher that could play a massive role in the Orioles’ season to come.

“It had a special feeling because it was the first time,” Sugano said via interpreter Yuto Sakurai.

Much about it felt that way. There was the opposition — three outfield prospects in Beavers, Jud Fabian and Enrique Bradfield Jr. — who are among the youngest players in camp and, given they’re ticketed for the minors this year, haven’t had many live at-bats recently as the major leaguers prepare for game action.

There was the pre-outing bullpen session, when Sugano, Sakurai, Rutschman, pitching coach Drew French and pitching strategy coach Ryan Klimek had a long talk about expectations for the live batters and French emphasized that the session was for Sugano to be comfortable. There were no pitchers following him, and he wasn’t on a tight schedule. If he needed to regroup on anything, he could do so. They just wanted him to be comfortable and use all of his offerings.

There was some feeling out involved. Major league field coordinator and catching instructor Tim Cossins loaded Rutschman’s catching bag onto a golf cart to drive them to the Ed Smith Stadium field after Sugano was ready. Rutschman hopped in, then Sugano opted to walk, so Rutschman hopped out to join him — only to end up too far behind and choosing the ride anyway.

After Sugano’s session was finished, there was another long chat on the mound about how it went.

“I wanted to communicate with the catcher, and I was able to do so with Adley,” Sugano said.

Rutschman said: “Today was more about just seeing as many pitches as we could, even if it’s not what we’d throw to them in a game setting. We just wanted to play around with some stuff, really get a feel for each other and what he’s able to do and get different looks. Today was more about throwing as many pitches as possible and trying to get more comfortable.”

Sugano got a surprisingly apt representation of what spring training could be like. The young players were aggressive and hunted fastballs when he threw them, which is a lot of what he’ll see from established major leaguers and minor league fill-ins alike as Grapefruit League games ramp up. He surprised Beavers by starting him with a curveball, then got him to pop out on a fastball up in the strike zone. Beavers thought the pitches complemented each other nicely.

He was ready for it the next time, though, and lined a curveball down the right field line to begin his second at-bat. The splitter, it seemed, was the headliner. Beavers called it a “pretty good pitch,” and Rutschman singled it out as “really good.”

“I think he’s got the weapons to attack guys in a lot of different ways,” Rutschman said.

There was some consternation among the players and staff that they didn’t have the TrackMan system up and running to give pitch velocities and verify balls and strikes; that left even the Orioles’ front office wondering how hard their prized free agent signing was throwing.

There would have been little to take from it anyway. Sugano’s overall pitch mix suggests how he uses them and locates will dictate his success more than his fastball velocity, and Friday was meant to start the process for Rutschman, Klimek, Sugano and all others involved to figure out how best to set him up for success.

“We had talked a little bit during the offseason, just kind of what we expected coming into spring training” Rutschman said. “Obviously, the best work you can do is when you get batters in there and are getting real feedback. So, nice to put words into action and to be able to go out there and kind of really see his stuff in person.”