PHOENIX — Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s first test against big-league hitters was met with a smile and a laugh on Wednesday. After all, as Shohei Ohtani was quick to remind him, Yamamoto ended his outing by forgetting how many outs there were.

It marked the lone moment in which Yamamoto appeared off-guard all afternoon as he took the mound against a lineup containing multiple regulars from last year’s World Series champions and twirled two dominant innings against the Texas Rangers.

Getting through it, as Yamamoto said then, was “a relief.” To the Dodgers, it was an affirmation of the electric upside they saw in handing him the richest pitching contract in baseball history before he’d even thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball.

All eyes will be on the $325 million man this season. The Dodgers will be charged to make sure he’s aware of it, too.

Just look at that spring debut. SportsNet LA broadcasters Tim Neverrett and Rick Monday noted after the right-hander exited that Yamamoto’s glove position left the baseball — and with it, Yamamoto’s grips — visible on the broadcast’s center-field camera when Yamamoto was in the windup. Doing so allowed them to see which pitch Yamamoto was getting set to deliver, notably his standout splitter, and spurred public concerns about the 25-year-old possibly tipping pitches.

“I heard about that,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said, noting the mini-uproar that followed Yamamoto’s sterling spring debut. There, of course, is a difference between what can be seen from a center-field camera with no one on base and actual pitch-tipping — when the hitter himself can tell what’s coming and actually act on it.

The Dodgers are unfazed about the chatter surrounding Yoshinobu Yamamoto tipping his pitches. (Robin Beck/Getty Images)

So, the glove’s position on the broadcast is “not really a big concern for me at this point,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda. If it becomes an issue, he said, “I’ll make those adjustments.”

Remaining vigilant against pitch-tipping is hardly uncommon, especially in the age of sign-stealing paranoia. And while, in Prior’s opinion, the sport has “cleaned out all the stuff that’s obviously not on the up and up” in the wake of investigations into the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox, it’s something the Dodgers are actively monitoring. When rookie Gavin Stone returned for his second turn in the majors last summer, the club’s staff quickly noticed a tip with the right-hander’s premium pitch — he’d wiggle his arm ahead of his go-to changeup — and worked to rectify his delivery after Stone got bombarded in his third career outing against the Tampa Bay Rays.

“There’s always different things that you’re looking for,” Prior said. “What can hitters actually see? What can hitters actually react to in time? Do you need a runner on second base? So there’s different variations of tipping. Sometimes it’s glove. Sometimes it’s tempo. Sometimes it’s a guy sticking his tongue out. So there’s all different types of things. At the end of the day, you’re trying to figure out what is actually actionable for a hitter to act on in real-time.”

If anything, Yamamoto’s track record has made the Dodgers bullish on his chances to adjust if it were ever to become an issue. Yamamoto won consecutive Sawamura awards (the equivalent of the Cy Young in Nippon Professional Baseball) then overhauled his mechanics en route to winning the award for a third consecutive time. Those with the Dodgers organization have raved about Yamamoto’s body control and awareness, with details such as where he puts his glove out of the windup being just one of them.

The Dodgers, of course, aren’t keen on making many tweaks to Yamamoto’s delivery. They’d prefer to give their new right-hander a softer arrival to the big leagues as he acclimates to differences not just in competition, but with the baseball, the schedule and even travel demands. Potential tipping concerns “are not unique to him,” Prior said.

But the amount of eyes fixed on him, at least until Ohtani returns to the rotation next summer, might be.

(Top photo of Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Joe Camporeale / USA Today)