Good morning Birdland,<\/p>\n
This whole Trevor Rogers thing is insane. After six more shutout innings on Friday night, Rogers now has a 1.35 ERA over 106.2 innings this year. The lefty is not going to log enough innings to win the Cy Young, but he probably will\/should get some down ballot consideration. He has been that good!<\/p>\n
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Andrea relayed the context of Rogers\u2019 dominance from the MASN broadcast in last night\u2019s recap<\/a>. The only pitcher in MLB history to make at least 16 starts and have a better ERA than Rogers is Bob Gibson in 1968. Gibson had a 1.12 ERA that year, which contributed (in part) to MLB deciding to lower the mound from 15 inches to the current 10 inches. So I suppose you could say that Rogers has had the most dominant season ever for a pitcher standing on a 10-inch mound.<\/p>\n Of course, the fact that Rogers has only put together a little more than half of a season dings the historical significance of his performance quite a bit. But it is reasonable to say that he has been the league\u2019s top pitcher since mid June. Better than Paul Skenes. Better than Tarik Skubal. Better than Garrett Crochet. It\u2019s Rogers!<\/p>\n Some of the lefty\u2019s peripheral stats are not quite as good as his topline numbers. His xERA is 3.08. His FIP is 2.43. His exit velocities are slightly below average. So at some point he is going to regress.<\/p>\n But this is not a case of smoke and mirrors. Even if he falls back to the performance he \u201cdeserves,\u201d he will remain one of the better arms in the league, a frontline starter on any team. Combine that with a healthy Kyle Bradish, (hopefully) an offseason addition of some significance, and whatever Grayson Rodriguez can provide, and these Orioles are going to be in a good spot going into 2026.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Given how bad the Orioles starters have tended to be since, like, the 1990s, that feels unnatural and unlikely. But maybe?<\/p>\n Links<\/p>\n Rogers provides reason to track Cy Young voting | Roch Kubatko<\/a> Jon Meoli: Is David Rubenstein ready to play ball this offseason? | The Baltimore Banner<\/a> Advertisement<\/p>\n
Roch gets into more of the Cy Young discussion and comes to a similar conclusion as above. Inning volume should be a factor in these awards, and it\u2019s why Rogers should not win it. But he has been so good, that he does deserve to finish, like, fifth in the AL.<\/p>\n
This is a fair question to ask. At some point, the Orioles need to take more risks. That means handing out some contracts that might be an overpay or might make the accounting department feel a bit queasy. A deep playoff run, the buzz around town, and the ticket sales would make it feel a lot better though.<\/p>\n