Trevor Rogers had done the hard part.

In rebuilding his lower-body strength on both sides of an offseason knee injury that meant his return to the Orioles would be delayed, he’d allowed himself to get back to a delivery that created energy from the ground up and gave his pitches the life and intent they’d long been missing.

That was his singular focus from the moment he was sent to the minors in August, four starts after the Orioles acquired him from the Miami Marlins, through an offseason of doubt and a spring training on the sidelines and finally back to Triple-A Norfolk at the end of April.

None of that, as Rogers realized, had anything to do with pitching well — which he didn’t in his Triple-A debut in Charlotte on April 29. It would, however, allow him to if he let it. And that realization, just as much as all that hard work before it, helped Rogers look like a pitcher set to make good on the Orioles’ faith in him 11 months ago.

“That was the time to flip the switch,” Norfolk pitching coach Justin Ramsey said. “Like, ‘All right, man, we’ve got to trust where we’re at. We’re strong. We’re moving right. Now let’s get back to making pitches.

“You can focus on the catcher and the swing and the game and what’s getting called, and I’ll keep eyes on your delivery. If I see something, I’ll let you know. If not, you’ve just got to trust that you’re doing it right and go back to executing pitches. To his credit, he went right to work on that. … And he hasn’t looked back since.”

In the two months since, Rogers has regained a spot in the Orioles’ rotation and looked as close to the All-Star he was in 2021 as he has in years. Acquired from the Marlins for well-regarded young hitters Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers at last year’s trade deadline, Rogers had a 7.11 ERA with a 1.842 WHIP in four starts before being sent to the minors.

While he was in the majors, the Orioles identified that he was collapsing on his landing leg, which was causing him to open up his body earlier and diminishing the quality of his pitches. That proved to be a physical limitation that was hard to work around in season. Although he made progress with the Tides and in a brief stint in Sarasota, Florida, for the team’s stay-ready camp with pitching coordinator Forrest Herrmann, it was really the offseason when Rogers could chip away at that.

“The past couple of offseasons, I haven’t been able to train the way I wanted to, just because of the injuries at the back end of the year,” Rogers said. “I’ve had to rehab that. Finally, this offseason, being able to train lower-body-wise the way I wanted to and not worrying about whether I’m going to reaggravate an injury, which was huge. I knew, if I tackled that roadblock and got that lower body back to where I needed it to be, that we can execute the mechanical changes, which were very small, now that I look back on it.”

He wasn’t in the rotation battle during spring training as he rehabbed a right knee subluxation in January, but as that healed and his landing leg grew sturdier in the process, the results were showing even as he was behind the rest of the group in Sarasota.

Rogers was throwing flat-ground sessions tracked by PocketRadar equipment, and staff noted that he was throwing 90 mph before he even got on a mound — something he struggled to do in games by the end of the season. That signaled Rogers was trending in the right direction.

And yet pitching is much more than velocity and strength and repeating one’s delivery. Rogers came to Ramsey the day after his first Triple-A start and assessed his struggles aptly.

“He was so focused on his delivery that he forgot what it takes to pitch,” Ramsey said.

Thinking back on it, Rogers said that start was mostly about making sure he felt good and that his delivery and stuff were in a good place.

“I wasn’t really focused on execution, as opposed to my second start, going through, I started focusing on execution and less mechanical and body awareness-type of stuff,” Rogers said.

The difference was obvious quickly.

“The intent, just the late action, just the aggressiveness was different,” he said. “Just seeing with my eyes, the swings that the hitters were giving off, that was kind of what I was missing last year.”

Ramsey said: “He was moving it around a lot better. He wasn’t throwing at an area. He was executing up, down and out with all the pitches. He was able to move the slider around, continued the development of the sweeper that he’d been going back and forth on and chasing. That was one of the things he’d come down here to work on as well. He found that and he started playing off the lines of the fastball to get to the changeup for swing and miss in put-away locations, getting guys ahead, sequencing and reading swings — all the stuff it takes to succeed at any level but especially the higher levels.

“He could really start focusing on that and have the stuff to do it, whereas before he got back with the shapes and velocities, it wasn’t missing the bats the same way.”

"As an organization, he is somebody to be very proud of."

Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino

Rogers’ velocity returning is only a part of the equation, but it certainly helps. His four-seamer is averaging 93.7 mph in the big leagues and his sinker 93.5 mph, compared to 91.9 and 91.5 mph a season ago.

He’s executing the rest of his arsenal for weaker contact and is avoiding barrels in a way that challenged him in previous seasons, and he feels he’s taken the proverbial monkey off his back in proving over three tries that he can be a successful starter in the big leagues.

Ramsey gives Rogers all the credit for doing the work to get himself there. Rogers has spoken since his return to the majors about his trust in the Orioles’ plan for him, with major league pitching coaches Drew French, Mitch Plassmeyer and Ryan Klimek helping to chart the course with Herrmann, Ramsey and many others. Rogers is certainly holding up his end of the deal.

“When we saw him in ’21, I remember going into Miami in my first year here, it was electric stuff,” Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Seeing him here right now feels more like that. I know that our pitching staff and the people in the organization grabbed him this winter and talked to him about getting back on the right plan to getting back to himself. As an organization, he is somebody to be very proud of. It’s good to be proud of our organization for helping him get to that point.”