2025 marks PressBox’s ninth annual Best Of edition celebrating the top people, performances and moments of the year.
Best Oriole
Trevor Rogers had been completely written off by Orioles fans after a disastrous 2024 season. With the Orioles in need of pitching help, they sent Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby to the Marlins to acquire Rogers in late July 2024. The former All-Star had a miserable stint, allowing 15 earned runs in four starts (19 innings) before being optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
An offseason injury delayed Rogers’ start to the 2025 season. Eyes rolled at the prospect of the 6-foot-5 left-hander returning to the rotation. But then a funny thing happened. Rogers made his first start of the season in spot duty against the Red Sox at Fenway Park as part of a May 24 doubleheader and he was … absolutely brilliant. He allowed just two hits and no walks in 6.1 shutout innings, lifting the Orioles to a 2-1 victory.
Rogers returned to the rotation in mid-June and never left. His first home start saw him toss eight shutout innings (three hits, no walks) against the Rangers. That start kicked off a stretch of 15 consecutive starts in which Rogers allowed two runs or fewer in five or more innings, the longest such streak in Orioles history.
When the dust settled, Rogers had made 18 starts, pitching to a 1.81 ERA and 0.90 WHIP for the season and breaking a 60-year-old club record set by Stu Miller for the lowest ERA in a season of 100-plus innings pitched. (His ERA had actually been a staggering 1.35 until he allowed six runs in three innings against the Yankees in his final start of the year.) He allowed just six home runs total for the season despite giving up three in that finale.
Rogers told PressBox that when he was sent down in 2024, he contemplated his baseball future. He and his wife agreed to give it two more years to try to figure it out. As it turns out, it took him less than one. Rogers showed an immense amount of heart in how he battled through adversity and negativity to deliver one of the best pitching seasons in modern Orioles history.
See Also:
• Trevor Rogers Voted 2025 Most Valuable Oriole
• Orioles LHP Trevor Rogers On Regaining Top Form, Unusual Key To Success :
• The 15: Surprising Orioles Seasons
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox
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Issue 296: December 2025 / January 2026
Originally published Dec. 17, 2025