The Trevor Rogers contract situation is actually pretty straightforward. He doesn't want to talk about it right now, and when he does, he wants to do it with the Orioles.
Everything else is noise.
From Rock Bottom to the Rotation's Anchor
When the Orioles acquired Rogers from Miami at the 2024 trade deadline for Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers, the initial returns were brutal. He allowed 15 earned runs in 19⅔ innings and was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. The trade looked like a disaster — Stowers hit .279 with 16 home runs and made the All-Star Game for Miami. Rogers was pitching in the minors.
But Baltimore saw something worth developing. Pitching coach Drew French identified that Rogers' velocity had dropped — his arm angle had fallen, contributing to a loss of velocity tied to how he had trained himself for years. An offseason trip to a development facility in Arizona called Driveline - which told him he needed to get stronger physically - addressed the mechanics. A sports psychologist helped with everything else.
"It just felt like I was putting the work in, but I kept going backwards," Rogers said earlier this season. "It's a lot of self-doubt, if I need to find another career path, and that's not a good place to be."
The transformation was one of the better stories in the American League over the past two seasons. Rogers returned in 2025 and finished with a 9-3 record, 1.81 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, and 5.5 bWAR in 18 starts — ninth in AL Cy Young voting despite fewer than 20 starts. He was voted the 2025 Louis M. Hatter Most Valuable Oriole by local media. "Just the entire journey that I've been on since I've gotten here, kind of a bumpy start, not the start that any of us would have wanted, but seeing where we are today, it was worth it," Rogers said upon receiving the award.
In 2026, he has picked up where he left off, apart from a multi-week stretch in April and May when he was dealing with a severe case of the flu. Since June, his ERA is 1.80 in nine starts. Combining these two seasons in Baltimore, his ERA+ is 140 — meaning he has been about 40% better than league average. He is 28 years old and pitching the best baseball of his life.
What Rogers Said
The Baltimore Banner's Andy Kostka spoke with Rogers on Saturday (Read the story here) and the pitcher addressed his contract situation directly. His answers were honest and familiar to anyone who has followed him closely.
Rogers said the Orioles haven't approached him about a new deal, and that this isn't the right time for that conversation anyway. He learned that lesson in Miami, where extension chatter drew his attention away from pitching at the wrong moments. "I don't really like to have that type of conversation during the season, because I want to be strictly focused on baseball and they, you know, deadline coming up, they're focused on other things," Rogers said.
Once the season ends, though, he's made his preference clear. He told Kostka the Orioles would be first on his list. "As soon as this season ends, whenever that may be, and they have an offer on the table, I'm going to be all ears," Rogers said. "Whether they've heard it or not heard it, they know how much I like it here."
That's about as direct as a player in his contract year gets.
What Happens Next
The most likely outcome is the most boring one: Rogers pitches out the season, both sides talk in November, and a deal gets done. The Orioles' track record under owner David Rubenstein supports that read. They extended Samuel Basallo. They gave Pete Alonso a five-year deal in free agency. And Kyle Bradish just signed an in-season extension this summer — proof that the organization is willing to move on a pitcher it believes in before free agency resets the price.
Rogers is the same profile. He's a sort of homegrown success story in everything but draft origin — a pitcher the Orioles rebuilt from scratch, who has responded by becoming one of the better lefties in the American League. Baseball is business, but goodwill can run both directions.
The August 3 trade deadline will likely come and go without a Rogers extension — he's said as much himself. Could the Orioles trade him? It's a possibility if they get an offer they can't refuse. Heck, Baltimore could even trade him to a World Series contender for prospects and then sign him back as a free agent in the offseason, though general manager Mike Elias and Rubenstein just a few days ago signaled they don't intend for the Orioles to be sellers at the trade deadline with the playoffs within reach.
So, it sounds like the matter of Rogers' future in an Orioles uniform will be decided after the season. He will keep pitching. The Orioles will keep watching. And in November, they'll finally have the conversation neither one wants to have right now.