The Cy Young Award isn’t supposed to reward mere mileage.

It’s meant for the one arm in baseball that defines dominance. That distinction matters now more than ever in an era in which workloads look different.

Apply that logic and this debate narrows quickly.

The American League’s best pitcher is the Orioles’ Trevor Rogers, whether or not the innings column satisfies traditionalists.

For three months, since returning full-time to Baltimore’s rotation in mid-June, Rogers has cemented himself as the most dominant arm in the league. Across 14 starts covering 90 1/3 innings, he’s posted an incredible 1.39 ERA with a 0.82 WHIP, 89 strikeouts and 19 walks.

And now Rogers’ resume includes a shiny new award, AL Pitcher of the Month.

In August, Rogers went 4-1 with a 1.29 ERA over 42 innings, the most in the majors. He also ranked first in the AL in ERA and WHIP. Six starts and six chances for opponents to knock him off balance, yet each time, Rogers dictated the terms. Even when he didn’t have his best stuff, Rogers found a way to will forward. That’s not a flash in the pan. It’s a summer-long pitching clinic.

It matters who he did it against, too.

Rogers’ most recent six starts came against a gantlet of October hopefuls in the Giants, Astros, Red Sox, Cubs, Mariners, and Phillies. Against that caliber of competition, Rogers never flinched. He continues to carve up lineups that will be playing when the lights are brightest.

The counterarguments are familiar.

Detroit’s Tarik Skubal boasts the workload, more than 170 innings with a 2.18 ERA. Boston’s Garrett Crochet (2.68 ERA) has been a revelation, piling up 218 strikeouts across 178 innings, although he gave up seven earned runs in his last start against Cleveland. Houston’s Hunter Brown (2.34 ERA) has paired efficiency with big-game moments.

Sure, each resume is impressive, and each belongs in the discussion.

But Rogers’ case is about defining what the award stands for. His last 12 starts — each at least six innings with less than two runs allowed — read like something out of “MLB The Show.” The 6-foot-4 southpaw continues to rewrite history books, becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to post a 1.39 ERA in his first 14 starts of a season.

The Orioles’ turbulent campaign only strengthens the argument. Baltimore is 11-3 in games started by Rogers this season, while the Orioles are 52-73 in games he doesn’t pitch.

When Rogers returned in June, their rotation was wobbling, desperate for stability. Rogers provided that immediately. Every fifth day, Baltimore knew it was getting a chance to win, no matter how stagnant the offense looked. That kind of psychological edge matters, according to interim manager Tony Mansolino. It carries through a clubhouse, steadies a bullpen, and gives young hitters room to breathe and develop.

During a season in which the Orioles fell out of contention early, Rogers became a feel-good story in a lost year, one of the few reasons disgruntled fans kept tuning in.

Baseball has already proven the Cy Young Award isn’t tied to one exact definition.

In 2010, Felix Hernández redefined it with a 13-12 record because the rest of his line screamed dominance. In 2023, Blake Snell won his second Cy Young Award while leading the majors in walks. Relievers such as Dennis Eckersley (1992) and Rollie Fingers (1981) won the award in seasons they didn’t crack 85 innings.

You could even stretch further back. In 1974, Mike Marshall pitched 208 1/3 relief innings and captured the NL Cy Young Award in a season that shattered conventional usage. In 1984, Willie Hernandez won it as a closer.

No matter how you look at it, each unique winner reinforces the same truth that there’s no uniform way to win the Cy Young. It bends purely toward dominance, however it arrives.

For Rogers, he’s kept the recent awards chatter at arm’s length.

He said Wednesday in San Diego he hasn’t given it much thought, choosing instead to focus on his daily approach. After missing the first two months with a knee injury, he considers it an honor to be mentioned in the conversation. The hypotheticals, like whether he’d be a front-runner with a full season, don’t appear to interest him.

So while the innings gap might matter to voters, baseball history has made clear the Cy Young is not the Ironman Award. It’s about who best defined pitching excellence in a given year. Rogers has done just that. He’s been the ace Baltimore desperately needed and the nightmare opposing lineups dread. For three months, not three weeks or three starts, he’s set the standard.

Fittingly, Rogers’ next scheduled start will come on one of Camden Yards’ biggest stages this season: Saturday against the reigning World Series champs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, on 2,131 Day, when Baltimore celebrates its beloved Cal Ripken Jr.

On a night devoted to Ripken’s ironman streak, Rogers will attempt to remind everyone that greatness comes in different forms. His summer of dominance belongs in the Cy Young conversation.

Have a news tip? Contact Josh Tolentino at jtolentino@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/JCTSports and instagram.com/JCTSports.