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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The need to rebound from his own spotty performance and the Rockies’ 103-loss season in 2023 led left-handed starting pitcher Kyle Freeland to live, eat and sleep baseball.

And that’s not just a figure of speech.

Freeland, selected for his third Opening Day start on Thursday against the D-backs at Chase Field, has looked like a different pitcher from last year, when he went 6-14 with a 5.03 ERA in 29 starts -- many of which saw him struggling through a dramatic drop in fastball velocity.

In the offseason, getting his old self back was a 24-hour mission.

“I definitely had a handful of changes this offseason,” Freeland said. “It all started with trying to get my velocity back to where I want it to be. From there, it trickled down to making sure I’m getting proper sleep, putting the right things in my body, making sure I was getting all my work throughout every single week in the offseason -- in the weight room working out with the guys, staying in communication with our trainers on how I was feeling and if we need to back off a little bit.”

Freeland heads into Friday’s Spring Training start against the Rangers in Surprise, Ariz., with a 2-0 record and a 3.21 ERA this spring. He has 14 strikeouts and just one walk, all while his fastball is sitting in the 92-94 mph range -- well up from the upper 80s when it was at its slowest last season.

Freeland’s peak was in 2018, when he went 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA, helped lift the Rockies into the postseason for the second straight year and finished fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting. There have been occasional surges since, but last season -- the second year of his five-year, $64.5 million contract -- alarmed Freeland into seeking ways to get back to his previous form.

A left shoulder strain landed Freeland on the injured list to start the 2021 season, and he acknowledged that, over time, shoulder maintenance waned -- partly because he did not always feel good.

The path back to effectiveness began late last season, when Freeland and Colorado’s strength and conditioning coaches pinpointed muscles weaknesses that could be corrected as long as he adhered to his between-starts shoulder program. Freeland also took a changeup grip that he happened upon during a late-season throwing session and began using it in games.

Manager Bud Black recalled a meeting at season’s end when each laid out an improvement plan.

“I talked about my thoughts on his changeup coming into play,” Black said. “I didn’t talk about velocity; he talked about that.”

Much of the offseason was simple work. The eating part? That was a joyous project for Freeland and his wife, Ashley.

“We enjoy cooking during the offseason,” Freeland said. “I started supplementing a lot more red meat for myself. It helped out. I feel I got good weight. Weight has always been a problem, especially when we get into the season, where eating schedules get messed up. So I stayed focused on making sure that I’m getting the proper foods into my diet.

“Then, getting the proper sleep at night [and] going into every single game is very key. I was able to get a good grasp of that this offseason.”

Now, Freeland wants to wake up and feast.