Dustin May #85 of the Los Angeles Dodgers (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dustin May is back and slowly getting into a rhythm.
The 6-foot-6 fast-throwing pitcher was sidelined for nearly two years due to elbow surgery and a freak accident that required esophageal surgery after a piece of lettuce became lodged in his throat. While things haven’t been perfect in his seven starts so far, May’s high-90s fastball combined with his trademark off-speed pitches have been on display in the early stages of his return.
Rediscovering His Rhythm
“The more that I’m out there, the more that I’m kind of getting back into the swing of things,” says May in a one-on-one interview with RG. “I guess you could kind of say that, just because I had been away so long and just getting the understanding of the game and the flow of the game, the ebbs and flows of the season, the ups and downs, the wins and losses, being able to control emotions on the mound.”
May details how the talent at the big-league level demands players to be at their best game in order not only to excel but simply to compete.
“That’s the beautiful part about baseball is there’s so many intricacies that the normal person isn’t ever going to really understand, because you’re not being put in that situation,” May continues.
“Being back in the big league game, and even in a minor league game, or spring training — it’s completely different. Everything just kind of stays steady. When you get to the big league game everything speeds up. If something starts going bad, it can snowball very fast because the hitters up there are very good. The talent, the knowledge, everything about it is they’re at the best of the ability. You really have to be on your best game for sure.”
The 27-year-old is understandably off to a bit of a slow start, going 1-3 with 33 strikeouts and a 4.08 ERA. However, it is worth noting that his strikeouts per nine innings (7.5) are higher than during the 2023 season (6.4) and not far off from his career average (8.1). In other words, his trademark off-speed pitches—with lateral movement that can see as much as an 18-inch drop—are still there.
Consistency Is Key
It’s just a matter of finding consistency.
“Having the ability to go out and do it is a really big thing,” says May. “Just being able to go out and execute like I used to has been a little bit different, just because I haven’t been doing it in so long. Just being able to repeat delivery, repeat a throw, repeat an off-speed pitch, being able to execute something when it’s late in the count, and need a situation to happen and executing a pitch has been the biggest thing coming back, and I feel like I’m starting to get back into the groove of things. But there’s still always something to work on.”
May mentions some things he’s getting better at with each start, emphasizing that repetitions are key to returning to his pre-injury level.
“There’s always something to get better at, holding runners, holding count to where it’s not getting out of hand and just kind of wasting the at-bat away,” says May. “There’s a lot of things that I can work on, but I do feel like it’s going in the right direction.”
A New Perspective and a Renewed Gratitude
The lanky pitcher also notes the importance of slowing things down and focusing on each sequence. The “freak accident” that led to his esophageal surgery—an incident that was life-threatening—has given him a new perspective on life.
The veteran pitcher says this year “has been a blessing,” just from the standpoint of returning to the mound after everything he’s been through over the past two years.
“This year has been a blessing, even results aside, just being able to put a jersey back on and go out and compete and do it at the highest level, whether it was good or bad,” says May. “We were just happy to be here and being a part of this team, and the way that they have just been able to take my needs and kind of reassure that they’re not going to push me, overuse me, like some teams would have to. It’s definitely been a very big blessing to be a part of this organization.”
May says his biggest individual objective is to remain healthy throughout the entire 2025 season. The sixth-year pitcher hasn’t been healthy for an entire season since 2020, which was a shortened season due to COVID.
“The biggest thing is I need to stay healthy,” says May.
“I haven’t had a healthy season in five years now. 2020 was my last healthy season, and that was a half-season. I don’t really know if you call that a full season. That’s my biggest thing for this year, to just go through the year and stay healthy. There’s going to be some bumps in the road where I’m not feeling right, or like a skip-start, just to be able to kind of hit an innings limit, because I haven’t pitched in so long.”
Unsurprisingly, May’s main objective is to win another championship. He played a big role in the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series season but missed their entire playoff run last year.
“I’m not going to be able to go out and throw 200-plus innings like I would like to,” says May. “I know that’s something that I would like to do, but it’s not really in the cards, especially for the situation that I’ve been put in. But as a team, to repeat—we definitely have the skills and the ability and the talent to do that, so just being able to put everything together and go out and do that all the way to the end like we did last year would definitely be the team goal.”
DJ Siddiqi is a sports reporter who focuses on football, basketball and pro wrestling. He has covered some of the biggest sporting events, including the NBA Finals and Wrestlemania and often interviews high-profile athletes on a weekly basis. Siddiqi has interviewed the likes of Dan Marino, Emmitt Smith, Shaquille O'Neal, Tony Hawk and Giannis Antetokounmpo. His previous experience includes working as a lead NBA writer at CBS Sports and 247 Sports in addition to working as a beat reporter covering the NFL and the Denver Broncos at Bleacher Report. Follow Siddiqi for exclusive one-on-one interviews and analysis on key topics in sports
