Dodgers News: Dustin May Could Have A Postseason Relief Opportunity
The last time we saw Dustin May on the mound in a Dodgers uniform was May 1st, 2021. In the second inning, the 23 year old at the time threw a pitch and immediately knew something was off. A week later, May would be scheduled for Tommy John surgery.
Flash forward to July 2022, 14 months post-surgery, the still young and promising righty is recovering with a chance of making his return to the Dodgers.
For the past three weeks, May has been tossing to a few live batters at Camelback Ranch in Arizona with hopes of taking the next step in his rehab process which would be to pitch in a few games at the minor league level.
May is signed to a contract through 2025 and the Dodgers have every intention to bring him right back to the mound as if he never left.
Andrew Friedman, President of Baseball Operations since 2014 has high hopes for the May’s future. (Quotes via Bill Plunkett)
“He’s a starting pitcher in our mind. Now if we get to October and based on different factors, we might reconsider that. But coming back when he does, we view him as a starting pitcher, and to the extent that we can continue to build him up without any setbacks then he’ll be built up like a starting pitcher. If we have any setbacks then maybe we’ll bring him back earlier in a different role. But our plan is to build him up, have him start for us and then evaluate as we go.”
Since 2019 when May made his MLB debut, he has posted a 2.93 ERA across 113.2 innings of work. Before May’s season was cut short by the season ending injury back in 2021, the Texas native had posted a 2.74 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 23 innings.
Friedman is considering May’s return to look more similar to Julio Urias’ back in 2018 after shoulder surgery rather than that of a more conventional reliever.Urias made seven relief appearances in the postseason, none longer than an inning and on consecutive days only twice.
How the Dodgers management moves along with May’s rehabilitation assignment is dependent on how the pitcher feels the next few weeks so although the future seems hopeful for his return in the postseason, they also want to make sure the risk isn’t too high.
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