Unexpected circumstances have reset Dustin May
by Cary Osborne
There were days in the past when Dustin May would rear back and unleash triple digits, trying to bully his way through an at-bat. His stuff was so good and the movement was so rapid and winding that he would ride with it regardless of the result.
The results as a whole were typically positive for May and the Dodgers. But the fact that he had spent considerable time on the injured list in the past and had yet to fulfill his enormous potential told him something.
He was a thrower and had yet to truly master the craft of pitching.
Recent circumstances forced a change upon the electric right-hander. By most accounts — his counting the most — he has graduated from being a thrower. He is now a pitcher.
“Oh, I was absolutely a thrower before,” May says. “I was just, ‘I’m going to throw it, and you’re going to have to hit it because the stuff is better. But, yeah, I definitely feel like I’ve evolved into being able to throw stuff where I want to, being able to locate, being able to work a count, being able to work a lineup. The overall knowledge and feel has grown.”
That has been evident in May’s first seven starts of the 2025 season. Once he got past his emotional return to a Major League mound on April 1 — his first Major League start in 685 days — he was able to focus solely on his true objective. That objective is collecting outs, getting deep in a game and giving his team the opportunity to win every game in which he takes the hill.
May says it was the life-changing incident last July 10, when he suffered a tear in his esophagus, that reset him in a profound way.
May was just 26 years old at the time when a bite of salad ended his 2024 season — a freak accident that led to emergency surgery. The right-handed pitcher was setting a course to return to the Dodgers for the stretch run of the season at the time, after recovering from a second major elbow surgery.
To that point in his Major League career, May had been an Opening Day starter for the Dodgers, he had pitched in two World Series games, and he had pitched in parts of five Major League seasons. But those five seasons amounted to just under a combined 200 innings.
“After my esophagus thing, I kind of had a reset, just internally and mentally about everything that goes about in life,” May says. “Everything is not so heavy in the moment. Like there’s a lot worse things that can happen than on the field. We’re very blessed and gifted to be out here. It’s like, don’t take those moments for granted.”
May is an intimidating presence. At 6 feet, 6 inches tall and with fire-red hair, the lean Texan can sling a breaking ball with lasso action and fire a fastball with unfair movement and velocity. But up until recently, he says, he was so caught up in results that it didn’t allow him to enjoy the moments.
Even before the esophagus tear, there was another moment that helped ground May. He got married in December 2022. May says his wife Millie has been a savior.
“Just being around my wife and the way that she has taken care of me through my elbow surgeries and then through my esophagus surgery, it’s definitely changed my outlook,” May says.
Not that it has softened him. May can still flip a switch with the best of them when he is on the mound. The familiar big-out roar was back early in the 2025 season.
So have the results.
May allowed two earned runs in his first three starts. In his last start on May 10, he allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings.
Though the fastball velocity has been down a couple of mph early, it’s still filthy four-seamers to left-handed batters, and elite-movement sinkers to righties. And sweepers to both.
The sweeper has been a standout pitch throughout his career, with the highest batting average any season against the pitch at .161 and the highest slugging percentage at .290.
“He spins it at over 3,000 RPM, so it’s very difficult to pick up any sort of visual on the ball,” says Dodger assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness. “And then you basically are having to make a swing decision on a sinker that’s moving 20-plus inches into you and then 20-plus inches away from you. And there’s just not a lot of time to make the right call.”
McGuiness began working with May in 2017 when the pair were with Single-A Great Lakes. May was just 19 years old at the time and in his second professional season. McGuiness was the pitching coach. They’ve been in the big leagues together since 2020.
There might be no better person to weigh in on May’s evolution.
McGuiness points to a few differences this year. May’s sequencing — when he is using his pitches and how he is locating. Using velocity with purpose, tapping into the higher mph when he needs to. A significant drop in his arm angle.
Through April, May was releasing the baseball at an 18-degree arm angle. It’s been as high as 32 degrees and never below 24 in prior seasons. Now it’s a more comfortable throw for a pitcher who has had two major elbow surgeries — Tommy John surgery in 2021 and flexor tendon surgery in 2023.
McGuiness says this season has represented one of the biggest leaps forward in May’s professional career.
“Even just his willingness and openness to try to work on helping the run game,” McGuiness says. “(And) he’s trying to access the zones in different ways — not just run it up the gut. It’s been a lot of fun to watch. Just given where he had started and everything that he’s gone through, to watch him do this at such a high level again is kind of amazing to me. This guy hasn’t been pitching in the big leagues for let’s call it a few years now. And then he’s just thrown right into it, and he’s been one of our most reliable guys right now.”
Others see it, too.
“D-May has been awesome,” Mookie Betts says. “Ever since I’ve known him, before injuries and whatnot, he’s always been a fierce competitor. I think this time around, it seems like he has a better understanding of what it takes, how to stay healthy, what kind of pitcher he is. He’s attacking the zone, and he’s being D-May.”
There’s another thing that’s different about May. Not that he didn’t feel this way before, but gratitude is a big part of his baseball life. His faith, family and focus have now all come together to help make him the pitcher and person he is today.
May says he was a few hours away from going into septic shock when he had the health scare with his esophagus. While he recovered from the surgery, he was not present at Dodger Stadium. During the special moments of the 2024 postseason, he wanted to be there. But he felt it was best to recover from a distance and not take up space. It meant he wasn’t in New York when the Dodgers won the World Series in Game 5.
It was hard, May admits.
But all of that potentially makes 2025 even sweeter for him.
“I am just happy to be here and just happy to put a uniform on and be able to go out and just play the game because I’ve been away from it so long,” May says. “My respect for the game went through the roof. It was already at the top — now there’s no ceiling. I just want to be in the clubhouse. I’m here really early. In Spring Training, I was always the last one leaving. I want to be here. I want to feel the feelings of being in the clubhouse again and feel like I’m a part of it.”
From Dodger Insider Magazine: May’s in bloom was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.