Dodgers' Dustin May Provides Major Health Update After First 11 Starts

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had the image of their pitching roster marred by constant injuries, but a resilient bright spot has appeared in the form of Dustin May.

His 4.09 ERA across 11 starts is far from the best Dodgers fans have seen from the right-hander, but after undergoing a flexor pronator surgery in May of 2023, plus tearing his esophagus on a piece of lettuce when he was mere days away from a rehab assignment, the path for May to finally return to pitching has been anything but easy.

After these intense roadblocks, May is now 61.2 innings through his 2025 campaign. His 34 strikeouts to 16 walks show promise, but the 27-year-old spoke on where he feels he is at so far this season.

“I feel like I’m in an OK spot,” May said. “There’s definitely some room to grow. But the biggest thing for me at this point, I’m healthy. I feel healthy. There’s no pain … Just gotta keep building off it.”

May's strikeout to walk ratio of 2.86 has only been higher during his rookie season that only saw 34.2 innings, but perhaps an even more impressive stat the right-hander has set for himself are his innings total.

May has never thrown more frames in a season across his MLB career.

Being dependable for this team, especially with 15 pitchers on the injured list, is crucial. For someone that has had the arduous path that May has to get back to the hill, those 61.2 aforementioned innings become just a little more important.

There is a lot of work to do to get back to the sub-3.00 ERA mark that May has previously produced, but the pitcher of the past still seems to be there.

Although his fastball velocity has dropped from the blistering 96.9 mph average he attained in 2023 to a 94.6 average, May is still seeing success in his above average breaking ball run value and ground ball percentage.

May has his breaking run value ranked in the 84th percentile of active pitchers, as he generates ground balls 49.8 percent of the time, good for the 78th percentile in MLB.

Things are far from perfect for the right-hander, but he is showing signs of returning to the dependable pitcher of the past and building more towards the future.