Dustin May Declines Mutual Option With Brewers

Dustin May declined his end of a $20MM mutual option with the Brewers, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. He’ll collect a $500K buyout and return to the open market.

This was a formality, as mutual options are essentially never triggered by both sides. (Milwaukee would likely have passed on their end of the $20MM provision as well.) May signed a one-year, $12.5MM free agent deal with the Cardinals last winter. St. Louis flipped him to the Brewers alongside reliever JoJo Romero, netting a pair of high-upside outfield prospects for the impending free agents.

The Brewers obviously have no complaints as they celebrate their first championship. Romero proved the more valuable of the two acquisitions from St. Louis, though. May allowed a 5.65 ERA across 36 2/3 regular season innings for the Brew Crew. He gave up seven runs over 11 frames during the playoffs.

It was an up-and-down season for the 29-year-old righty. May finished the year with a combined 4.70 ERA but established a career high with 145 2/3 innings. He struck out a solid 23.2% of opponents against a league average 8.1% walk rate. May has a six-pitch mix and averaged nearly 97 mph on his fastball. Teams have continually been intrigued by the arsenal, so he should do reasonably well in free agency.

May’s camp will likely look for two or three years with a bump over this year’s salary given his youth, velocity, and decent underlying numbers. It’d be a surprise if Milwaukee brings him back. Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat speculates that the Cardinals could check in about a possible reunion. This was the first of four option decisions for the Brew Crew, all of which should be fairly simple. They should exercise their $14.5MM option on William Contreras rather than proceeding to an arbitration hearing while buying out backup catcher Gary Sánchez and declining a $14MM option on reliever Antonio Senzatela.