TODAY: May’s placement is official, with the “right arm injury” designation. Left-hander Mike Kickham’s contract was selected from the alternate training site in a corresponding move. To create a 40-man roster spot for Kickham, the Dodgers moved right-hander Corey Knebel to the 60-day IL.
Kickham signed a minor league deal with L.A. in January, after a 2020 season that saw him toss 14 innings for the Red Sox. It was Kickham’s first MLB action since pitching with the Giants in 2014, as he had toiled away in the minors looking for another opportunity.
MAY 1, 11:28PM: The Dodgers will place May on the 10-day injured list on Sunday, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including The Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett). In terms of a longer-term prognosis, Roberts said “we remain hopeful but we won’t know until we get an MRI,” adding that May will get that MRI when the Dodgers arrive in Chicago on Monday for the beginning of a series with the Cubs. According to the manager, May felt “a shooting sensation” in his arm.
8:34PM: The Dodgers released a very general first report on May, saying that he only left the game with a “right arm injury.”
7:05PM: Dodgers right-hander Dustin May made an early exit from his start against the Brewers tonight due to an apparent injury. After throwing a pitch to Billy McKinney with two out in the bottom of the second inning, May visibly winced in discomfort, and left the game after a visit from the team trainer.
More will be known when the Dodgers release an update on May’s condition, but obviously any sort of an injury that requires an injured-list placement isn’t good news for either May or the Dodgers rotation as a whole. Though Los Angeles still has one of the league’s best rotations, the club has been hit hard by pitching injuries, with seven hurlers currently on the IL. That list of names includes David Price and Tony Gonsolin, who were competing with May for a rotation spot during Spring Training.
May won that battle and has been impressive in the early going, posting a 2.53 ERA, 57.4% grounder rate, and one of the league’s best strikeout rates (37.2%) over 21 1/3 innings heading into tonight’s start against Milwaukee. A heralded pitching prospect on his way up the Dodgers’ minor league ladder, May posted a 2.98 ERA over 90 2/3 innings in 2019-20, and finished fifth in NL Rookie Of The Year voting in 2020. As usual with their pitchers, the Dodgers have been pretty flexible with May’s usage, deploying him mostly as a starter in 2020 but moving him to the bullpen and giving him opener-style “starts” during the team’s postseason run.
If it’s really bad it’s time to call up gray
I like it.
I wonder who has impressed the most at the alternate site.
Gray seems like next in line to me.
Man that sucked to see. He knew it as soon as it left his arm. Hopefully for him and the Dodgers it’s nothing major, but I wouldn’t expect to see Big Red for awhile……
Cey hey not doing good rn.
I’m amazed at how many injuries keep piling up. Even the NFL doesn’t seem to have as many wounds as BB.. Are these athlete’s so tuned up they can snap at a wrong turn?
Baseball is a lot more technical of a sport. You can play most positions in football with a broken hand if you wanted to. Certain injuries in baseball makes you noncompetitive.
I don’t know Steve, these injuries are coming too fast. Players in the past played through their injuries. Now it’s so financial, I think folks are becoming weenies. Ouch, I hurt my toe, 10 day IL
Steve my bro, please take no offense. Football quarterbacks break or dislocate their fingers & are back in 2 weeks &.throwing 60 yard td’s. If you play 16 games a year, you’re back out there making it happen. BB has become too sensitive & too expensive. Over a 162 game season, it’s easy to put folks on the IL. I know it has become part of the game, I just don’t like it.
Curly Was The Smart Stooge:
People like you have idealized players in the past. Sure, everyone remembers the guys with rubber arms, Guys like Nolan Ryan and Warren Spahn. But there were tons of guys nobody remembers, including me, who flamed out early in their careers. And a lot of those short careers were because they were overused, and asked to play through their injuries.
There’s big difference in how teams treated guys when they didn’t make much, and how they’re treated now when the team is on the hook for several more years, at millions in salary.
The financial aspect cuts both ways, but it’s mostly the teams being conservative. Clubs didn’t have a problem asking low paid players to play through their injuries, even if it threatened their careers. But clubs don’t do that now because of the large investments they’ve made in the players. It’s the teams, not the players, that are sitting guys with any sort of undiagnosed soreness or tightness.
Read Sandy Koufax’s biography if you haven’t. It was only because of his supreme talent that he could pitch with his arm practically falling off. Had he had just average MLB talent, no one would know, or remember his name.
Well said tad2b13, it’s sad that teams use players to their advantage. It has been the way of sports that many have been used. I’ve been used in my job as well. I don’t make millions. I would be interested in who you are since i”ve been watching BB since about 1957 or so. Some of us are lucky, some of us are not. I hope all is well with you. PS, I read Jim Bouton’s book, I haven’t read Koufax.
Thank you Doctor Welby
Really? , thekid9, that’s the best you can do? Go back to mommy & daddy’s basement. Open up your bag of chips & keep your hands off your lap.
Curly Was The Smart Stooge:
Thanks, all is well with me, as I hope it is with you. Funny, 1957 is also about the time I became a baseball fan. My father was a Milwaukee Braves fan, originally a Boston Braves fan who retained his allegiance, and I remember the ’57 WS. I also remember his bitter disappointment in ’58.
I probably wouldn’t minded being used, if it meant a career in MLB. Getting used playing ball for a living beats working, at even a reasonably good job like I had.
Steve Avery is one guy that looked spectacular and he flamed out at the beginning of his career and never really came back at all. I think Bobby Cox ruined him. You can’t make hard throwing rookies pitch over 200 innings during their rookie season and expect them to stay healthy. Dusty Baker did a lot of damage to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood because Baker claimed, “I don’t believe in pitch counts.”
tad2b13, as soon as I was old enough I bought the “Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia” As a teen, I bought it with my own money. It has every ball player in history listed ( before 1969).. I looked every player up + everyone I hadn’t heard of.. BB means that much to me. When they keep changing the rules, BB means less & less to me.. Now they have 7 inning no hitters. I’m sad and skeptical about BB anymore. It was a way of life with me.
I’ll add to the list… Herb Score, Wayne Simpson, Mark Fidrych, The Count of Montefusco, JR Richard. Brandon Webb,
That made me laugh audibly.
Overpaying Bauer for 2 years doesn’t look so bad now. If May’s injury is as scary as it looks, the Bauer signing saves their season. Or at least from giving up more big prospects.
Having MLB’s highest bankroll doesn’t look so bad right now either.
The thing that looks bad right now is having the MLB’s highest payroll and finding a way to lose almost every day for weeks.
Does it really count as “overpay” when money doesn’t really matter due to essentially unlimited payroll available? I agree with Blue Skies that when your payroll is 50 mil over the next highest team (approx 30% more), there ar few excuses for such a losing streak as the one they are on now. Supposed to have enough quality to stop the bleeding with that payroll. That said, LA is definitely better than the 92.5 wins they would project at currently – just not that 120 win total they were projected at 2 weeks ago! The injury bug is the great equalizer in sports for sure – who can avoid it and who can overcome it tends to win in sports. Pads and Dodgers and a couple of other teams really seem to be hit hard right now.
i mean its an overpay in value terms but LAD has the finances to deal with overpaying.
If you listen to some fans, every free agent signing is an “overpay” (and they come in only two flavors, huge, and massive). I don’t believe in the concept of overpays. By definition the team that signs a free agent has “overpaid” because they were willing to pay that player more than any other team. It’s silly to call the market price for a player an overpay unless you believe that teams can and do sign players for less than what the market would bear. Aside from the occasional (and mostly mythical) “hometown discount,” that just doesn’t happen.
This is why you stack starting pitching.
As a dodger fan, I’m happy, Friedman has done that.
May’s triple digit heater will be missed.
I hope it’s nothing serious
It’s also why it’s so important to have a nice cycle of prospects, who get minimally compensated for a few years in the majors and allows you to spend money on a solid veteran to round out your rotation
Exactly. You can never have enough starting pitching.
Damn. May’s stuff is electric. Hopefully he just had a turtle head popping out and had to rush to the toilet.
Thats a shame. I like his antics on the mound. He has fun on the mound. When he gets hit hard his turn around is one of the best in the game. Some guys just hang their head while May jumps around and squats. Very passionate player. Hopefully its not serious.
On May Day, no less.
May’s fastball is as scary as when he dresses up as a clown. He’s so talented and focused and doesn’t seem he takes his time in the big Leah for granted. I hope he doesn’t need surgery and that Gonsolin is ready, healthy and effective enough to fill the void.
Tommy John. Dude only throws 98 with a splinter as a secondary. Bound to happen similarly to lamet. Need to raise mound or put bigger groves back on balls or this will continue to happen to pitchers. This could be avoided but to appease simpleton manfred whos main objective is to ruin the game of baseball. It’s all about scoring runs and that’s about it.
It’s amusing that Tatsumaki uses the term “simpleton.”
He doesn’t throw a splitter or a splinter. Know his arsenal if you’re going to criticize. A sinker is completely different grip and arm strain
Is it just me or did a bunch of comments disappear?
A bunch of responses to a poster laughing about the injury, including mine, are gone.
That is what I figured. MV was out of line but I thought we policed him pretty good ourselves. I wonder if he gets banned or just the delete?
Goodnight sweet prince. See you in late 2022.
I’m starting to think that teams really don’t care all that much about guys going down with injury. The players all seem to be told to throw as hard as they can every pitch and then the same thing is told to the guy that comes in and replaces him.
Sadler – a little short sighted to say that “teams” are the reason why pitchers throw hard. I’d say all pitchers were throwing hard years before they got to the professional levels.
Is it short sighted? Isn’t the goal to make the team and in order to make the team, don’t you have to provide a skill that the team desires and is willing to pay for?
Right but isn’t that the player (or agent or whoever advises the player) thinking what he needs to do to make a team – whatever level from little league up. It’s how they make a living and injuries are part of the game – don’t blame the teams as a blanket statement. Sure there are isolated usage arguments in history but that wasn’t what you were posting.
And drivers shouldn’t be required to wear seat belts, I get it. We’re all free to do as we choose so long as we are the only ones that get hurt; that nobody else bears any responsibility for enabling, encouraging, or otherwise failing to minimize risk to our health.
Ultimately, I don’t disagree; nor do I think coaches, general managers, and teams in general, disagree; which is my point, and one you inadvertently validated while attempting to refute.
Sadler:
I think you’re completely wrong. The way I see it, with more pitchers being removed from games with forearm tightness or whatever, it’s the teams being more conservative, and not letting guys pitch through any tightness, or soreness. I don’t think there’s really more injuries, just teams caring more about protecting their investments in the players.
Even for a guy like May, who isn’t making a big salary, yet, the team still has invested a lot in developing him through the minors. they have to protect that investment.
Plus, if we as fans know that throwing hard isn’t enough, baseball teams are more than aware that guys need to learn how to pitch, not just throw hard.
@tad
The correlation between the increase in the number of TJ surgeries and the increase in average velocity is staggering.
It doesn’t take much googling to find all the charts and evidence you’ll ever need that show this very simple fact occurs at every level, from 12 years old to 40.
And I just don’t think it ultimately matters very much; the risk is just worth it because there is always somebody else available to take their place.
Sadler:
TJS is a relatively recent development. It had never been done before 1975, so no one knows how many players would have had it prior to that.
But It’s wide spread use is a much more recent development. And it’s the players themselves opting to have it. It’s not the team’s decision. Players are gambling that TJS will save and lengthen careers and even, as has happened with some, to increase their velocity.
It doesn’t take a doctor to realize that a thicker ligament from the leg is an improvement on what has shown to be a weak link in the arm, and a factor in ended careers.
What the numbers reflect is the acceptance by the athletes to gamble on what has become a proven treatment, refined over the last 45 years.
But that’s irrelevant to the fact that teams are hugely invested in their players, and are simply protecting that investment in the liberal use of the IL and pulling pitchers from games, given the slightest indication of a possible injury.
Sadler….I doubt it’s that simple. Velocity with movement like a slider? More strain on the elbow than a 2- or 4- seam fastball. I’m not disagreeing with your point about the correlation between increased velocity and increased TJs. Sliders and split-finger fastballs? Likely a stronger correlation.
Damn, tough loss for the Rotation since BP also cant help much especially with the LHP (Vesia and Cleavinger) didnt really good. Bad move for trading Floro and not resign Mcgee..
I love most news nowadays is just injury reports. MLB = NFL.
The injuries just seem out of control this year. Maybe I’m wrong but do they not seem to be more prevalent than ever before? Guys getting shelved left and right
Read the book called The Arm by Jeff Passan. Pushing these pitchers to regularly throw 95+ is asking for injuries. Cy Young struck 1 batter for every 3 innings. not sexy, but got 511 wins.
Dustin May is one of the premier young RHPs in baseball. Watching the replay of his last pitch . It was a hard breaking ball and while the ESPN announcer suggested he yelled in pain, clearly it was a yell more rooted in anguish than physical pain. It looked like the ‘ I just blew up my UCL and I’m done’ scream.
It’s hard to watch. He’s a great young talent.
The good news is that it’s not his shoulder. Elbows are fixable. Shoulders not so much.
I expect to see him back in LA in 2022 after the All-Star break.
Lastly, Some of these comments tonight regarding velo , surgery and baseball are just idiotic. Guys commenting with limited or low IQ modern pitching info . If you want to educate yourself about modern pitching and it’s impact on the game and pitchers themselves, Start with Passans book ‘ The Arm’
It takes near 2 full years to regain 100% of a pitchers “stuff”. The 12-16 month timeline at best gets back to 95%. 2 full offseason’s will do the trick. So look for Dustin May’s 100mph sinker again near opening day 2023.
Another aspect of this that is often overlooked is that young players, in general, are out there playing a lot more baseball games than they used to. Right after the World Series, there’s the Arizona Fall League for top prospects, then the Mexican league, the Caribbean league, the Dominican league, and probably a few others as well.
This is great for hitters and iron glove youngsters who need to hone their fielding skills. It’s also great for pitchers still learning their craft. But all of those months of baseball are going to take their toll on young players’ arms.
The last few weeks have been brutal for LA. If he goes down to a major injury, that just sucks. Haven’t seen it yet but the reports just sound…awful
As a giants fan it’s no good to see May on the IL – he’s a real talent and entertaining to watch. Hopefully just a short stint – I’d love to see how we go this year against a full strength Dodgers outfit.
Interesting reading about pitching and Tommy John surgery. Tommy John lived in the next town from me but I only met him once, very briefly. That makes me know nothing. Anyway, I do believe that the pitching motion has profoundly changed since “the old days” based on a conversation with a gentleman who pitched in the Cardinals organization during the Musial era. Also, had teammates in baseball who pitched some in the minors in the eighties for further perspective. Finally, my nephew is about to have his second Tommy John surgery this month and will be released by his team. This is better than retiring because now he will be free to go anywhere rather than having to get their permission if he retires. Also, I pitched until I was 41 years old although I guarantee you I didn’t throw anywhere near major league velocity. I read a good book by Dr. Tom House, former pitcher and Physiologist who included a lot of useful exercises that I used during my pitching days. Finally, I have been around an excellent high school baseball program for about 15 years and had many discussions with coaches and players, a couple of whom are excelling right now at high level Division 1 programs. Given that I am a mathematician, data is my language but i trust what people say as much as the data.
My thoughts: Tommy John surgery should only be performed when no other alternative exists. It is not always successful (maybe 85% of the time). It is MUCH more prevalent today for two reasons that I can think of immediately. The obsession with velocity over command and the way pitchers throw to achieve the velocity. We have turned pitching into a track and field event and I have to say it’s not pretty. Throwing a javelin three times is a whole lot different than throwing 100 pitches! Throwing a football is easier on the arm than pitching. The demands are first and foremost accuracy. Should be the same for pitching. Who cares if a quarterback can throw a ball 100 yards if he can’t hit the receiver in the hands? You don’t see an obsession in football with distance (a proxy for velocity for you Physics people).
I grew up loving to throw. Baseball, football, soccer throw ins, full court basketball shots, anything involving throwing something as far as possible. Part of that was raw talent and part of that was lack of other skills. But I never hurt myself, only had the annual sore arm. And I pitched the way I saw the pitchers in the 60’s pitch, two seam fastballs with movement and a curve ball when I was old enough. Plenty of ill advised pitchers threw their arms out when they were young trying to throw curves and sliders. Idiotic,
Anyway, blah, blah, blah, I know. My point is that the game needs to think about changing the way it’s played to protect pitchers more and the game needs to be scouted towards location and movement over velocity. We are at a critical point where the pitchers are dropping like flies and it’s not an unlimited supply of chuckers. We need pitchers back.
Nice to know your life story when a simple opinion was all that was needed to make a point like everybody else here does ( if you noticed).
Glad you made it to the last paragraph.
I’d rather write 1,000 words of discourse where I don’t call someone stupid than a clever sarcastic attack of one sentence. Oops.
You’re right. The whole idea of the pitching windup is to build some momentum so that you can hurl a ball at a high rate of speed and at the same take some of the strain off of your arm. Many pitchers today more or less stand there and throw it, or they have a windup that is designed to be flashy without taking body mechanics into account.
If by flashy you mean intentionally deceptive then sure. Take Taillon for example. He hid the ball much better, pulling his arm almost behind his head before his TJS (x2).
Now he has a much more compact wind-up which isnt much different then his stretch arm motion. Safer, but less effective.
One change is the back leg going up in the air in an exaggerated manner. Back in the day pitchers got ready to field a little sooner. Least that’s what I’ve been told by my elders.
His curve is simply nasty and the torque he puts on his arm, I felt it was just a matter of time. That “shooting sensation” he felt?! I would expect they find a tear of the UCL.
Could be a muscle strain – forearm, bicep, etc.
Not saying either is more or less likely than a ligament tear, but a pulled muscle can give that same burning/stabbing sensation.
One of the many problems the dodgers face. I it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I would say the dodgers are hitting under 200 as a team. Hopefully they don’t fall to far behind where they have no chance to make another run for the postseason.
Didn’t look great. This is the sort of thing required to keep the NL West competitive. I still see LA and their bats coming out of their slumber, but now SD sure makes for a better + money wager.