5:45pm: Manager Dave Roberts tells reporters, including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, that May has a flexor pronator strain. His return timeline is still unclear but May is headed for the injured list. Ardaya adds in a subsequent tweet that May’s ulnar collateral ligament didn’t appear to be impacted in early testing.
3:20pm: Dodgers starter Dustin May departed today’s game after just one inning. Several reporters, including Mike Petriello of MLB.com, noticed that May’s velocity was down from his typical range. The club later announced that the righty departed due to elbow pain.
At this point, it’s still unknown exactly what is bothering May or how severe it is. However, an issue with a pitcher’s throwing elbow is always a cause for some concern, and the diminished velocity and quick hook just add to the sense of alarm.
May, 25, has shown the potential to be an excellent pitcher in the big leagues but has been prevented from taking on a significant workload by the pandemic and Tommy John surgery. He debuted in August of 2019, tossing 34 2/3 innings that year with a 3.42 ERA. He followed that up by tossing 56 innings in the shortened 2020 season with a tiny 2.57 ERA. He then made just five starts in 2021 before having to undergo Tommy John, returning to make six more starts late last year. He had a 2.68 ERA through his first eight starts this year, with today’s truncated outing his ninth time taking the ball.
Amid those interruptions, the 56 innings he threw in 2020 are still a career high. He has an excellent 3.12 ERA dating back to 2019 but in only 190 2/3 total frames over that stretch. He and the club will no doubt do some further testing in the days to come to figure out what’s ailing him and hope that he isn’t slated for yet another significant obstacle in his career path.
If May does end up needing to miss some time, the Dodgers would still be in decent shape, but it would deal another blow to their rotation depth. Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urías, Tony Gonsolin and Noah Syndergaard would still give them a solid front four. Syndergaard has a 5.94 ERA on the year but the others are all below 3.65.
Further down the club’s depth chart, Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove are both on the injured list already and don’t seem to be immediate options to jump back to the big league club. Gavin Stone and Andre Jackson are each on the 40-man roster and could be recalled, if necessary. Prospect Bobby Miller is in Triple-A but has an 8.64 ERA through his first three starts there this year and isn’t on the 40-man roster.
Done
I saw in his last start he winced and shook his arm out in the 7th inning after dominating to that point and then his velocity dipped. Couldn’t make it out of the inning and no one said a word. Mark Prior paid him a mound visit and they left him in. Thought for sure he was going to the IL then but let him pitch today. Stupid
Wow
For all that is holy, not another one.
MLB needs to figure this out, this many injuries is SERIOUSLY wrong. It kills the competitive spirit and downright hurts BB.
And we have to see to many junk ham n egger and their 3.1 IP 8 hits 6 runs
This didn’t start happening until the obsession of max effort 99 mph started. Brutal
Will we ever see another knuckleballer- those who stay healthy? Tim Wakefield had a career 34.4 WAR and 3226 innings pitched.
Great article on Baseball Prospectus about it.
baseballprospectus.com/news/article/82698/in-the-d…
A lot of pitchers throwing max effort plus teams know that good pitching is relatively easier to find than good hitting because all you need to do is get in front of a Rapsodo and voila! You’ve discovered a new pitch or new arm slot.
Baseball really is a war of attrition that starts all the way down in youth ball. But clubs know how to prep for such a scenario and players still get paid. Unfortunately, don’t think this is a dilemma going away anytime soon
We say this every year.
Read the article. Its worse this year. Worst ever. by a large margin
Carrot-top is cooked
Glad he’s not stewed…
…or baked…
Roasted?
UH OH!!
man, not a Dodger fan at all, but he’s suffered enough through the arm issues. Dude was lights out so far this year.
Bummer, I like seeing this guy when he is on, one of the best young talents. Hope he doesn’t go through TJ again
It’s almost exactly a year ago today that we were in Arizona for the USA baseball tournament, while my son was playing games at the dodgers facility all of the prospects came out and started warming up in the tunnels and on a big giant wall where all the pitchers loosen up. Was easy to see May doing workouts with the plyo balls, all that red hair makes him easy to spot. Hope he doesn’t have any major issue and is back on the mound in short order!
Ruh roh
May and Gonsolin must have the same voodoo curse on them as neither seem capable of making it through a full season
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sorry to hear this. Not particularly a Dodger fan but I hate seeing all of these young pitchers get hurt.
Dustin May need surgery
Ok I chuckled
Craven always comes in clutch with a pun
Tommy John
Wow another one.
Hope Dustin is ok, but if he is out, it’s next man up time for Gavin Stone to get back to LA. Even with Miller and Pepiot out, the farm is stacked. The entire AA rotation are all top prospects.
It will be Stone
We sure need the long reliever tho, hopefully Covey is that guy (looks great today) . Jackson wasn’t effective enough earlier to carry that torch. The inns overload is now kinda starting to show its teeth on the pen
* Why I didn’t like the Mitch White trade last year, thought he was a great candidate for that long Rp (Stripling) mold we have had for so long here. Really helps the pen, they gonna be on fumes when they finally get back from Tampa on this upcoming roadie. They seem to already be stretching Shelby to 2 inns gradually, that’s a big help if he can stay healthy all year and pull it off
Dunno about Covey. He was fine until the 5th, when it was HR, Single, Single, Walk.. yanked. At least Gonzales got him out of a jam.. something I can’t say the Angels bullpen would do.
Just looking for length here but agree I don’t view Covey as anything special
Yep, and there it is. Covey got DFAd
That sucks.
I wonder if Freidman zags and just sells at the deadline this year. They could get a lot for Urias and still be a playoff team this year because the NL West blows. They could also get under the tax.
Yeah that would be a typical move for a first place team that has been winning, yet is struggling in the midst of a one game losing streak.
They’re gonna need to part with a lot of prospects to fill a lot of holes. They’re winning now, but this staff isn’t gonna hold up.
@abcrazy4dodgers you made my favorite comment of the day. Thank you
TJS keeps Tommy Milone in MLB.
It’s been about a month, should be time for him to get called up for some random team for 3 days
Man, it just seems like there are a lot of injuries this year.
This sucks for May. Looks like the projections of 80 IP for him this season were a little generous.
Pitch Clock.
In the era of throwing as hard as you can with added movement, elbow injuries are going to keep happening sadly.
Especially when you have one of the nastiest sinkers of all time
Still remember when Dustin was pitching to Machado, this is probably a while back now, and that fastball had so much movement, it started on the outside corner and it ended up well inside with a swing and a miss from Manny. Absolutely disgusting.
Fire Crotch back to the IL
Hey so is Bobby miller even that good? I’ve been reading about his “elite” stuff for a couple years now. But his minor league numbers look godawful
He has good stuff but like a lot of young pitchers lacks command. That’s why some scouts and the talking heads on TV think he’s destined for the bullpen, which in my humble opinion as an armchair GM Dodger fan makes him a bit more expendable, at least in comparison to some of our other top prospects.
May will be back but probably not til June…
Max Fried just did the same thing and Atlanta tossed him into the 60 day IL and said they’re not counting on him until August at the earliest. The other thing people forget is it takes awhile to stretch their arms back out after they stop being hurt.
Probably not until September. 128 days is the median time off with this type of injury.
Hopefully it isn’t what we all think it is.
But elbow injuries are largely due to mechanics so if you get hurt once and don’t change how you throw, odds are you’ll get hurt again.
Thing is, if how you throw is the only reason you get the MLB paycheck, you’re going to keep chucking until the wheels fall off.
Oh some type of Flexor strain…..so flip a coin basically on whether he’ll pitch again this year
well, the players agreed to the stupid ass pitch clock……now they are paying the price of being rushed on the mound.
Where did you hear that FAKE NEWS? It was actually a big deal about them NOT agreeing to the rule changes and Uncle Robbie went ahead and did it anyway
MLB does not have to gt agreement from the players on rule changes like this. All Manfred has to do is give them 1 yrs notice.
Odd muscle to injure for a guy who doesn’t pronate much. But better than the alternative UCL tear.
He’s throwing a sinker 1/3rd of the time and averaging 97 with it – the pronation needed to get that thing biting probably means he’s a risk every pitch he throws.
This shows that the medium recovery time for MLB pitchers is 128 days for this injury. 4 months. Scroll to page 17. foreonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/31.-Rome…
Typically, this injury doesn’t require surgery unless it tears off the bone or the UCL was impacted. Just a long rest.
Best case scenario he is back by the playoffs. Most likely scenario is his season is over.
Worst case is TJS.
He’s toast.
Sorry.
I get this really strange feeling that Friedman’s going to sign Bumgarner for rotation depth. I don’t know how to feel about this.
Personally, I would sign “Bum” for rotation depth in a HEARTBEAT. What do you have to lose?…If he continues to stink, you just DFA him at minimal cost. I’ve seen a lot of players get better, when you put them on a better team, in a better situation.
Horrible news but with the Dodgers it’s simply next man up. Simply promote another stud pitcher.