Los Angeles Dodgers’ Dustin May On His Return To The Mound After Being Out For 2 Years: ‘It Was Very Emotional’

Dustin May is slowly starting to round back into the form that made him one of the MLB’s best pitchers prior to being sidelined for nearly two years.

The 6-foot-6 May is known for his speedy two-seam fastball and his collection of off-speed stuff which sees the ball break as many as 18 inches on a lot of his pitches. He was fourth in lateral movement among all pitchers in 2020, which is impressive considering the speed of his pitches can reach the late 90’s.

However, he’s adjusting into rounding back into form after returning this season following a two-year layoff after elbow surgery and a near-death experience that resulted in surgery following an esophageal tear.

The Los Angeles Dodgers veteran details how he feels returning to the mound after having to fight his way back onto the field.

“It was pretty remarkable because there was a time and place where I didn’t really know if I would be able to come back and not necessarily just play baseball, but just live a normal life,” says May in a one-on-one interview.

“Life happened to me and stuff kind of snowballed on top of it, and I didn’t really realize what what had happened,” May continues to say. “When the surgery did happen, it was a life and death situation. Just being able to get that taken care of, and then just get out of the hospital alive and well, and being able to just do normal daily activities was all huge achievements in itself for me.”

May is referencing a “freak accident” after eating salad where a piece of lettuce tore up his esophagus which ended up required surgery. That not only wiped away the remainder of his 2023 season, but also his entire 2024 campaign.

“Baseball was put on the back burner for a little bit,” says May. “But then once I got healthy and I was able to move around and got back in the swing of strength and body weight and everything, being able to go throw baseball and to go compete again this year, it was definitely very uplifting.

“It was very emotional for me and my wife, just because everything that we had been through in the last year and a half, because I was so close to being back in the games after my second elbow surgery, so then that happened,” May continues to say. “It was just a super negative time in both of our lives, just because of how scary it was.”

After making his last start in May of 2023 prior to his setbacks, May made a successful return on April 1 this season, pitching five quality innings in a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves. The 27-year-old allowed just one hit and struck out six batters.

As mentioned earlier, May is still trying to find the form that once made him the Dodgers’ youngest opening day starting pitcher, having done so during the 2020 season when he helped lead Los Angeles to a World Series.

In seven starts so far this season, May holds a 1-3 record with 33 strikeouts and a 4.08 ERA.

“I still feel like there’s times where I’m speeding up or I’m not really getting into the right spots mechanics wise to get down the mound,” says May of where he needs to improve. “There’s some times where I’m rushing or not feeling the right way.”

May has taken on more of an even-keeled approach compared to earlier in his career where he was more emotional. Now it’s less highs and lows and more of just a neutral approach.

“Being able to resettle in and refocus has been something that I worked on throughout my esophagus surgery,” May details. “There were a lot of times where I was like, ‘We’re going to be okay, but you gotta relax. It’s going to be okay. Just relax, get through this situation, and then we’re going to be able to move to the next.’”

Dustin May, Christian Yelich Team Up For DirecTV Commercial

As May continues to find the form that made him one of the game’s best young pitchers, he’s starring in a DirecTV commercial alongside Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich and Chicago Cubs star Dansby Swanson called “Take Me Out To The Bald Game.”

All you need to know is that the commercial sees all three MLB stars bald while mimicking popular boy bands from yesteryear all while promoting DirecTV’s satellite-free MLB package.

Yelich details how the offer came up in spring training through his agent and the idea of being “bald” sold him immediately. The former NL MVP’s has a little bit of experience, having done some commercials for American Family Insurance and having made an appearance on the show, “Magnum P.I.”

However, he self-admittedly is far from being a natural on camera, although he definitely enjoys and is open to more commercials in the future.

“I thought it’d be pretty fun, I didn’t know everything that would go into the cap,” says Yelich in a one-on-one interview. “Two hours to get bald and do that whole deal with the hair and makeup and all that. But it was a lot of fun. I like the idea that you get to do it with a couple other guys in the league. Sometimes they do that stuff just you by yourself, so to get to hang out with them was pretty fun.”

By contrast, this was May’s first commercial and he’s definitely open to doing more of these types of commercials moving forward.

“They talked about doing something with nothing on your roof for their no satellites on your roof, I thought that was pretty cool idea with the hair as well,” says May. “I like my hair and I have some pretty good locks, I’ve been told. When they decided to do the bald cap, I was like, that’ll be an interesting look for me. My wife and I both thought that would be a good twist on things. They got the ball rolling and I thought it ended up turning out very good.”