Steve Webb
Dodgers fans have had better Mondays, to be quite honest. The news that we were all terrified of, but were hoping against was announced today. Dodgers fireballing starter Dustin May is going to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. Not only does it put the Dodgers’ hopes to repeat as world champs in jeopardy, it could damage May’s long-term career prospects to be the ace that we all know he is capable of becoming.
It all happened in a cringe-inducing moment on Saturday in the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers. May threw a curve ball to hitter Billy McKinney and winced in pain as he released the ball. He immediately called for the trainers and took himself out of the game. And that will be the last we see of Dustin May in 2021.
“Oh no,” said play-by-play man Joe Davis right after the pitch, echoing the sentiments of Dodger fans everywhere. Unfortunately, Davis’s spot diagnosis was on the money. After an MRI in Chicago, manager Dave Roberts broke the bad news at his daily press availability. “I feel for him, most important,” Roberts said. “For our ballclub, it’s a big blow. But we have a lot of talented players and we just have to find a way to fill that void.”
Obviously, the main concern is getting Dustin through the surgery and back on the road to recovery. But it won’t be easy. Tommy John is a season-ending and life-changing injury. We can only hope that Dustin is able to fight his way back to the level he was at before that fateful pitch in Milwaukee.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, have to figure out what to do with May’s spot in the rotation. With David Price and Tony Gonsolin already on the IL with injuries, suddenly all that pitching depth in the rotation doesn’t look so fantastic. The team is going to have to figure out how they can gut their way through the next few weeks until either Price or Gonsolin is ready to take a spot in the rotation. Prospect Josiah Gray is one idea, but he remains a very untested commodity at the big-league level. Jimmy Nelson has pitched a lot of innings in the past as a starter for Milwaukee, but he’s been having trouble finding the strike zone at times coming out of the pen. The Dodgers’ know that they can throw a few bullpen games here and there, but that won’t be a season long solution.
Well. Nobody said repeating as World Series champs was going to be easy. But it just got a whole lot harder. Good luck with the surgery, Dustin. May you be back driving Manny Machado nuts as soon as possible…
