Steve Webb
Well, it’s official. Dustin May is your fifth Dodger starter, at least at the beginning of the year. Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts let the media know Monday night after the team’s convincing 10-2 drubbing of the Angels in the Dodgers’ second-to-last pre-season game. But with other solid choices like David Price, Tony Gonsolin, and Jimmy Nelson vying for spots in the rotation all spring, the choice was not always so obvious.
Or was it?
“It was easy, it was tough,” said Roberts of his choice to go with the lanky Texas redhead as his fifth starter, “just a lot of variables that I really just don’t wanna get into.” That cryptic reply notwithstanding, Dodger fans have to feel pretty good about their rotation, which now is finally complete: Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer, Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, and now, Dustin May.
May, he of the filthiest pitches this side of the Pecos, will try to build on an already impressive resume. In the shortened 2020 season, May was terrific. After being tapped as an emergency opening day starter, he settled into the rotation very nicely. He appeared in 12 games, starting ten of them and posted a 2.57 ERA over 56 innings.
His postseason didn’t go so fantastic, but much of that might have been about his not knowing day-to-day what his role would be. Once he got to Arizona this spring, he looked much more like the dominant pitcher that we’d seen during the regular season last year. In 4 Cactus League appearances, he held opponents to a .212 batting average and only gave up 4 earned runs in 13 innings of work. Here’s a sampling of Code Red from this spring:
And the good news? Dave Roberts has three very good pitchers joining his bullpen. “I just think that we feel good with David, Jimmy and Tony in the pen,” he said, “getting left, getting right out, taking down two, three, four innings. Potentially at some point, I expect those guys to even finish a game if it makes sense.”
I had thought that Roberts might give Price a shot at starting, given his track record and Cy Young. But it was not to be. We’ll see how Price fits into this new role so late into his career. Hopefully, the Dodgers will be as dominant on the mound as they look to be on paper.
