In his first major league start since May 17, 2023, Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Dustin May was just happy to be pitching. 

MLB analyst Jon Conahan with Athlon Sports thinks May could be doing it for a different Major League team before the 2025 season ends. 

Following a nearly two-year break recovering from a torn flexor tendon in his pitching arm – and a near-death experience caused by salad – May took the mound at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and pitched a gem. In five innings, May gave up just one hit and an unearned run, striking out six with three walks as Los Angeles won 3-1 over the Atlanta Braves. 

But to May, the results of his pitches weren’t as important as the simple fact that he was making pitches at all. 

“Even if it would have went bad I still would have been having a good time just being back on a big-league mound,” May said. “It literally meant the world to me just to be back on the mound because eight months ago I didn’t know if I would be.” 

Dustin May Impresses in First Start Since May 2023

The encouraging start to the season comes after a solid spring during which May allowed four hits and four runs in 10 innings, with 12 strikeouts and six walks. But in spite of the early success, May could find himself a victim of the Dodgers’ ridiculous depth on the pitching staff. 

Formerly a top prospect for the Dodgers who has dealt with several injuries in his short career, May currently sits at the back of a starting rotation that includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The pending returns of Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw, along with several young options such as top prospects Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius, could force the Dodgers to make a decision about May during the season. 

Conahan suggested that a trade to the pitching-starved New York Yankees makes a lot of sense. 

“The Dodgers pitching staff is the best in Major League Baseball, and despite how talented May has proven to be, it might be better to move him from a personal and team standpoint,” Conahan wrote. 

“There are many teams that would take a chance on a 27-year-old who has the stuff he does, including the New York Yankees, who desperately need pitching.” 

Dustin May Credits Bizarre Incident for Spurring ‘A Total Reset’

No matter where May is pitching, he will welcome it as the next step in a wild journey that began in Arizona last July during dinner with his wife. While trying to swallow a bite of salad, May perforated his esophageal tube with a piece of lettuce. 

The bizarre incident would result in emergency surgery that same night, with May later learning how close to tragedy the situation really was. Adding insult to injury, May was nearing his return to the Dodgers following rehab from the summer 2023 procedure on his elbow. 

But May said the experience allowed him to mentally take “a total reset.” 

“Just being able to stay a little bit more level-headed throughout life in general has been one of my biggest things probably in the last six months,” May said.

“There’s nothing I can do at the moment, so playing baseball was at the very back of my mind. I was just trying to get healthy, get home and be able to see the next morning.” 

And now, wherever the season takes him, May said he feels happy knowing that it’s all part of God’s plan. 

“There’s been a lot of praying and a lot of devotion to Him in the last two years of my life and I attribute all of my success to Him,” he said.