Dustin May on His Role for 2025 Dodgers: ‘I Haven’t Heard Anything’
Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Dustin May has not been told what his role will be for the 2025 season. May is one of three pitchers competing to be the No. 5 in the rotation, along with Bobby Miller and Tony Gonsolin.
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With less than two weeks before Opening Day, it appears the competition isn’t over just yet.
“I haven’t heard anything,” May said when asked about his role to start the season, via The Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett.
“It doesn’t matter if I know or not. They’re going to put me where they want to put me. It’s just kind of up to them.”
There are rumblings that if May doesn’t earn the final slot in the starting rotation, the Dodgers will test him as a reliever to open the season.
May has had an impressive spring across three outings in Cactus League play, with his curveball looking exceptionally nasty. However, whether his performance has outshined Gonsolin’s remains to be seen.
What’s even more stunning about May’s performance is he is coming off elbow surgery and a ruptured esophagus. Prior to his spring training debut, the right-hander had not pitched for the Dodgers since the middle of 2023.
“It felt amazing to be back,” May said after his Cactus League debut. “Huge, huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. … I’m alive. I’m glad I’m here. It was just a breath of fresh air, like a new beginning.”
The 2025 season will be a new chapter for May, but it’s unclear whether he will open the season in the rotation or from the bullpen.
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Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images
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I suspect that the Dodgers want to “slow show” May so that they build him up carefully and avoid any more injuries. It’s natural for May to want to come out firing, and he may (no pun intended) get his chance. But if Gonsolin is in a lesser physical stress situation, then May needs to realize that the long term is far more important to the Dodgers than a short term flash of greatness that ends up in an injury which would probably end May’s career. And May could end up far more valuable to the Dodgers (or another team) as a short duration, shut down fireballer out of the bullpen, a position that teams never have enough of. One thing is for sure: Time and activity will tell the tale.