I will never forget what I felt when I watched Dustin May pitch at the Oakland Coliseum in April 2021. He was electric, and I remember thinking that he was set to join Clayton Kershaw as a homegrown stud and reach stardom. A month later, on the road and in my presence against the Milwaukee Brewers, he blew out his arm, and that was that.
Let us not forget the road May took (nearly fatal brush with salad aside) to return and make it into the rotation. That effort and the fact that he has not reinjured himself merit praise and our collective respect. He has pitched a career-high in major league innings, when projected stalwarts like Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have gone down.
There is a but coming — May starts over the month of June have stressed everyone out. It’s been bad.
Slog would probably be the best adjective for May’s effectiveness in June, which is a far cry from the electricity of old. If May’s ceiling were a number five starter, we would not need an essay where we all collectively unclench and vent.
It is unreasonable to expect him to excel as he did before his injury, but I just wish it were easier to watch. So far, May has allowed 12 home runs and 14 stolen bases (out of 17 attempts).
If the 2023 Noah Syndergaard Experience taught us anything, it is that one cannot survive in MLB by letting runners run wild on the basepaths under the new rules.
Over May’s five starts in June, the Dodgers have somehow gone 3-2. May has pitched 27 innings with an ERA of 5.67, a FIP of 6.23, and nearly as many walks (15) as strikeouts (17). He has not had an actual blow-up to skew the average as he has given up an average of 3.6 runs a start in June — not great, not terrible.
The Dodgers had to outslug their opponents to survive May’s outings. Considering that the Dodgers somehow have the best record in baseball, the entire situation has an eerie sense of deja vu that we shall work through together.
Old friend check in
With the Dodgers burning up the transaction records over the last six weeks, for no particular reason, one might wonder how old friends Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty are doing in 2025.
To put it succinctly, not good.
When Buehler left Los Angeles, his final words were, “he was a problem.” In a bit of actual irony, unlike the series of coincidences in the famous song, Buehler has been nothing short of a terrible problem for the Boston Red Sox in 2025.
At first glance, a 5-6 record is not terrible, but once you look past the win-loss record, things get ugly in a hurry. Just check out his last start — throwing 91 mph down the middle is not a good look at Fenway Park or anywhere else.
Truthfully, I thought the 2024 regular season was the nadir of Buehler’s abilities, but he’s managed to equal his pitching futility in two fewer starts with an ERA of 6.45 and a FIP of 6.03. He is living up to the walk portion of his name, already eclipsing his 2024 total for walks in 2025 in two fewer starts, with about half the season left to go.
“Somewhat even more frustrating than the past couple of starts because I felt like I had it there for a second,” Walker Buehler said. “And then it kind of falls through your fingers.”https://t.co/pdlDMQm4w9
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) June 29, 2025
At this rate, assuming Boston is mad or desperate enough to let him continue, Buehler is on pace to annihilate his career-high for walks, which was in his magnum opus year of 2021, when he finished fourth in Cy Young voting.
One wonders if the Dodgers and Red Sox could do a straight-up trade, swapping Buehler for the underachieving Michael Conforto, as outlets like ESPN have floated a reunion with Buehler, but that topic merits further discussion later.
In 2025, Flaherty has been marginally better than Buehler, which is not saying much. Flaherty has a 5-9 record, which sticks out on the American League team with the best record. For those wondering, Tarik Skubal is having an even better campaign as the defending Cy Young winner with a scintillating 10-2 record and leading the Junior Circuit in strikeouts, FIP, and WHIP.
Flaherty has been reliving his 2024 postseason: having serviceable starts followed by meltdowns in which he gets rocked six ways from Sunday. In the postseason, there was a pattern. In 2025, there is no pattern, but the meltdowns started in May, which is a shame because he was solid before dropping his last three starts in May.
The rise of Sheehan and Wrobleski
Speaking of Dustin May, the Dodgers may have help coming to give him a spell. Emmet Sheehan was perfect over six innings against a bad Sacramento River Cats team in West Sacramento in his last start. Justin Wrobleski has found a second gear in consecutive bulk outings against the Kansas City Royals and the Colorado Rockies.
Wrobleski’s success is a welcome development, but it is not exactly a surprise, considering where he left off to finish 2024.
For the year with the Dodgers, hitters had a .248/.331./.511 slash line against Wrobleski, which is solid, all things considered. Primarily using his fastball, cutter, and curveball, the coaching staff does have plenty of things to build on for Wrobleski going forward.
Wrobleski is green, so there is no doubt about it. But there is one thing that Wrobleski can do now: embrace the memes. To my ear, Wrobleski sounds like Robocop and considering how fearless he was in 2024, why he does not take the mound to the seminal theme is beyond me.
Wrobleski will likely start the 2025 campaign in Triple-A. If recent history is any guide, it will likely not be long before we see Number 70 with the Dodgers again.
The point is that the Dodgers survived the teeth of the June schedule. May and Yoshinobu Yamamoto made all of their scheduled starts, but I do not think anyone wants to repeat the slog from last month.
May has five years of service time and can refuse any minor league assignment, so Oklahoma City isn’t likely unless it’s on a rehab assignment. But it certainly would not hurt to game-plan an off-ramp to allow May to work some things out, like consistency or runner management in a less stressful environment once reinforcements are ready.
May does not look hurt, but considering that the goal is to defend the title, the Dodgers have some leeway to be creative in supporting their young hurler in his final year before hitting free agency.