Livescore
Last year was supposed to go differently for Dodgers pitcher Dustin May.
After being out since the middle of 2023 following a flexor tendon and Tommy John revision surgery, the hard-throwing right-hander was on track last summer to return to action before the end of the season.
By early July, he was just a week out from a minor-league rehab stint, and a mere month or so away from potentially rejoining the Dodgers’ major-league roster.
Read more: Dodgers spring training live updates: L.A. to start season with 5-man rotation
Even more encouraging was that, near the end of the second major surgical recovery of his career (May underwent an initial Tommy John operation in 2021), he was finally feeling like his old self, hopeful of returning to the Dodgers’ short-handed starting rotation and playing a key late-season role in their push for a World Series title.
“I was pretty close,” May said.
Then, over the course of one frightening evening, everything changed.
On the night of July 10, while he was still rehabbing at the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch facility in Arizona, May went to dinner and ordered a salad. After one bite, he felt some lettuce get stuck in his throat. Trying to wash it down, he took a quick swig of water.
Moments later, he could tell something was wrong.
In what May described as a “complete freak accident,” he unknowingly suffered a serious tear in his esophagus — one that required emergency surgery later that night, dashed any hopes of him returning to play before the end of the season, and left him with a new perspective on not only baseball, but the fragility of life, entering spring training this year.
“It was definitely a life-altering event,” May said Friday, recounting the ordeal for the first time publicly since the Dodgers announced what happened in a news release last July. “It was definitely very serious. It’s not a very common surgery. It was definitely an emergency.”
So much so, he added of the surgery, “I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night if I didn’t have it.”
Luckily, at the behest of his wife, Millie, May didn’t delay seeking medical attention.
For 15 minutes, May said he felt a “mega-painful” sensation in his throat and stomach; later learning that the lettuce lodged in his throat led to a highly uncommon food impaction that perforated his esophagus tube.
When the pain wore off shortly after, however, May returned home from dinner thinking he would be OK.
“I’m not a big panicker,” he said. “It kind of chilled out. So I was like, ‘I’m fine. I don’t need to do anything.’”
Millie wasn’t so sure.
“No,” May recalled her saying. “We’re going to the ER to get it checked out.”
When May arrived at the hospital, doctors performed a CT scan using contrast fluid that revealed the severity of his tear. Immediately, they ushered him into surgery. In a matter of hours, he went from being on the verge of a long-awaited comeback to facing the most unexpected of setbacks.
Read more: Yoshinobu Yamamoto excited for likely opening day start in Japan, but has bigger goals
“It was extremely frustrating,” May said. “You can’t plan for it. You can’t try to prevent it. It just happened.”
With a shake of his head, he continued: “It wasn’t on my bingo card for 2024.”
To repair the rupture, May required what he described as “basically a full abdominal surgery” — lifting his shirt in front of his locker Friday to reveal a long vertical scar from his lower chest to his stomach.
Instead of completing the final stages of his elbow rehab, May embarked on a new six-month recovery in which he was barred from lifting any weights heavier than 10 pounds. Though he began light throwing activities in November, it wasn’t until around New Year’s that he was back to full strength.
“It just kind of gives me a different viewpoint on a lot of things in life,” May said Friday, still striking a tone of disbelief about all that happened eight months earlier. “Just seeing how something so non-baseball-related can just be like — it can be gone in a second. And the stuff it put my wife through, it definitely gave me [a feeling] of, ‘Wow, stuff can change like that.’ It was definitely very scary.”
But now, it’s also a memory of the past. This spring, May has shifted his focus toward making the Dodgers’ opening-day roster and resuming his once-burgeoning career.
Read more: Aaron Boone says if Yankees win World Series, he hopes they do it with ‘more class’ than Dodgers
When healthy, the former third-round draft pick has been superb for the Dodgers, amassing a 3.10 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 46 career outings (34 of them starts) since making his debut in 2019. He’s hopeful of getting back to that level again, too, encouraged by his early bullpen sessions so far as he competes for the Dodgers’ fifth and final rotation spot alongside Tony Gonsolin, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and others in camp.
“If I’m healthy, I feel like I have a spot on this rotation,” said May, whom manager Dave Roberts noted could also be an option for the bullpen if he fails to earn a rotation spot to begin the year. “I just have to go out and prove that.”
If May can, it will serve as a full-circle moment for the 27-year-old talent — offering a potentially rewarding end to the medical saga that prevented his return last year.
“It’s been a minute,” May said of finally being healthy again. “But I’m definitely excited, and definitely have a deeper appreciation for the game.”
Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post