Rotation shakeup means Cardinals' Dustin May will pitch on convenient date

The St. Louis Cardinals have had a solid start to their grueling 17-game stretch, but welcome the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers into town for a three-game series over the weekend. Beyond the much-anticipated return of Katie Woo to St. Louis, the spot start by Hunter Dobbins in Pittsburgh makes for a fun Sunday projected pitching matchup.

Both teams will come into the series sitting above .500, which of course is expected for the high-spending Dodgers, but with the Cardinals expected to be in the beginning stages of a rebuild, their early-season performance has been a welcome surprise. The payroll between the two teams differs by more than $200 million this year, but both organizations are putting a product on the field that continues to bring excitement to the fanbase. That energy will continue at Busch Stadium as the Cardinals host the Dodgers, even though they will (thankfully) miss out on seeing Shohei Ohtani pitch in the series. While they will not be treated to the two-way sensation on the mound, there is still a fun story for Sunday's starting pitcher, Dustin May.

Dustin May starts against the Dodgers for the first time in his career on May 3

For the first time, Dustin May will face the team that drafted him and the organization where he started his major league career. The former third-round draft pick out of high school was selected by the Dodgers in 2016 and made his debut with the team just three years later at just 21 years old. He made some waves during his first few seasons with LA, touching triple digits with his fastball and putting up an ERA under 3.00 twice in his first three seasons. Unfortunately, the Dodgers did not get to see May sustain that success while with the organization, only throwing more than 100 innings once during his six years with the team, and tallying less than 60 innings in the other five seasons. Injuries, rotation depth, and an expiring contract made May an expendable piece for the Dodgers in 2025, shipping him to the Red Sox for top prospect James Tibbs.

May was unable to tap back into his early career success while in Boston, struggling to a 5.40 ERA in six games (five starts) and covered just 28.1 innings in those appearances. When he was not fighting command issues, he was hit hard and often with the Red Sox, making the price they paid for his services even greater when they allowed him to test free agency during the offseason. Going into the winter, May seemed like a candidate to take on a one-year, prove-it deal and because of that, the Cardinals always looked like a match, especially after dealing Sonny Gray from the rotation earlier in the offseason. In early December, Chaim Bloom made his first free agent splash and signed May to that low-risk deal, offering a $12.5 million contract with a mutual option for 2027.

May wore number 85 when he pitched with both LA and Boston, and he expected to have no problem wearing such a unique number again when he came to St. Louis. However, that number was retired by the Cardinals in 1984 for Gussie Busch, when the Cardinals honored their owner on his 85th birthday. Number 58 was unavailable as well and May eventually settled for number 3, one of the rare instances where a starting pitcher wears a single digit on his back. When asked why he went with the number, he did not really have an answer and was actually surprised when it was mentioned that eight minus five equaled three, so he decided to just roll with it.

Now, it looks like it was all done intentionally, as the back of his jersey will match the date on the calendar for his next start. On Sunday, May 3, the Cardinals' righty will be starting the final game of the three-game set, taking on the undefeated LA lefty Justin Wrobleski. After opening eyes in Spring Training and then struggling to start the year, May will look to build off his nice stretch of starts against one of the league's toughest lineups.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow