The Los Angeles Dodgers closed their deadline activity out by trading Dustin May to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard.
May heads to the Red Sox after pitching through some inconsistency in his return to the mound this year. The on-field results and Dodgers’ rotation getting healthy amounted to May becoming a trade candidate.
Opposing teams reportedly increased their scouting efforts on the right-hander leading up to the deadline. When asked last weekend about being the subject of trade speculation, the 27-year-old largely dismissed it and alluded to previous instances of that being the case as well.
In 2018, May reportedly was coveted by the Baltimore Orioles in a Manny Machado trade. Then in early 2019, May’s name was linked to J.T. Realmuto trade rumors.
At the MLB trade deadline in 2019, the Pittsburgh Pirates were interested in him for a potential Felipe Vazquez deal, and that offseason, the Dodgers were thought to be willing to include May in a trade for Francisco Lindor.
The following offseason in 2020, the Dodgers were reported as wanting to keep May and Gavin Lux while they had interest in Mike Clevinger, Mookie Betts and Lindor.
May has pitched to a 4.85 ERA this season with a 4.70 FIP, 1.35 WHIP, 21.5% strikeout rate and 9.55 walk rate. He’s already set career highs with 104 innings pitched and 18 starts.
Tibbs joins the Dodgers organization after being traded for a second time this year. Tibbs was drafted 13th overall in 2024, and was acquired by Boston when they traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
Ehrhard was drafted by the Red Sox in the fourth round last year. He’s an outfielder who was promoted to Double-A this season.
Why did Dodgers trade Dustin May?
Given some of May’s struggles this season and the Dodgers rotation getting back to full strength, he became a likely trade candidate. The other possibility was May shifting into a bullpen role moving forward.
Now with the trade deadline having passed and with the May trade, the Dodgers’ six-man rotation figures to comprise of Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan.
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