May placed on 60-day IL, won't be back before break
ATLANTA » Dustin May will not be eligible to return from his elbow injury until after the All-Star break at the earliest, raising questions about the viability of his returning to the Dodgers' starting rotation this season.
May was moved to the 60-day injured list on Tuesday as part of the team's maneuvering to add righthander Bobby Miller to the 40-man roster. May left his May 17 start against the Minnesota Twins after just one inning. He will not be eligible to return until July 17.
Two years removed from Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow, May was diagnosed with a strain of the flexor pronator mass in the same elbow. The Dodgers have insisted an MRI showed no damage to the ulnar collateral ligament (repaired during that surgery) or the flexor tendon.
But May did receive a platelet-rich plasma injection to promote healing in the flexor pronator mass. Following the PRP injection, May will not be cleared to begin a throwing program for a minimum of four weeks.
That “no-throw” period could be extended even further based on how May recovers. By comparison, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw received a PRP injection for his elbow injury at the end of the 2021 season the offseason.
Once he is cleared to begin a throwing program, May will have to build up, progressing through flatground work to throwing off a mound to facing hitters and finally pitching in games again, almost certainly on a minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment.
The 25-year-old May made nine starts this year before going on the IL with his latest elbow injury, going 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA.
He is one of five starting pitchers currently on the Dodgers' IL — May, Julio Urias (hamstring), Michael Grove (groin), Ryan Pepiot (oblique) and Walker Buehler (elbow surgery).
The Dodgers have promoted their top pitching prospects Gavin Stone and Miller to fill out their rotation this week. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Stone is likely to get more “leash” and make at least a handful of starts. Grove began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday and could become an option for the major league rotation soon.
Urias injury
and did not begin throwing again until January – an extended rest that was undoubtedly extended because it was
Urias acknowledged that he injured his left hamstring during the third inning of his start in St. Louis on Thursday but did not want to blame that for the four home runs he allowed in the inning.
“It was just one pitch (early in the inning) where it felt like it popped or it felt like it just tightened up,” Urias said through an interpreter. “It was something I felt but I'm not going to make an excuse for that. I'm not going to try to justify that inning. It's just something I felt, something that I had to pitch through and I pitched through in the past.”
Urias' fastball velocity diminished during that inning and he acknowledged that it was “difficult to push off.”
Bruising developed over the days following that outing. But the bruising and swelling have started to dissipate.
“I feel good,” he said Tuesday. “I think we caught it early. I think now that we've had a couple days in the training room the bruising is coming down and the swelling is coming down. I feel it's getting better every day.”
Urias expects to throw off a mound during the Dodgers' series in Tampa this weekend. How that goes will go a long way toward determining when he will be ready to return. The left-hander will be eligible to come off the IL on June 3.