ST. LOUIS -- About three years ago, when Dustin May was going through the rehabilitation process from a second Tommy John surgery -- and before he would suffer a freakish esophagus rupture that briefly put his life in jeopardy -- he was watching a documentary about America’s military that ultimately shaped a mindset he used to process the trauma he’s been through, while also not taking anything for granted.
“Living in a 3-foot world” -- about as far as most people can step forward or backward -- has helped the 28-year-old May forget his injury issues of the past, while also keeping him from looking too far into a new future with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“For me, I try to not look too far down the tunnel and live in, like, a 3-foot world,” said May, who signed a one-year, $12 million free-agent contract with the Cardinals on Wednesday -- one that includes a $20 million mutual option for 2027, per a source. “That’s to say to not try to step too far out, because you don’t know how far you are going to be able to go. But also, [don’t] look too far behind because that’s in the past. So, just living in the present, living in my 3-foot world and trying to control what I can control.”
The 6-foot-6 May, once a top MLB prospect after being drafted out of high school by the Dodgers in 2016, went 7-11 with a 4.96 ERA with L.A. and the Red Sox in '25. While he was delighted to pitch a career-best 132 1/3 innings -- 31 more innings than the previous three seasons combined -- he did miss most of September because of numbness and pain in his right elbow. That’s the same condition that fellow Cards newcomer Richard Fitts dealt with last season while pitching for Boston.
May said he doesn’t expect the elbow neuritis to be an issue in 2026.
“Arm feels great, back to normal,” May said on Thursday. “As I've reiterated to a lot of people, I was going to be ready for the [Division Series] if [Boston] had advanced. My arm was in a better spot toward that time. ... I took some time off and got the body right."
New Cards president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, who is tasked with rebuilding a roster that can again compete for World Series titles, likes that May has faced adversity and has shown an admirable perseverance. Bloom thinks May can be a potential ace on a young Cardinals staff.
“A lot of things about Dustin, from his talent level to his journey to this point, made him very appealing to us,” said Bloom, who continues to conduct trade talks surrounding Brendan Donovan, JoJo Romero, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras. “You look at all the ups and downs in what is still a relatively young career, and he’s someone who has been in the spotlight as a top prospect in the game, he started an Opening Day and he’s pitched in the World Series. So, he has a lot of interesting experiences, and we felt it came to a point where he’s ready to take off.”
May’s takeoff was nearly aborted in the summer of 2024, when he faced a life-threatening event during a dinner with wife Millie and friends. Upon getting a piece of lettuce stuck in his throat, May struggled to breathe, and a gulp of water only made his condition worse. He ended up needing emergency surgery at a hospital in suburban Phoenix, where he had been rehabilitating his right arm.
“As soon as the water hit the salad in my throat, just full body-on-fire,” May told MLB.com in February. “Rushed to the ER. Got a CAT scan. Drank some contrast fluid. Contrast fluid did not go to my stomach -- [it] went in my chest.”
Unable to maintain a normal diet for months while his esophagus healed, May’s weight dropped dramatically in 2025 -- and so, too, did the velocity on many of his pitches. The average velocity on his four-seam fastball (97.3 mph in '23 to 95.4 mph in '25) and his sinker (96.6 mph in '23 to 94.5 mph in '25) plunged. Instead, he upped the usage of his sweeper (39% in ‘25) to get outs.
An offseason goal has been adding weight, and he thinks he’ll hit his target by the start of Spring Training in February.
“[The sweeper] was kind of the only thing working, and my fastball was getting hit kind of hard, so I had to shy away from that,” said May, who has gone from 202 pounds in 2025 to 220 pounds now, with a target goal of 225 pounds. “Hopefully, bouncing back and re-tweaking my arsenal, I won’t be so reliant on that [sweeper] and so predictable.”