Dustin May's latest masterpiece puts Dodgers pitching lab under scrutiny

The Los Angeles Dodgers have no reason to regret their 2025 trade deadline deal that sent Dustin May to the Boston Red Sox, but his latest feat with the St. Louis Cardinal is still a tough pill to swallow.

On Monday night, May threw a one-hit, complete game shutout against the San Diego Padres (once a Dodger, always a Dodger in that regard), and he needed just 101 pitches to do it.

Ex-Dodgers starter Dustin May throws complete game shutout with Cardinals

It was just the latest in a string of respectable starts for May, who is on a one-year, $12.5 million prove-it deal with the Cardinals after a decent first half with the Dodgers and a bad second half with the Red Sox in 2025.

This year, May's already pitched more than half of his single-season career-high in innings (132⅓ last year) to the tune of a 3.75 ERA. He was having a respectable year even without the complete game, and even after Dodgers and Red Sox fans alike were pointing and laughing at the Cardinals for the massive overpay.

May revealing that he's still capable of pitching like this is a little hard for Dodgers fans to accept, though. He spent 6½ seasons in LA, and couldn't stay healthy for any of them.

Even when he was healthy, the Dodgers were never able to find this version of him, though there were times when he looked like he was getting close. The Dodgers' pitching development gets a lot of hype, but May might have just started to dismantle that image.

When was the last time the Dodgers developed an ace?

The Dodgers have some reclamation projects and homegrown pitchers in the bullpen that they can still hang their hat on — Jack Dreyer, Will Klein, Alex Vesia — but when was the last time the Dodgers developed a true ace? When Walker Buehler was in his prime, maybe? And how did that turn out?

May is a player Dodgers fans wrote off years ago. Even while he was pitching his healthiest season in 2025, few tears were shed when Los Angeles eventually decided to let him go at the deadline. He wasn't great with the Red Sox, but the Cardinals have clearly been able to unlock something that the Dodgers couldn't.

There's little for Dodgers fans to do other than be happy for the guy. After all, the Dodgers probably wouldn't have re-signed him anyway. It's just tough to watch another team pull off what the Dodgers' vaunted pitching/coaching staff never could (especially when that team is the Cardinals).

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