When the Red Sox acquired Dustin May from the Dodgers at Thursday’s trade deadline, they brought on board a starter with a pair of elbow surgeries in his rearview. The 27-year-old right-hander had Tommy John in 2021, then needed to have a flexor tendon repaired in 2023. Boston also brought on board a pitcher who has matured admirably since he was drafted 101st overall in 2016 out of a Justin, Texas high school.

“As a pitcher, I haven’t changed a whole lot,” May told me prior to the trade. “My stuff is pretty comparable to what it was before. But off the field, I’ve changed a lot. A lot of life changes have happened through the surgeries — a lot of good things — and I feel like I’ve definitely improved as a person and as a husband.

“We’re all very blessed, and talented, to be here,” he added. “Stuff can be taken away from you in an instant, and you can have no control over it. No matter how hard you work, or what you put into it, life can come at you very fast at times.”

A serious health scare last summer is an example. May suffered a torn esophagus that required emergency surgery. Less scary, but nonetheless troublesome, was his not bouncing back from TJ as well as he’d hoped.

“I don’t know what happened during the surgery, or through the rehab, but the elbow never felt right afterwards,” explained May, who is throwing his signature sinker at 94.6 mph, down from 96.6 in the months preceding his second surgery, and 97.8 prior to his first. “It was just the luck of the draw, I guess. The second [surgery] wasn’t the UCL, it was just flexor-pronator, and it’s felt good from day one. Knock on wood.”

May’s breaking ball was also a discussion point when we spoke last weekend. When I first talked to him in 2017 — the righty was with the Midwest League’s Great Lakes Loons at the time — he threw more of a slurve, whereas he now features a sweeper. That change dates back to his pre-surgery days.

“Doing that was kind of in the works in 2021, when I originally blew out,” recalled May.”At the end of 2020, and throughout that offseason, it was like, ‘We need a breaking ball that can be thrown in the zone and doesn’t alter your throw.’ That’s what we came to, and ever since it’s been the same breaking ball.”

The erstwhile Dodger explained that going from more vertical to more horizontal wasn’t a matter of manipulation — “it wasn’t forced” — but rather how he is “naturally finishing the throw.” Asked if his arm action contributed to his initial elbow injury, he answered in the negative.

“No,” said May. “When I originally tore it, I think it was just nature calling.”

———

RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Ryne Sandberg went 29 for 77 against Tom Browning.

Shawon Dunston went 17 for 51 against John Smiley.

Mark Grace went 20 for 46 against Ramon Martinez.

Leon Durham went 11 for 20 against Tom Hume.

Jody Davis went 11 for 23 against Greg Minton.

———

The Colorado Rockies have a steep hill to climb. On pace to lose well over 100 games, they will finish with a losing record for the seventh consecutive season. How to turn things around is a question without an easy answer — especially if there are no meaningful changes at the top. The organization not only has a reputation of being too insular, they are viewed as being well behind the times in terms of analytics and technology. Ownership’s unwillingness to adequately invest in those areas, particularly in player development, has made a challenging job even more challenging for people like Warren Schaeffer and Nic Wilson.

Schaeffer became Colorado’s interim manager when Bud Black was relieved of his duties in May, while Wilson was named co-hitting coach after serving as the club’s minor-league hitting coordinator. I asked them for their perspective when the Rockies visited Fenway Park in July.

“My background is in development, and I know for a fact that there are a lot of people in this organization, on the development side, that are very good at what they do,” Schaeffer told me. “But when you’re in the situation we’re in, every person in our organization, including myself, needs to look in the mirror every day and see if we’re doing the right thing. If we’re not, we need to change. Everybody needs to hold each other accountable and look for solutions along the way. Are there things that we can do better everywhere? Absolutely. We wouldn’t be in this spot if that wasn’t the case. But we are pushing forward, trying to make the future better.”

“I think we are instituting progressive things along the way,” added Schaeffer. “But to answer your question, yes. That is part of the future for us, getting more progressive in development. That’s not to say what we’re doing now isn’t a good thing throughout the minor leagues. Even here. We are progressing, and we need to continue to progress.”

Wilson would also like to see the organization move forward, although he was careful not to criticize when asked about the current limitations.

“We have what we have,” said the hitting coach. “It’s up to us to figure out different ways to leverage things that we do have, and not necessarily worry about what we don’t. There are a lot of situations where we’re forced to be creative, and that’s where we’ve got to keep our minds.”

As Wilson was working with hitters down on farm prior to his mid-May promotion, I was especially interested in what is happening below the big-league level.

“We don’t have Trajekt in the minor league system, “ he told me. “We do have one in Denver. We got it this year in spring training and our guys love it. Having a Trajekt has been really good for our guys — you can do a lot of cool things with a Trajekt — but that’s not the only way to get it done.

“We are into that,” Wilson said when asked about bat-speed training. “I think bat speed is important. But I also think that bat speed without direction doesn’t play as well in the game. It’s not, ‘If you increase a guy’s bat speed he’s a better player.’ So, it does help you, but you’ve got to be pretty specific with where you want to implement that kind of thing. You need to train the right way.”

———

A quiz:

A player who didn’t make his MLB debut until late July won Rookie of the Year honors after batting .354 with 13 home runs and a 185 wRC+ over 219 plate appearances. Who was it? (A hint: he went on to lead his league in home runs three times and capture MVP honors in one of his six All-Star seasons.)

———

NEWS NOTES

Gordon Bloomfield died on July 28 at age 92. Later a scout, and a coach for the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres, Bloomfield played in Japan from 1960-1966, seeing action with the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Nankai Hawks. Before that he played stateside for six seasons, mostly in the Milwaukee Braves system.

SABR’s annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference will be held later this week, from August 7-9, in Louisville, Kentucky. More information can be found here.

———

The answer to the quiz is Willie McCovey, who was NL Rookie of the Year while playing for the San Francisco Giants in 1959.

———

James Tibbs III has been a traveling man. Drafted in first round by the San Francisco Giants a year ago, the 22-year-old outfielder was subsequently swapped to the Boston Red Sox in the Rafael Devers deal, and just this week he was acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the trade that sent Dustin May east.

Left on the cutting-room floor from this summer’s Talks Hitting interview with Tibbs were his thoughts on the player who went one pick after him in last year’s draft. Tibbs was selected 13th overall while Cam Smith was taken 14th overall by the Chicago Cubs (and later sent to the Houston Astros as part of the Kyle Tucker trade). Tibbs is more than a little familiar with Smith. Both were drafted out of Florida State University.

How similar are the Astros rookie and the 22-year-old outfielder currently with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers?

“Cam and I are very different ballplayers, because our size and abilities are different,” Tibbs told me. “His ability to hit the ball the other way with force and power is one of the best I’ve ever seen. His game plans are extremely strong. He’s very grounded with what he’s trying to do. He is also extremely even-keeled. I’m not saying that I’m not any of these things, but I love the way he goes about the game. It’s extremely professional.

“We would talk hitting, and he really broke down the swing and what we were trying to do in the box,”continued Tibbs. “He’s an extremely smart hitter. Watching the way he developed… he struck out a lot his freshman year, then came back a different player his sophomore year. I mean, it was so much fun to hit behind him [in the lineup]. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with.”

Smith has seven home runs and a 98 wRC+ over 383 plate appearances with Houston in his rookie season.

———

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The Hanwha Eagles are 59-38-3 and have the best record in the KBO. The Kiwoom Heroes are 29-70-4 and have the worst record.

Hanwha Eagles right-hander Cody Ponce is 13-0 with a 1.68 ERA over 133-and-two-thirds innings. The 31-year-old right-hander is in his first KBO season after pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020-2021, and in NPB from 2022-2024.

The Hanshin Tigers are 59-36-2 and have the best record in NPB. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows are 32-53-5 and have the worst record.

Hiroto Takahashi is 3-8 with a 3.02 ERA over 110-and-a-third innings for the Chunichi Dragons. The 22-year-old right-hander went 12-4 with a 1.38 ERA for the NPB club last year.

Julio Robaina is 4-5 with a 3.03 ERA over 65-and-a-third innings for the Tigres de Quintana Roo in the hitter friendly Mexican League. The 24-year-old left-hander was in the Houston Astros system from 2018-2024.

——

Ryan Gusto is with the Marlins now, Miami having acquired the rookie right-hander from Houston at the trade deadline as part of the Jesús Sánchez deal. Gusto’s backstory is a good one.

“He was cut from his high school baseball team three times,” Astros radio analyst Steve Sparks told me. “He ended up sending a letter to a guy who was coaching at [Broward College] in Florida, asking if he could walk on. Finally, with his persistence, the coach told him he could. He got better every year. The coach left and went to a bigger college [Florida SouthWestern State College]. Ryan followed him there and ended up being an 11th-round pick of the Astros [in 2019] after his junior year.

“He negotiated every single penny the Astros had left in their [draft pool],” continued Sparks. “They had offered him a certain amount, but he was the last guy to sign from that draft class, so he knew how much money they had left. I think he got another $80,000 because he knew the Astros had that in their coffers.”

Gusto went 7-4 with a 4.92 ERA over 86 innings before being traded to Miami. According to Sparks, his best pitch is an elevated fastball that allows the rest of his repertoire to play up.

———

FARM NOTES

Kevin McGonigle is slashing .344/.435/.586 with eight home runs and a 189 wRC+ over 253 plate appearances across three levels. Currently with the Double-A Erie SeaWolves, the 20-year-old shortstop in the Detroit Tigers system is No. 1 on our recently-updated Top 100 Prospects list.

Zyhir Hope is slashing .292/.401/.486 with 12 home runs and a 150 wRC+ over 393 plate appearances for the High-A Great Lakes Loons. The 20-year-old outfielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers system is No. 35 on our recently-updated Top 100 Prospects list.

Luis Peña is slashing .312/.377/.477 with six home runs and a 141 wRC+ over 300 plate appearances for the Low-A Carolina Mudcats. The 18-year-old shortstop in the Milwaukee Brewers system is No. 45 on our recently-updated Top 100 Prospects list.

Carter Jensen is slashing .280/.355/.456 with 14 home runs and a 122 wRC+ over 411 plate appearances between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. The 22-year-old catcher in the Kansas City Royals system is No. 66 on our recently-updated Top 100 Prospects list.

———

A random obscure former player snapshot:

Johnny Weekly went from Waterproof, Louisiana to the Houston Colt .45s. Born in the small town [population approximately 500] near the Mississippi River before attending high school in Pittsburg, California, Weekly went on to appear in 53 games for the expansion team across the 1962-1964 seasons. An outfielder, he logged 25 hits, including five home runs, in 121 at-bats. His first hit, which came in his second game, sailed into the bleachers at Wrigley Field.

The best performance of his career was a three-hit effort against the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field in 1963. With Jim Maloney, who finished the year with a record 23-7, starting for the home team, Weekly doubled and homered as the Colt .45s won 8-4. Cincinnati’s second baseman that day was a rookie named Pete Rose.

———

LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

This year’s Hall of Fame inductees played in a variety of minor league outposts. Josh Jackson wrote about it at MiLB.com.

Carlos May played for the Chicago White Sox from 1968-1976 before finishing up his career with the New York Yankees and California Angels. Joseph Wancho profiled May for SABR’s BioProject.

Lone Star Ball’s Adam J. Morris offered his thoughts on the Texas Rangers’ trade deadline deals.

Lookout Landing’s Kate Preusser wrote about Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor, the Seattle Mariners’ two biggest trade deadline acquisitions.

———

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

When the Colorado Rockies rallied to win after allowing nine runs in the top of the first inning on Friday — they went on to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 17-16 — they joined the Philadelphia Phillies as the only team in the modern era to prevail after falling behind by nine or more runs before coming up to bat. The Phillies have done it twice. On September 30, 1913, they won 10-9 after the Brooklyn Superbas scored nine times in the top of the first. On June 8, 1989, they won 15-11 after spotting the Pirates 10 runs in the top of the first.

Chicago Cubs batters have grounded into 47 double plays, the fewest in the majors. The [don’t call us Sacramento] Athletics have grounded into 90 double plays, the most in the majors.

The Red Sox are 16-1 in games where Trevor Story has gone deep this season. Story has 197 home runs for his career.

Freddie Freeman has 27 home runs and a .344/.404/.633 slash line in 492 career plate appearances versus the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Jigger Statz — his given name was Arnold John — recorded 4,093 hits while playing professionally from 1919-1942. A graduate of Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, Statz logged 737 of his knocks in MLB — the bulk of them with the Chicago Cubs — and the rest in the Pacific Coast League with the Los Angeles Angels. His 3,356 hits are a PCL record.

In 1913, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson combined to walk 59 batters over 652 innings.

Tom Candiotti tossed a one-hitter on today’s date in 1987 as the Cleveland Indians edged past the New York Yankees by a count of 2-0. The visitor’s lone hit against the knuckleballer was an eighth-inning single by Mike Easler.

On today’s date in 1969, Baltimore Orioles left-hander Dave McNally saw his record drop to 15-1 as the Minnesota Twins rallied for four runs in the seventh inning and went on to win 5-2. McNally finished the season 20-7, the second of his four consecutive season with at least 20 wins.

Players born on today’s include Hall of Fame outfielder Harry Heilmann, who batted .342 with a 142 wRC+ while logging 2,660 hits and amassing 68.6 WAR from 1914-1932. With the Detroit Tigers for all but his final two seasons — he finished up with the Cincinnati Reds — Heilmann had his best year in 1923 when he slashed .403/.481/.632 with 44 doubles, 11 triples, and 18 home runs.

Also born on today’s date was Rod Beck, a right-handed reliever who recorded 286 saves while pitching for four teams from 1991-2004. The mustachioed, mullet-coifed closer had a 51-save season with the Chicago Cubs, a 48-save season with the San Francisco Giants, and a 20-save season with the San Diego Padres. He also worked out of the bullpen for the Boston Red Sox. Burdened by drug abuse, Beck was just 38 years old when he died in 2007.