When news began spreading that Baltimore Orioles superstar shortstop Manny Machado had been traded to the Dodgers in exchange for several Dodger prospects during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, it created a wide spectrum of excitement and emotion for a great many people. And even though the so-called  “done deal” rumor wouldn’t actually be so for another day, it forced one person at the very center of those (then) unconfirmed rumors quite a bit of anxiety; so much so that he finally had to turn off his social media notifications just so he could get some sleep.

“The past week wasn’t too bad, I mean it really just got really overwhelming last night,” said Dodgers top pitching prospect Dustin May, whose name has been mentioned more than any other as Baltimore’s primary target in the Machado deal. “I mean, I kind of had to turn my phone off because my phone was blowing up last night. I didn’t want to deal with it anymore, I had a game to pitch today and I wanted to focus on that, I just had to get the ball rolling.”

At what point had May had enough?

“Ten thirty, 11 o’clock. It started blowing up around eight-ish, and I had enough about 10:30, 11, and I was like ‘Alright, it’s going off.'”

Sharp kid.

With the loss of Dean Kremer in the Machado trade, there is now a vacancy in the Double-A Tulsa Drillers starting rotation. As such, Dustin May quite possibly pitched his final game for Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday night. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

May, whom the Dodgers selected in the third round of the 2016 MLB First Year Player Draft out of Northwest High School in his hometown of Justin, Texas, has enjoyed tremendous success in his brief two seasons of professional baseball. The 6′-6″ / 180-pound hard-throwing right-hander with a mane of flowing bright red hair posted a 9-6 record and 3.88 ERA in his 23 games (all starts) with the Dodgers Low Single-A Great Lakes Loons in 2017; good enough to earn a late season promotion to the Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes last August.

He began the 2018 season back with the Quakes and has an excellent 6-3 record and 3.33 ERA through his first 15 starts this season. Over those 15 starts, May has struck out 84 while walking only 14 over 83.2 innings pitched. As such, it comes as no surprise that he is among MLB’s most highly coveted pitching prospects with the July 31 MLB trade deadline less than two weeks away.

Fortunately, and this cannot be overstated, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi think highly enough of May to basically declare him untouchable in any trade talks. And even though we all know that no one is really untouchable, F and Z made it known right from the beginning of their negotiations with Orioles general manager Dan Duquette that May was off-limits in the Machado deal.

But simply turning off his cellphone was only a temporary solution to an ongoing and very fluid situation that intensified significantly on Wednesday morning for May. How did Quakes manager Drew Saylor help keep his young ace focused amidst seemingly endless distractions with a game to be played?

“At any point during the season, the off-season, you’re a phone call away from having your profession, or the person that’s paying you for your profession to be able to change,” Saylor said. “I think that’s something we try to indoctrinate in our guys from day number one that ‘Hey, you’ve got to worry about today. Tomorrow’s not promised to us and we need to focus on what we’re trying to accomplish today, both individually, collectively as a unit, collectively as a team, and as an organization as a whole.’ And I think, again, it’s getting our guys to continue to row the boat and understand their piece in the boat.

“There’s always dialog that I have with all the players on any given day,” added Saylor. “We talk about on the field, what’s happening in their life, what’s happening with their family. In all the discussions with the guys those topics come up … With Dustin it’s no different than any of the other guys, they have those discussions with my staff daily.”

Did all of the hype and hoopla over the trade deal that ended up costing the Dodgers Yusniel Diaz, Dean Kremer, Zach Pop, Breyvic Valera and his own teammate Rylan Bannon for Machado have an effect on Dustin?

“Coming into the day it was kind of like a whirlwind, I mean that kind of feeling in your gut that you don’t know what’s going to happen,” he answered. “Coming into the clubhouse – I got here about 4 o’clock – a pretty average start day, I didn’t look at it any other way, I was coming in getting ready to pitch.

“About 30 minutes into me getting here, they come out with the trade and say Rylan Bannon’s gone,” May said. “I had to get prepared for my game and couldn’t let it get to me; a good buddy, but you gotta get going.”

And get going he did.

After allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits in his first two innings and a leadoff single in the third, May did not allow another hit, while striking out one and walking none in his 5.0 innings of work against the San Jose Giants at LoanMart Field. The Quakes would go on to win the contest by a lopsided scored of 15-6 to give May his sixth win of the season. Along the way, his teammates set a new single-game high record for runs (15) and hits (19), including three hits each by Quakes left fielder Logan Landon, first baseman Jared Walker, and center fielder Jeren Kendall. In fact, Kendall needed only a double to complete hitting for the cycle, but was pulled from the game in the bottom of the seventh by Saylor as a precautionary measure, as Kendall works his way back from a minor leg injury for which he was placed on the 7-day disabled list.

Quakes center fielder Jeren Kendall came a double shy of hitting for the cycle on Wednesday night in their dominating 15-6 win over the San Jose Giants. He finished the night with four RBI, including two on this first-inning triple. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

With the July 31 MLB trade rapidly approaching, there is a very strong possibility that Dustin May – who, in addition to his current nicknames Big Red, Red Viper, and Ginger Thor, picked up a new one on Wednesday night: DustBuster – will wisely be turning off his cellphone quite a bit over the next couple of weeks. Then again, so will several other top Dodgers top prospects … of which there are many.

Play Ball!