St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Dustin May, signed to a one-year deal this offseason, is off to a disastrous start for the Cardinals. And while two starts can be explained away as "it's early," there's more of a microscope on May because he was one of only three major league free agents the Cardinals brought in this offseason (Ryne Stanek and Ramon Urias being the others).

The fanbase expects something from him and the front office invested something in him ($12.5 million), and right now neither is getting a return on their investment.

As noted by Joshua Jacobs of the 'Dealin the Cards' podcast:

Per MLB research, Dustin May's 15.95 ERA in his first two starts as a member of the #STLCards is the worst from a St. Louis starter’s first two outings since Alan Benes in 1995 (17.18 ERA).

May has gone just 7.1 innings in his two starts, giving up seven earned runs over 3.1 innings on Saturday in a loss against the Detroit Tigers. He gave up six runs over four innings in his first start of the season.

On the positive side of things, May has just three walks on the young season, but he's failing to miss many bats: He has just seven total strikeouts, even despite his high-octane fastball.

Given that they are going through a rebuild, it's clear that May was signed with the hope of trading him at the MLB trade deadline. Of course, that can still happen, but he has to make some adjustments.

A former top prospect, May was a third round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2016 MLB Draft out of the Texas high school ranks. He debuted with the Dodgers in 2019, pitching to a 3.63 ERA in 14 games. He started 10 games for the Dodgers in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA as the Dodgers won the World Series.

But then the injuries set in. He made only five appearances in 2021 because of Tommy John surgery and then came back in 2022 to make six. In 2023, he dealt with a forearm strain which limited him to nine appearances. He missed all of 2024. He was mostly healthy in 2025, making 25 appearances between the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox acquired him at the trade deadline for slugging prospect James Tibbs, something Boston fans are upset about it after Tibbs hit three home runs the other night.

He is 19-22 with a 4.13 ERA for his career.

The Cardinals will take on the Washington Nationals on Monday at 5:45 p.m. ET.

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!