Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images
A number of MLB players have been forced to overcome freak injuries stemming from some incredibly strange incidents. However, Dodgers pitcher Dustin May has given every single one of them a run for their money after his decision to have a salad led to him being rushed into a surgery that derailed his attempt to return from another procedure he was recovering from at the time.
A couple of years ago, I put together a list of a dozen athletes who were forced to miss some time due to a setback that had nothing to do with the sport they played.
MLB players were disproportionately represented thanks to the likes of Glenallen Hill, Steve Sparks, and Wade Boggs, who all missed multiple games after respectively hurting themselves by falling through a glass table after having a nightmare about spiders, trying to tear a phone book in half, and falling over while attempting to take off a pair of cowboy boots.
That brings us to Dustin May, the right-handed pitcher who’s dealt with a number of injuries since making his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 2019. In 2023, he underwent Tommy John surgery for the second time in three years, and while he started the 2024 campaign on the injured list, he was hoping to make his grand return at some point during the season.
However, that possibility was ruled out in July when the team announced he’d had another season-ending surgery to address a problem with his esophagus. There weren’t any details concerning the cause of the issue at the time, but that’s no longer the case.
May recently chatted with The Los Angeles Times to shed some light on what went down, telling the outlet he’d had a salad for dinner while rehabbing at the team’s complex in Phoenix and washed down a leaf of lettuce that got stuck in his throat with some water.
That may not sound like a recipe for disaster, but May subsequently found himself dealing with pain in his throat and chest after heading home before his wife encouraged him to go to the hospital to get checked out.
A CT scan determined he’d suffered an esophageal rupture stemming from a “food impaction,” and he said he “probably wouldn’t have made it through the night” if not for the emergency surgery that forced doctors to cut open his abdomen to treat it.
The 27-year-old thankfully made a full recovery and is finally on track to get back on the mound again this season.