Starting pitcher Dustin May declined his end of a $20 million mutual option with the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, becoming a free agent one day after the franchise won its first World Series. MLB insider Jon Heyman reported the news on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The 29-year-old right-hander collects a $500,000 buyout instead of a 2027 salary. Dustin May made 10 regular-season starts after joining the Brewers at the August 3 trade deadline. He posted a 5.65 ERA with minus-0.3 bWAR; however, his struggles pushed him to the bullpen for October.
A mutual option needs both parties to trigger it, and Milwaukee Brewers were never likely to commit $20 million to a pitcher they had stopped starting. Fan reaction ran closer to arithmetic than anger, much of it amounting to a version of “the Brewers would’ve declined anyways.”
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The fit never quite took. May’s 31 starts and 145 2/3 innings across the two clubs were career highs, and his 144 strikeouts against 50 walks suggest a pitcher finally healthy in his seventh season. Milwaukee needed more than volume.
In his Game 4 World Series start against the Tampa Bay Rays, Dustin May threw 30 of 39 pitches for strikes without a walk over three innings, but Chandler Simpson doubled in a run and May was charged with another after leaving with nobody out in the fourth. He finished the postseason with a 5.73 ERA and a fourth ring, having been part of Dodgers championship teams in 2020, 2024 and 2025.
Dustin May Shares Emotional Message After Overcoming Career Uncertainty
Two years ago, Dustin May was recovering from emergency surgery for an esophageal tear suffered while eating a salad, on top of two UCL procedures that had already cost him the back half of 2023 and the whole of 2024. He had never made 30 starts or thrown 145 innings in a season before this one.
At World Series Media Day, he described a Milwaukee clubhouse built for the kind of October he had just experienced. He said,
“For me, honestly, I’m just going to go and do exactly what I can in the moment and live pitch by pitch … For everything that I’ve been through the last six years, for me, it means more to be here in this moment today knowing two years ago, looking back where I was, I wasn’t really sure if I was ever going to play again.”
“So being able to be here in this moment, it truly means the world to me. I couldn’t attribute anything more to the Lord and my wife for letting me be here in this moment, to be here today.”
Free agency now asks a different question of him: whether a pitcher who finally stayed on the mound can turn one healthy season into a multi-year deal. He is projected to command an average annual value of around $15 million. May’s next uniform is the open question.
Edited by Kaushani Chatterjee
