Dodgers’ Dustin May has flexor strain, and the rotation has a clouded future

LOS ANGELES — Dustin May’s career has always been about potential. That electric right arm. The wicked movement and spin on each of his offerings. The type of fire that bubbles out of him at every turn, the red curls flopping out of his cap.

The on-field dominance has come in tantalizing doses. Wednesday was supposed to be a continuation of a hot streak: Through his first eight starts, he’d posted a 2.68 ERA and looked like one of the best starters in the sport.

Instead, May’s afternoon lasted 16 pitches during a 7-3 win against the Twins. No pitch exceeded 95.8 mph, an alarming sight from a right-hander known for his ridiculous velocity and movement. Following a quick discussion on the bench with manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior after the top of the first, May grabbed his stuff and disappeared into the tunnel down to the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. His elbow was barking again.

The 25-year-old was coming into his own, just 14 starts removed from Tommy John surgery that threatened his ascension just as it was starting. Now, he will miss at least a month and likely more, after early testing indicated May had suffered a flexor pronator strain, Roberts said.

May had been pitching through some degree of soreness throughout his rehab, a league source told The Athletic, but figured it was a normal part of his recovery from surgery. Tests on Wednesday showed a Grade 1 strain of the flexor tendon, which had not healed properly during his rehab, leading to some of the discomfort.

“(It’s) not great right now,” Roberts said, with May having already left the ballpark to get an MRI.

Those tests showed the injury didn’t appear to impact his surgically-reconstructed ulnar collateral ligament, league sources told The Athletic. May will receive a platelet-rich plasma injection into the tendon to promote healing in the area with the hopes of avoiding season-ending surgery. If the injection works properly, the source said, the hope is that May could return within four to six weeks.

The right-hander blossomed this spring, taking advantage of his first normal offseason in years to look like a bonafide front-of-the-rotation starter. He’d revamped his arsenal by changing the shape of some of his breaking pitches and altering his pitch usage, and finding striking results. May looked like the pitcher he was promised to be when he came up as a fireballing pitching prospect. That progress took a massive detour on Wednesday afternoon, going down the dugout steps along with him.

“Right now Dustin feels like, when he takes the mound, he’s the best guy out there and he’s gonna go out there and dominate,” Roberts said on Wednesday morning, just a couple hours before May took his ill-fated start.

May didn’t feel anything on any particular pitch, Roberts said, and hadn’t felt anything other than typical soreness in his work between starts since pitching into the seventh inning in a win over the Padres last…