What's next for baseball's oldest player, Rich Hill?
Following the Red Sox's much-needed, 14-1 blowout win of the Astros Tuesday night, Carlos Narvaez offered his take on the pitcher who came away with the win, Dustin May.
"May was amazing," the catcher told reporters, including MLB.com. "We’re gonna need that guy, especially in the late stretch. I love his emotion. I can’t wait to see him in the postseason."
And there you have it. The one line that surfaces as the be-all, end-all when it comes to identifying how May will be viewed during this stint as a Red Sox. Seeing him in the postseason.
This game allowed Narvaez and others with the Red Sox the opportunity to dream about what might be. A pitcher who threw 85 percent first-pitch strikes on the way to totaling six shutout innings. May struck out eight, walked just one, and offered the image the organization was chasing at the trade deadline just shy of two weeks ago.
When it comes to identifying May as the saving grace for a team desperate to find reliable starters after its top three, it is still far too early for chest-pounding proclamations. Considering the roller coaster the righty has lived through for much of this season, the benefit of the doubt hasn't quite been secured.
May has had his fair share of standout starts throughout 2025. But too many times, they have been immediately followed by struggles. The first example came in April, when he managed a 1.06 ERA in his first three starts of the season before succumbing to a 7.88 ERA over his next trio of appearances.
Perhaps it's all just a byproduct of coming back from missing all of 2024, with the 27-year-old simply needing three-quarters of a season to find his groove. It's impossible to tell quite yet, which is the uncertainty the Red Sox knew they would be living with when trading for May.
As teams (including the Red Sox) have learned over the years, absolutes when it comes to trade deadline starting pitchers are rarely an option, even when paying for the highest-end of arms.
Would Joe Ryan have offered that no-doubt-about-it vibe? Considering his continued dominance since the deadline (11 IP, 3 runs) it seems that way. But how about the other big-ticket item the Red Sox were trying to pry away from the Marlins, Sandy Alcantara, who had convinced many in baseball he was back after a few dominant late July outings? He hasn't been good since staying put, giving up 11 runs over his 12 frames.
Grading the starting pitching acquisitions at the deadline seems like an uncomfortable exercise these days.
The biggest name dealt, Merrill Kelly, has had one good outing for the Rangers (5 2/3 innings, 2 runs) and one bad one (4.1 IP, 4 runs, 5 walks). The Tigers' Charlie Morton was really good his first go-round for Detroit against the Phillies (6 IP, R), but bad the next time out vs. the Angels (4.1 IP, 6 R).
The Rays' Adrian Houser (7.59) has struggled somewhat in his first two starts with Tampa Bay, while some lesser-known newly-placed starters have been pretty solid. Two of Chris Paddack's first three starts for Detroit have been really good. Zack Littell was dominant in his first outing in his first start for the Reds and OK in the second, with his new team winning both games. Kansas City's Ryan Bergert has had identical lines (5.2 IP, 2 R) in his first two starts since coming over from San Diego.
And then the true wild cards, such as Nestor Cortes, who hadn't pitched since April before being dealt to the Padres, but has given up just three runs over his 9 1/3 innings with San Diego. And, of course, Shane Bieber is on the cusp of joining the Blue Jays to define if Toronto's gamble will pay off.
All of that said, none of it ultimately matters until the pitchers are truly needed when it matters most. Consider it the Nathan Eovalid Lesson.
In 2018, after being dealt to the Red Sox, Eovaldi dominated in his first two starts with the Red Sox, not allowing a run over 15 innings. But then came the next five starts, when the righty fell apart to the tune of an 8.04 ERA with opponents managing a .404 batting average and 1.026 OPS against him.
But by the time September rolled around, Eovaldi had slowly figured out what ailed him, clocking in with a 1.35 ERA in his last five regular-season appearances before building his legend in October.
There are lessons to be learned.
Outings like the one May had against the Astros hint at what might be. The talent and promise are in there, the likes of which can represent exactly what the Red Sox were looking for at the deadline. But there is also a long way to go before October outings are truly earned.
It's a start, and a pretty good one, at that. And right now that's all the Red Sox can ask for.
"I didn’t really have a great first one, but to be able to come back and have a good one like this against a really good team, it was huge," May told reporters, including MLB.com. "Today was definitely one of my better days on the year. Hopefully, [I'll] be able to stack it and keep the snowball going."