Add Trevor May to the long list of pitchers speaking out on Major League Baseball’s handling of the sticky substance epidemic.
Speaking on a YouTube video Thursday, the Mets reliever addressed the sticky situation and criticized the league for vilifying its players, something other players have spoken out about as well, including Trevor Bauer.
“Is it an issue? Probably,” May said. “And does it need to be addressed with some sort of standardization, just like we do with everything in baseball, right? One issue that I have and constantly have with MLB and how they handled issues, is whenever they have the opportunity to roundhouse kick players under the bus, they do it as soon as they can. If you can villainize a player, they will do it in a heartbeat.”
May’s teammate Pete Alonso spoke out in support of all pitchers, claiming the focus should be more on the league, which he believes has been altering the baseballs every year depending on the outlook of that offseason’s free agent class. May also seems to believe that the league is pointing the finger at the players for why the use of illegal substances has gotten out of control, while pitchers have countered that it has been a part of the game for decades, and the league has willingly swept it under the rug until now.
“They can use this as an excuse because they arbitrarily change the balls all the time,” May said. “Whatever they want to happen, they change the balls in order to achieve that endgame. They do that. They did that when they juiced them in '19 and they did it when they deadened them this year. But instead of knowing that that's very clearly probably one of the main issues with the lack of offensive production this year, instead we're going to blame it on sticky stuff, or at least allude it's a big issue in order to deflect. That's what's happening.”
May said that he has tried certain substances himself but decided that it didn’t help him personally, but substances like Spider Tack have been shown to add hundreds to a pitcher’s rpm, resulting in a higher spin rate and an increase in movement on pitches, which the league considers to be a major factor in offense being down across the league.
“Let's call a spade a spade here: do some pitchers use a sticky substance in order to improve their grip on the ball? Yes,” May said. “Have I dabbled, have I tried it to figure out if it made me better or didn't make me better? A hundred percent I tried it. Doesn't really do much for me. We didn't see any sort of improvement whatsoever. And if anything, it just made me uncomfortable because it was hard to find, to get the right feeling. Feeling of the ball is important, and I guess the dry feeling is something I enjoy more than kind of the moist, sticky feeling.
Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow are recent pitchers to express concern of the cold turkey removal of substances that aid with grip, as the league has said that more commonplace mixtures like sunscreen and rosin will carry an identical punishment to Spider Tack, and Cole addressed how difficult it is to grip a ball without any help from a substance. May agrees, and would like to see a more consistent baseball that is easier to grip, which would decrease the need for outside substances.
“I believe there should probably be a standardization," May said. “I think there is a good opportunity here to start discussing, the same way that rosin exists, and the same way pine tar sticks are there for the bats and sticky spray is there for the bats. Players should have an opportunity, or the ball should just be pre-prepped and stuff so there's really standardization. Because standardizing the balls has been horrible.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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