The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a prolonged funk, which means we should expect GM Brandon Gomes to be aggressive at the MLB trade deadline. No team has more financial resources to burn, nor that much already invested in the roster to justify an all-in mentality. Despite countless injuries, especially on the pitching front, the Dodgers remain favorites to win the National League and, eventually, the World Series.

If Los Angeles can engineer a few key upgrades before the final trade buzzer on July 31, the rest of MLB will be in trouble. Blake Snell and Rōki Sasaki are due back in the coming weeks and months, which should help the Dodgers’ pitching staff stabilize. It almost makes some of their current stopgap depth pieces, like Dustin May and Emmet Sheehan, expendable.

May’s name is generating the most buzz ahead of the trade deadline. The Dodgers would prefer to trade from their farm system, not their MLB roster, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, but it’s on the table. Among the teams interested in the 27-year-old righty? None other than LA’s recent World Series foes, the New York Yankees.

Sports Illustrated’s Pat Ragazzo lists New York as the frontrunner.

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Yankees ‘frontrunner’ to land Dodgers pitcher Dustin May at trade deadline

The motivation for New York’s interest is not hard to understand. This team needs pitching depth behind Max Fried in a big way. May, 27, is on a cheap expiring contract and he shouldn’t cost much in terms of prospect capital. The Dodgers want an outfielder, not a reliever, per Rosenthal’s reporting. No team is deeper at those positions than the Yankees.

Even so, it’s hard to get excited about this proposition from New York’s perspective. May is on the chopping block for a reason. The Dodgers aren’t a seller — quite the opposite, in fact. There simply is not room for May in the big-league rotation when L.A. is at full strength. He could transition to the bullpen and aid Los Angeles’ depth that way, but it seems more useful to expel an lame-duck contract of minimal value in exchange for a better asset.

May’s production has been trending in the wrong direction for a while. He has a career-high 104.0 innings under his belt this season, to his credit, but May’s 4.85 ERA and 1.35 WHIP across 19 games (18 starts) leaves much to be desired. He’s 6-7 on the season as a pitcher for the first-place Dodgers. He has allowed 43 walks at by far the highest rate of his career, not to mention eight hit batters. May’s command is not up to snuff and there’s no reason to think he will improve as a Yankee.

Yankees need to be weary of trading for Dustin May for several reasons

Not only is there a well-documented trend of pitchers falling off after leaving Los Angeles — see: Buehler, Walker in Boston — but there is also a well-documented trend of successful pitchers hitting roadblocks in New York. Marcus Stroman was an All-Star. He signed with the Yankees and was unplayable within months. Dennis Santana in Pittsburgh is one of the best relievers on the trade market. He has a 1.44 ERA so far this season. One year ago, before the trade deadline, he had a 6.26 ERA with the Yankees. So it cuts both ways. Pitchers do not perform better, on average, in New York.

Some of it might be the hitter-friendly confines of Yankee Stadium, but this feels like an indictment on the organization at large. The elites will always perform. Max Fried is a Cy Young candidate. So is Gerrit Cole most years when he’s healthy. But overall, New York’s ability to nail the small details is lacking. This team has poor fundamentals in the field, on the bases, in the batter’s box. It carries over to the pitching mound as well.

May is a low-risk gamble and he shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, but if he is New York’s big pitching “upgrade,” the Yankees will look silly in a few months.