{"id":611766,"date":"2026-03-07T14:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611766\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:31:19","slug":"how-ex-mets-reliever-trevor-may-became-a-voice-for-mlbs-heaviest-subjects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611766\/","title":{"rendered":"How ex-Mets reliever Trevor May became a voice for MLB’s heaviest subjects"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Trevor May<\/a> announced his MLB retirement after the 2023 season, he did so with a viral plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cSell the team, dude,\u201d May, who spent his final year with the A\u2019s, said at the time during an online Twitch stream.<\/p>\n

The blunt message was directed at A\u2019s owner John Fisher, whose controversial plan to relocate the team to Las Vegas was already in motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet someone who actually takes pride in the things they own, own something,\u201d May said. \u201cThere\u2019s actually people who give a s\u2013t about the game. Let them do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while that retirement video capped one chapter in May\u2019s baseball career, it also foreshadowed another.<\/p>\n

May, who also pitched for the Minnesota Twins and Mets<\/a>, remains a prominent \u2014 and often fearless \u2014 voice in the MLB community as a content creator.<\/p>\n

Known for his conversational style, May uses episodes of his \u201cMayday!\u201d show to explore trending topics and hot-button issues in baseball or shed light on life as a major leaguer.<\/p>\n

Some episodes entail fun challenges, such as May attempting to throw 100 mph in retirement or to hit as many home runs at San Francisco\u2019s Oracle Park<\/a> as he allowed there as an MLB reliever.<\/p>\n

Other subjects are touchier, including the sport\u2019s fast-approaching labor war.<\/p>\n

At its core, May\u2019s mission is to simplify complicated subject matter in a way that\u2019s easily digestible and understandable for viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many moving pieces \u2014\u00a0so many little, subtle details that can affect the game in major ways \u2014 that once you start to notice them, it makes the game even more enjoyable,\u201d May told the Daily News in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that really longtime baseball fans find a lot of joy in that. That\u2019s the kind of stuff that I focused on, and then I kind of spin it off from there. That is our North Star for most of this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s resonating.<\/p>\n

May hosts \u201cMayday!\u201d on the \u201cFoul Territory\u201d YouTube network on Wednesdays and on his personal channel, @TrevorMayBaseball, on Fridays. Both shows stream on Twitch as well.<\/p>\n

The @TrevorMayBaseball channel on YouTube<\/a> boasts more than 159,000 subscribers, while May\u2019s Twitch page by the same username<\/a> has more than 188,000 followers.<\/p>\n

Recent episodes include May breaking down Tony Clark\u2019s resignation<\/a> as the MLB Players Association\u2019s executive director; Tarik Skubal\u2019s historic arbitration victory<\/a>; and ideas to solve the MLB\u2019s revenue disparity<\/a> without a salary cap.<\/p>\n

The videos are informal, typically featuring no more than a few graphics and a camera focused on May.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a really high level expertise on something is a great first step to being able to make content about a subject,\u201d May said. \u201cI think you get a certain amount of authority there. So that was one thing that drew me to the baseball side of things. I honestly always kind of resisted it in the current [format] when I was playing, because I, frankly, didn\u2019t only want to think about baseball all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

May pitched nine MLB seasons from 2014-23, going 36-28 with a 4.24 ERA, 33 saves and 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings over 358 appearances, including 26 starts.<\/p>\n

That included two years with the Mets from 2021-22, when he went 9-3 with a 4.00 ERA.<\/p>\n

But May always had additional interests. He began posting YouTube videos in 2016, primarily in the video-game space, and earned a large following as a video-game streamer on Twitch during his time with the Twins.<\/p>\n

Later in his playing career, May documented his recovery from Tommy John surgery on YouTube. As a Met, he offered fans an inside look at life as a baseball player<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic and made videos featuring teammates such as Marcus Stroman and Pete Alonso.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically went and was like, \u2018Hey guys, if I\u2019m in here with the camera, like, three times this year, just say, hey man, I\u2019d rather not be on there,\u2019 and you will not be on there. Except for Jacob deGrom. He had no choice,\u201d May said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never explicitly said it, but I can take a hint: 2022 was a little bit sparse on this stuff because I wasn\u2019t about to follow Max Scherzer around. It was all baseball, and I had no problem doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back then, May would post videos infrequently, but his platform has proliferated since he retired.<\/p>\n

These days, many of May\u2019s videos focus on the business of baseball \u2014 a timely subject as MLB and the MLBPA near the expiration of their collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Many expect a work stoppage \u2014 and possibly the cancellation of games for the first time since 1995 \u2014 as the MLB owners push for a salary cap and the players union rejects one.<\/p>\n

May knows the subject of labor disputes can \u201cget bogged down by the jargon\u201d and bore the public, which is why he wants to talk about the topic in layman\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, super-tailored PR answers are all we\u2019re ever going to get publicly if no one else is a little bit more candid about it,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

May, the son of a former Chemical Workers Union president who himself was involved with MLBPA as a player, can offer insight as an ex-major leaguer. But he aims to lay out the tenets of the MLB owners as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to know where the big motivations for both sides are. Competitive balance is really important to the players, and that\u2019s part of it,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, there\u2019s a huge part of, like, having your own personal security as well, financially for the rest of your life, just like anybody else would feel. [That] is also very high on that list. If it feels like competitive balance isn\u2019t the top priority for either side sometimes, it\u2019s because maybe that\u2019s true. And on the other side, you know, owners, they run a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while many find May\u2019s candor refreshing, he knows it can make him polarizing.<\/p>\n

During baseball\u2019s 99-day work stoppage during the 2021-22 offseason, May \u2014 then a member of the Mets \u2014 was critical of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on a livestream.<\/p>\n

And last summer, May began \u201cfact-checking Rob Manfred\u201d<\/a> on \u201cMayday!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just generally guessing that I\u2019m not probably the most liked in the Commissioner\u2019s Office,\u201d May told The News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just kind of a thorn in some sides from time to time. And no one likes to be criticized regularly by people. Like, I wouldn\u2019t either. Most of the time, everyone thinks they\u2019re right, so I can\u2019t fault anyone for not taking too kindly to things I\u2019m saying. But I try to be as respectful as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

YouTube and Twitch are only the start for May, who dreams of one day telling bigger stories through film or documentaries. He is also building out a pitch-development lab \u2014 a secondary business he says he will chronicle on camera as well.<\/p>\n

Whatever he dives into next, May plans to do it his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re a player and you see ex-players on TV sometimes, kind of just giving surface-level explanations for things that feel very \u2018rose-tinted glasses\u2019 \u2026 that was really frustrating for me to watch. I\u2019m constantly worried that I\u2019m coming off that way,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also realized that when you do TV, you get 30 seconds to make your point. Unless you\u2019re a genius and you\u2019re the best communicator ever, it\u2019s gonna come off that way more than ever. I didn\u2019t like that I couldn\u2019t just go on for five minutes and talk about a thing. That\u2019s why I leaned into my own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Trevor May announced his MLB retirement after the 2023 season, he did so with a viral plea.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,79351,4747,12467,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,66099],"class_list":["post-611766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-content-creator","tag-foul-territory","tag-mayday","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets","tag-trevor-may"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116188380305386262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}