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In 2008, May got drafted by the Phillies (see Transactions below).
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In 2009, Baseball America rated Trevor as the 28th-best prospect in the Phillies organization.
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But in 2010 they moved May all the way up to 5th-best prospect in the Phillies farm system. And he was back at #5 in the winter before 2011 spring training. Then, in the winter before 2012 spring camps opened, they had Trevor as the #1 prospect in the Phillies organization. After coming to the Twins organization, May was their 8th-best prospect in the spring of 2014, and #9 in the offseason before 2015 Spring Training.
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In 2011, May was the Phillies organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year. He went 10-8 with a 3.63 ERA in 27 games for Class A Clearwater, striking out 208 over 151 innings. He became the first Phillies Minor Leaguer to reach at least 180 strikeouts in a season since Mark Davis did so for Reading in 1980. In 2011, Trevor led the minors in strikeouts per nine innings (12.4) and the FSL with 208 whiffs.
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In 2012, May led the Eastern League with 151 strikeouts but also 78 walks.
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Trevor wears a size 16 shoe.
MUSIC MAKER
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In his free time, May is an amateur producer of house music. He has been known to spend hours on end at his iMac composing trippy concoctions, some of which he uploads to his SoundCloud channel for fans of his music and/or his pitching.
"This offseason I sat on the computer for nine straight hours," he says. "I'd work out and say, 'What am I going to do for the rest of the day?' And nine hours later, I had a song. I just ordered Jimmy Johns and had them bring me a sandwich at some point, and I didn't realize it was 11 o'clock at night."
He laughs at his youthful enthusiasm. "It kind of snowballs," he says. "You get all excited and keep going."
In the first two weeks of spring training, he was productive enough in between bullpens and pitching fielding practice to record the basis of a song he calls "Bob and Weave." He posted a link for his Twitter followers late one night. Of the half dozen or so songs he has uploaded, the most popular has generated about 500 listens. May is teaching himself to play the piano to help streamline the recording process; he used to play the trombone but gave that up years ago.
"There's only one band, Sublime, that has trombone," May says. "I used to tell people I wanted to be in a Sublime cover band. That's why I used to play trombone."
It's important to note here that the 6-foot-5 May takes his primary craft seriously. Coming off a solid stint at the Arizona Fall League, this would-be Fatboy Slim has worked hard to get in the best shape of his career as he takes aim at the final spot in the Twins' rotation.
"I think baseball is going to get me known a little more than music," says May. "I love being a baseball player and have passion. Music is just a cool thing to do."
Not to mention a great outlet for his creativity. During the 2013 season at Double-A New Britain, May brought some of his mixes into the Rock Cats clubhouse and played them for his teammates.
"We had one we listened to every day before games," May says. "One guy really liked it. Everybody else was like, 'Meh.' I'd just play it for him."
That was outfielder Jordan Parraz, who used May's creation for a walkup song.
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Back home in Kelso, Wash., and even up Interstate 5 in Seattle, May is gradually building his reputation in the music realm.
"I have some people in Seattle that know me just as a guy that makes music," May says. "I have a few projects in the works I've been showing to close friends, but right now it's baseball time."
Now that the games have arrived, May isn't pulling all-nighters at his keyboard. He isn't forgetting to eat while bouncing from project to project, or the dozen or more unfinished songs at his fingertips. That doesn't mean the ideas aren't still popping into his head at all hours. He finds himself inspired by such acclaimed producers as Deorro, marveling at the way he uses technology to morph his voice into danceable sounds.
"You can literally record your voice making a sound, and the low quality of the sound is actually what you're looking for sometimes," he says. "You can manipulate it and do your main sound."
Maybe someday—preferably once he reaches the majors—May will be able to create an entire soundtrack for an increasingly diverse Twins roster.
"It's fun. I enjoy it," he says. "I'm really big on being good at the things I like to do." (Mike Berardino - 3/6/2014)
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In the offseason, May is DJ MAyZR. In his spare time, May is a budding DJ, who releases tracks to his fans via social media, including his latest, "Balvenie," which was released for $1 with the proceeds going to the Twins Community Fund, the club's largest charity organization. May describes the track as a "house tune built to invoke groovy, techno vibes."
May estimated it took him roughly 30-40 hours to develop the song, which he finished roughly two weeks before he left for Spring Training 2016. He used the popular music production program, Abelton, on his MacBook computer, to sample sounds. He wrote, composed and edited the track himself. After four years of learning how to develop his own music, he finally felt comfortable enough to partner his work with the community fund, which raises money for youth baseball programs in Minnesota.
"Usually I just release them for free, but to be honest, that wasn't really doing anything, and I put a lot of effort into this one," May said. "I've thrown around the idea for releasing songs for charity, and the Twins Community Fund is a great way to do it. I really hadn't gotten a song where I felt comfortable releasing it to the public in that capacity, and this was the first one."
May first got into making his own tracks during the 2011 offseason while a top prospect in the Phillies' organization. He said it took him about two years before he really knew what he was doing, and that he was self-taught, learning how to do it by watching YouTube videos. He uses a piece of equipment called a push, which is essentially a controller that features 64 buttons and various knobs that allows him to enter different sounds into the track.
"The way you go through it is there are devices that create virtual instruments and it's completely customizable," May said. "I'm just now to the point where I can think of something and get it in there." He hopes to make a few more tracks and potentially release a three-song EP, but it depends on how much time he has this season. To promote his latest release, he uses his Twitter account to reach his 12,000 followers. He hosted a live chat on Periscope too, talking about everything from his song, his love for his cat, LC, and baseball.
May said another idea of his is to host a live show at a venue in the Twin Cities during the season with the money raised going to charity. He has done live shows before, but never with an affiliation with the Twins. He also hopes to eventually make a song that goes mainstream and is picked up by a label, but for now, his main focus is on the upcoming baseball season.
"One of my goals is to have a song signed by a label," May said. "It's on my bucket list. I just don't know when, especially because when I have time for this is the offseason, but now it's baseball season. It's fun. If I have an idea, I can put it down, but I'm not worried about releasing anything during the season. And if I do, it'll be to benefit something in the Twin Cities." (Bollinger - MLB.com - 3/11/2016)
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February 2017: Trevor May has joined Luminosity as an Official Brand Ambassador. May has already been streaming on Twitch and collected over 4,500 followers. He’s been playing a lot of Overwatch. (Esports Insider - Sam Cooke - February 21, 2017)
FORTNITE
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If you know anything about Trevor May, you know he likes video games. He streams himself playing the video games and you can watch him online. Anyway, he recently spoke on an Esports panel at some convention and said (among other things) that there should be traditional training leagues for professional video games like there are in professional sports. (Maija Varda@KirbysLeftEye - Jan 16, 2018)
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Trevor, who said in the offseason he puts in 16-hour days gaming, teamed up with professional gamers to play Fortnite live in front of fans. (Fortnite is the popular game that has taken over social media in 2018.) And when asked about participating in the event May said it was very similar to pitching when it came to nerves.
"It felt very similar," May said. "I was just having a good time. I was super anxious to get going and wanted to make sure everything worked. My time in DJing, I've had enough technical difficulties where turntables wouldn't work and the audio isn't picking up. So we got it going pretty good and they figured it out. I was flustered at the operations table a little bit, which was really funny. He thought I was mad at him. But other than that, it went pretty smoothly. All of our stuff worked, we figured all of the technical difficulties out really quickly. I would call it a win." Now we know where to find May when the baseball season is over. (Kleinschmidt - mlb.com - 9/10/2018).
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Dec 10, 2018: The Twins are auctioning off a private tour of Target Field and the opportunity to play Fortnite with pitcher Trevor May as part of the 2018 Winter Meetings Charity Auction. This year's auction will support the Jackie Robinson Foundation and the Negro Leagues Museum, two important institutions that educate future generations of young people through honoring significant moments and individuals of baseball's past.
The auction is live on MLB.com/wintermeetingsauction. Items include special baseball experiences, including meetings with some of the game's biggest stars, along with unique items donated by MLB and the 30 clubs. Bidding for both packages being offered by the Twins began at $500. The winning bidder for the Fortnite package will receive the opportunity to visit Target Field to play the video game for an hour with May, who has been an avid streamer of video games on Twitch for Luminosity Gaming and founded the startup Esports Lab.
The package also includes the opportunity to watch batting practice from the field and four tickets to the day's game. May and the Twins previously hosted "FortDay" at Target Field in September, during which he teamed up with professional gamers for a live gaming session in front of fans. The winner of the Target Field tour package can bring up to 40 guests on a two-hour tour of Target Field with team curator Clyde Doepner on a non-gameday. (DH Park - MLB.com - Dec 10, 2018)
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Ever notice how Trevor tweets out some variant of "Go Twins!" after every Minnesota victory?
As it turns out, that's a phrase that the Twins reliever encourages around not only the baseball world, but also in the online gaming world, where May, an avid Esports streamer, says it serves as an identifier of sorts for him from fellow streamers whenever he enters a gaming lobby.
"God forbid I ever play for another team, I guess, at this point," May said. "I think that it'll follow me wherever I go, which is a cool thing. It's kind of how gaming and streaming culture is. It's creating inside jokes and memes and just stuff to have fun with that kind of connect things that aren't necessarily game-related into the gaming world."
May, who has more than 131,000 followers on popular streaming service Twitch and typically travels with a gaming laptop and peripherals in a hard case, has always been just as active—if not more—in the gaming community as he has in the baseball world. As the sports and Esports worlds grow closer together, May exists in a quite unique overlap of the communities.
During a Twins' 2019 road trip, he spent a morning at the team hotel in Anaheim filming an on-location segment for the second episode of PlayTime with KittyPlays, an original series by Allied Esports hosted by popular streamer and competitive Esports player Kristen "KittyPlays" Michaela. May was the second professional athlete to be featured on the show, which also brought in Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield in its first episode.
May said that the Twins, for their part, have continued to encourage the intersection between sports and Esports to a greater extent. As an example, they hosted a "Fortnite Day" at Target Field in September 2018, in which May and teammate Mitch Garver hosted a pair of professional gamers for a live streaming session and fielded fan questions on the field before a Sunday afternoon game against the Royals.
"It's a pivotal moment," Michaela said. "I feel like it's just this giant wave that's washing over pop culture and society and I think we're all really privileged to see the beginning of it all."
"The owners of the Minnesota Twins, too, are pretty business-savvy as well, as you can imagine," May said. "It just kind of all makes sense. They're not willing to kind of ignore any trend or any marketing opportunity. There might be other owners that aren't as open to it or as used to hearing about it, so that's also nice.
"But yeah, the Twins have become a little bit of a positive meme in gaming—at least in the Fortnite scene—and that's good for everyone involved." (Park - mlb.com - 5/26/2019)
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May moonlights as an eSports streamer with more than 137,000 followers on the popular streaming service Twitch.tv, Also an entrepreneur in the field, he has the username "iamtrevormay."
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During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, it was not exactly easy for Major Leaguers -- or baseball players at any level -- to regularly throw off a mound or maintain their level of readiness for the season. What was it, then, that pitchers can do to make some productive use of their considerable time in self-isolation and still better themselves in some way?
Trevor had a detailed answer to that question in a video titled "5 things you can do at home to become a better pitcher!" on his baseball-oriented YouTube channel. Though he originally posted the video toward the end of the offseason, in January 2020, May recently bumped it on his Twitter feed as a means to help younger pitchers establish and maintain a routine without taxing their arms during these unusual times.
"This video is intended to give you things that you don't necessarily have to be in the middle of a season to do," May said in the video. "Being in shape, baseball shape, throwing shape, takes a little bit of time. These are things you can do now ... to continue to hone your skills without having to take a huge toll on your body."
(1) Writing goals and affirmations; (2) meditation; (3) stretching; (4) arm care; and (5) dry work. He then walked through all five in great detail with explanations and visual cues for the drills, which can all be done at home with the aid of inexpensive equipment.
Alongside this guide to pitcher upkeep, Trevor's baseball channel also features a video on meditation in addition to other guides on intent, his pitch selections and design, rest and recovery, mental toughness, focus, and his opinions on other topics relevant to the game. (Park - mlb.com - 4/3/2020)
TRANSACTIONS
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June 2008: May was scouted and signed by Phillies' scout Dave Ryles, The team drafted Trevor in the 4th round, out of Kelso High School in Kelso, Washington. He signed for $375,000 moments before the August deadline.
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December 6, 2012: The Twins sent OF Ben Revere to the Phillies, acquiring May and RHP Vance Worley.
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January 12, 2018: The Twins and May avoided arbitration, agreeing to a one-year deal for $650,000.
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January 11, 2019: May and the Twins avoided arbitration, agreeing to a one-year deal for $900,000.
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January 10, 2020: May and the Twins avoided arbitration, agreeing to a one-year deal.
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Oct 28, 2020: May elected free agency.
- Dec. 2, 2020: The Mets signed free agent May to a 2-year contract worth $15 million.