In July, Boston Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito was compelled to confront commissioner Rob Manfred about the continued threats he and his teammates were receiving from sports betters via social media.
Giolito said on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast that the online threats were getting worse “by the year, by the week, by the day.”
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Few of those threats ever become public. The latest, targeting Red Sox pitcher Dustin May, hit a new low.
Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
As first reported by The Big Lead, May’s wife shared a screenshot of a message she received from a since-deleted social media account with the handle “dustinmaywilldie,” showing a picture of the couple’s dog.
“Ill [sic] cook this dog for dinner,” the message read.
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A source told The Big Lead that Amelia May received the message after the pitcher allowed five runs in 4.1 innings in the Red Sox’s 7-2 loss to the New York Yankees on Sunday at Yankee Stadium.
May was traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Boston Red Sox on July 31 for a pair of minor league outfielders. The Red Sox plugged May into their starting rotation, where he’s gone 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA in four starts since.
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Although he welcomed the chance to continue starting (which wasn’t guaranteed with the Dodgers), May joined a Red Sox clubhouse that had been dealing with rogue threats for months.
“This is almost a daily occurrence for almost everyone in this clubhouse,” Boston pitcher Liam Hendriks told The Athletic in May. “That’s the upsetting part, and it’s not being controlled in the right way. This is continuing to happen, whether it be through Instagram, whether it be through Twitter (X) or TikTok or any of the social media apps or anything like that, it’s not being handled by any which way.
“At some point, something’s got to break,” Hendriks continued, “and it better not be any of the guys that are receiving this stuff.”
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Now, the players’ well-being is not the only concern. The violent threats from social media users are extending to their wives and pets, as well.
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