The Los Angeles Dodgers received some devastating injury news on starting pitcher Dustin May on Tuesday, as the right-hander will undergo season-ending surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right elbow. May will miss the rest of the season in yet another brutal blow to the Dodgers rotation.

In addition to May, Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw and right-hander Noah Syndergaard are also sidelined with injuries. Staff ace Walker Buehler is in the midst of recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Julio Urias, who won the ERA title in 2022, has come crashing back down to Earth to the tune of a 4.94 ERA in 2023.

In other words, things are pretty dire for the Dodgers rotation right now.

The good news is, Kershaw and Syndergaard will be back. The bad news is, can Dodgers fans really trust anyone in the rotation besides Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin?

That's not a good place for a 47-37 team with World Series hopes to be in.

But all is not lost for the Dodgers. With the MLB trade deadline inching closer, there may just be some starting pitchers the club can deal for to help patch up the rotation.

Here are four starting pitcher trades the Dodgers must consider after the May injury news.

Dodgers trade ideas after Dustin May injury news

4. Oakland Athletics SP Paul Blackburn

An All-Star last year, Paul Blackburn, who owned a 3.62 ERA in the first half, looked to be on pace for the best year of his career. It ended up being a career year for the Athletics hurler, but his 8.79 second half ERA put a damper on the season.

Blackburn doesn't strike out a lot of guys and he walks more guys than he should. However, he has shown an impressive ability to induce groundballs in his career.

That's at least worth something, given that the Dodgers happen to play a chunk of their games in offense-friendly ballparks such as Coors and Chase Field.

There's also this: Blackburn owns a career 6.27 ERA at home compared to a 4.02 mark on the road in his career. Neither mark is worth writing home about.

However, what if Blackburn could be a better pitcher away from Oakland? It might be worth a trade to find out.

3. Boston Red Sox SP Nick Pivetta

This might not seem like an attractive option to Dodgers fans but there are reasons to like Pivetta.

For one thing, Pivetta may actually be available at the MLB trade deadline, as the Boston Globe's Chad Finn recently named him as a Red Sox player who could be on the move.

Pivetta owns a poor 5.01 ERA for his career but has also flashed strikeout ability, as evidenced by his 24.6 percent K rate in seven big league seasons.

He's the kind of pitcher the Dodgers have turned into an ace in their pitching factory in recent years (Think Andrew Heaney).

If the Dodgers, in their payroll-shedding mode, are looking for a cheap trade to make after the May injury, a Pivetta deal, much like the Blackburn trade, makes a lot of sense.

2. St. Louis Cardinals SP Jordan Montgomery

The Cardinals, 35-50, have been a dumpster fire this season. After winning 90-plus games in each of the last three full seasons (pandemic-shortened season excluded), St. Louis has taken a major step back.

While they may not publicly admit it, this MLB trade deadline will be a chance to make one of the game's most promising farm systems even better.

One of the ways they can do so is by trading away 2024 free agent starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery.

Montgomery, 30, has been one of the few bright spots on the Cardinals this year, as he has pitched to a 3.28 ERA in 98 2/3 innings.

Unfortunately for Montgomery, one of the problems he encountered with the New York Yankees followed him to St. Louis: run support.

The Yankees never scored many runs for Monty- and the Cardinals have done the same at times in 2023.

One wonders how Montgomery would feel pitching behind the Dodgers lineup, which has scored the fourth-most runs in the majors this year.

The Dodgers would be good for Monty- and he- a capable middle of the rotation type- would be good for them too.

1. Cleveland Guardians SP Shane Bieber 

Here it is, the big trade splash. Each of the previous three deals were patchwork types, low-risk, high-reward trades the Dodgers could make.

This potential deal for Guardians ace Shane Bieber would be a summer blockbuster. Bieber, the 2020 Cy Young award winner, owns a sublime 3.22 career ERA to go along with 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

If the Guardians, 41-43, decide to become sellers at the MLB trade deadline, Bieber will be the premier pitcher on the trade market. 28 and under team control up until 2025, he won't come cheap either.

Plus, there are the concerns surrounding his dip in fastball velocity and strikeout rate. But this is still Shane Bieber we're talking about.

Would anyone be surprised if the Dodgers traded for Bieber and urged him to throw his off-speed stuff- slider and curveball- more? And would anyone be surprised if he looked more like the Cy Young version of himself?

LA fans are probably already salivating over a Buehler-Bieber-Kershaw-Urias rotation after reading this.

The Guardians may not even make Bieber available for trade. But if they do, the Dodgers, armed with the second-ranked farm system in baseball's preseason rankings, have the assets to make it happen.