Editorials

Is It Time For The Dodgers To Be Concerned With Max Muncy?

Max Muncy stole the show in 2018 with big moments, and bigger offensive numbers. Then, the legend of Muncy grew with a mural of sorts in Los Angeles.

However, not all is well in Muncy-ville. Currently, Muncy is hitting .143 in spring training (5 for 35). Equally important – he has just two extra base hits to his credit.

Obviously, two schools of though exist for the bearded first baseman of the Dodgers. While the first simply say that it’s only spring training, the second pool of people are markedly concerned. Still, this is the player who had an OPS of .973 in 2018 and an on-base percentage of .391 on the year. These are numbers that no one can take away from the player.

How concerned should we be with Max Muncy’s current performance? We examine that within this post.

Group One: Max Muncy Will be Fine

Without question, I sit within this group. Surely, the case could be made that Muncy is an overnight sensation. But I don’t believe this is the truth.

No, Muncy passes the eye-ball test; at least for me. I have seen too many good at-bats, too many good habits displayed; to believe that he is anything less than a middle-of-the-order masher. At most, this is a slump within games that don’t count. Perhaps Muncy is simply working on things while in the box and regaining his comfort. And besides – there are a number of other Dodgers’ regulars hitting below .225 – Bellinger, Taylor, and Pederson to name a few.

Moreover, Muncy is recovering from a barking forearm. Once that forearm regains full strength, it’s likely that we see the player that resembles the 2018 version on a more regular basis.

Muncy may not slug at a .582 clip again in his life – but total regression where the bottom falls out – would be extremely unlikely. The worst truth likely lies somewhere in between.

Group Two: I am Really Worried About Max Muncy

There is a group with valid concern – a group that points towards a small body of work that supports Muncy as a solid offensive player. After all, just 395 total at-bats were recorded in 2018. Before that, Muncy logged two insignificant and unsuccessful seasons at the big league level for Oakland.

Surely, this group has likely never thought more of Muncy than him being a simple ‘cherry on the sundae’ or bonus. Muncy was the four leaf clover plucked at the perfect time by the Dodgers’ front office, and it worked out. Anything gained beyond 2018 is gravy, and if nothing is gained; well that’s what was expected.

Therefore, even if someone believes in Muncy’s ability; they could sit within this group if they believe he is still injured. A forearm or wriest injury can wreak havoc on an offensive approach. As a whole, we were really never told the severity of Muncy’s injury to begin with. It’s entirely possible he is still playing hurt – and if he is – who knows when it will heal.

Unrest resides in camp two, and it will remain there until Muncy puts together something resembling his 2018.


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Dodgers Fans’ Level of Concern With Max Muncy

In a poll posted by Dodgers Nation on our official twitter account, only 17 percent of voters said they have no concern with Muncy’s struggles. Furthermore, with around 1,000 votes; the remainder voices some level of concern from low (24 percent) to high (27 percent).

We took the time to let you add a voice to your concern or lack thereof for Muncy’s early doldrums.

Here are some of the responses we received, varying from none to a lot.

https://twitter.com/PGee65875576/status/1108475318946267136

Final Word

Without a way to forecast Muncy’s 2019 before it happens – we obviously don’t know how the story ends. No matter where you sit on the side of the argument, one cannot argue that Muncy has earned the opportunity to let the cement harden. What is meant by this is he’s earned the opportunity to show if he’s the real deal, or a simple one year wonder. Moreover, it’s possible that Muncy is just a solid big league player; that’s truly the most likely outcome.

Let us know how you feel about Max Muncy’s current struggles in the comment section!

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

11 Comments

  1. Call me “debbie downer” but I belong in Group 2. Even if Max Muncy was healthy, I feared he would regress from his 35 hrs, I was thinking he will hit mid 20s. Look what happened to Taylor and especially Bellinger(39 down to 25). If his forearm and or wrist is injured this could affect his power. Dodgers fans can correct me if I’m mistaken, but didn’t Adrian Gonzalez have forearm/wrist issues in 2017 which caused his power outage?

    1. Hello Robin, yes as far as Gonzalez in 2017 goes.. He was injured and could not perform like he usually did when healthy. Now Robin, please make room for me in that group 2 because for me, he’s yes…just another LH batter and my whole premise on this is that if a lineup has most of it’s expected offense from the left side, its’ got to be a huge reason for the team’s struggles against LHP.. Not very many LH batters perform against pitchers of the same side as do RH batters against RHP. NL has caught up with him but in fairness, if he is hurt than we cannot expect much at this time.

      1. PaulDodgerFan1965. Do you think that David Freese could be the everyday 1B or will he be worn down and at this point of his career can only be used against LHP and some RHP? IF Muncy’s forearm and or wrist is hurt, his power output will be reduced. At this point I’m guessing Kike Hernandez will be the 2nd baseman with Muncy(healthy), which IMO I’m not sure he can handle, although I read somewhere that showed with advanced metrics that Muncy was Not that bad at 2nd.

        1. I think if Muncy is hurt you’d see Verdugo in RF and Bellinger playing 1B before Freeze would play full time. If he opened the season on DL that would open the door for Miller to make the team. With that said Muncy had a double and single today so maybe injury is behind him.

  2. My opinion this winter was to trade Muncy while his values was high and to extend Puig and move Bellinger to 1B full time. The FO didn’t do any of those things. Hopefully, their decisions were the correct ones. We will see.

      1. Hello bluz1st, yeah I wish I could find that ‘like’ button because what GL suggested was EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE with Muncy this Winter. Bellinger belongs at his already Gold Glove potential at 1st and guess what… I would be willing to BET that his offense would be much better knowing he will be at 1st and not moving back and forth from the OF to 1st

        1. PaulDodgerFan; yes we missed an opportunity to trade Muncy to an American League team as a DH. Bellinger should be at first base for sure!

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