Max Muncy

Looking Ahead To Club Options: NL West

By Anthony Franco | April 17, 2025 at 8:22pm CDT

Over the coming days, MLBTR will look at next offseason’s option class. Steve Adams will highlight the players who can opt out of their current deals, while we’ll take a division-by-division look at those whose contracts contain either team or mutual options. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Kendall Graveman, RHP ($5MM mutual option, $100K buyout)

Arizona signed the veteran righty, who missed all of last season after undergoing shoulder surgery in January 2024. Graveman was hobbled by back discomfort this spring and began the year on the 15-day injured list. He has thrown a few bullpen sessions but has yet to begin a rehab assignment. During his most recent healthy season, Graveman worked to a 3.12 ERA across 66 1/3 innings between the White Sox and Astros.

Randal Grichuk, OF ($5MM mutual option, $3MM buyout)

Grichuk posted big numbers in a short-side platoon role for the Snakes in 2024. Arizona brought him back on a $5MM free agent deal. He’s making only a $2MM salary and will collect a $3MM buyout on his option at the end of the season. Grichuk hasn’t gotten much playing time, starting six of Arizona’s 19 games (all but one as the designated hitter). He’s out to a decent start, batting .240 with five doubles over 28 plate appearances.

Colorado Rockies

Kyle Farmer, 2B ($4MM mutual option, $750K buyout)

Farmer has been a rare bright spot in what has been a terrible Colorado lineup. The veteran utilityman has started 15 of their 18 games. He’s playing mostly second base and is hitting .345 with nine doubles, the second-most in MLB. Farmer isn’t going to keep hitting at this pace, but it’s an excellent start for a player who signed for $3.25MM after a down year (.214/.293/.353) with Minnesota.

Tyler Kinley, RHP ($5MM club option, $750K buyout)

Kinley signed a three-year extension during the 2022-23 offseason. The slider specialist had a brilliant first half to the ’22 campaign, but that was cut short in July by elbow surgery. Kinley hasn’t been the same pitcher since returning. He allowed more than six earned runs per nine in both 2022 and ’23. He has given up five runs (four earned) with seven strikeouts and six walks across 7 2/3 innings this season. Kinley owns a 6.03 ERA while walking more than 11% of opposing hitters over 88 frames since signing the extension.

The option comes with a $5MM base value. It would escalate by $500K apiece if Kinley finishes 20, 25, and 30 games — potentially up to $6.5MM. He has finished two contests in the early going. While the option isn’t especially costly, this is trending towards a buyout.

Jacob Stallings, C ($2MM mutual option, $500K buyout)

Stallings produced the best offensive numbers of his career for the Rox in 2024. He returned on a $2.5MM deal early in the offseason. Stallings has been more of the 1-b catcher behind Hunter Goodman. He has started seven games and caught 59 innings. It’s been a slow start, as he’s batting .125 with 12 strikeouts in 27 trips to the plate.

Note: Thairo Estrada’s one-year deal contains a ’26 mutual option, but he’s excluded from this exercise because he would remain eligible for arbitration if the option is declined.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Max Muncy, 3B ($10MM club option, no buyout)

This could end up being a borderline call. The Dodgers can keep Muncy around for what’d be his ninth season in L.A. on a $10MM price tag. That’s not an exorbitant sum for baseball’s highest-spending team. Muncy has generally been an excellent hitter in the middle of Dave Roberts’ lineup. He’s a career .230/.355/.482 hitter in Dodger blue. He remained as productive when he was healthy last season, posting a .232/.358/.494 slash over 73 games. An oblique strain cost him three months.

Muncy is out to a much slower start this year. He has yet to connect on a home run in 18 games. He’s batting .193 with 25 strikeouts in 68 plate appearances (a 36.8% rate). It’s very early, of course, but he’ll need to pick things up. Muncy turns 35 in August. NPB third baseman Munetaka Murakami will be posted for MLB teams next offseason. The Dodgers will very likely be involved on the 25-year-old slugger, so it’s possible they’d prefer to keep the position open early in the winter.

Chris Taylor, INF/OF ($12MM club option, $4MM buyout)

Taylor is in the final season of his four-year, $60MM free agent deal. He was coming off an All-Star season in 2021, when he hit .254/.344/.438 with 20 homers. His offense has trended down over the course of the contract, especially sharply over the past two years. Taylor fanned at a near-31% clip last season, batting .202/.298/.300 in 246 plate appearances. He has only been in the starting lineup three times this season.

The Dodgers have kept Taylor throughout his offensive struggles. They clearly place a lot of value on him as a clubhouse presence and appreciate the defensive versatility he provides off the bench. Still, it’s hard to imagine them paying the extra $8MM to exercise the option since he’s essentially the final position player on the roster. The option price would increase by $1MM if Taylor is traded or in the unlikely event that he reaches 525 plate appearances and/or makes the All-Star Game.

Note: Alex Vesia’s arbitration contract contains a ’26 club option, but he’s excluded from this exercise because he would remain eligible for arbitration if the option is declined.

San Diego Padres

Elias Díaz, C ($7MM mutual option, $2MM buyout)

Díaz finished last season in San Diego after being released by the Rockies. He re-signed on a $3.5MM deal as the Padres went with the affordable veteran catching tandem of Díaz and Martín Maldonado. He’s hitting .206 in 13 games, though he has taken seven walks against eight strikeouts.

Kyle Hart, LHP ($5MM club option, $500K buyout)

Hart, a soft-tossing lefty, returned to the majors after an excellent year in Korea. He signed a $1.5MM guarantee with a ’26 team option that has a $5MM base salary. The option price could climb as high as $7.5MM. It would jump $250K if Hart reaches 18 starts this year, $500K at 22 starts, $750K at 26 starts, and $1MM if he starts 30 games.

San Diego has given Hart a season-opening rotation spot. He has allowed seven runs over his first 11 2/3 innings. Hart has walked five with eight strikeouts and a below-average 8.3% swinging strike percentage.

Michael King, RHP ($15MM mutual option, $3.75MM buyout)

King’s option is purely an accounting measure. He agreed to push $3.75MM of this year’s $7.75MM guarantee back to the end of the season in the form of a buyout — potentially buying the Padres a bit of flexibility for in-season trade acquisitions. Barring a major injury, he’s going to decline his end of the option and will be one of the top pitchers in next year’s class.

Tyler Wade, SS/OF ($1MM club option, no buyout)

Wade agreed to a $1MM club option as part of a deal to avoid a hearing in his final year of arbitration. He was squeezed off the roster during Spring Training. Wade cleared waivers, accepted an assignment to Triple-A, then came back up last week. He’s playing center field with Jackson Merrill and Brandon Lockridge on the injured list. The option price is barely above the league minimum, but Wade is on the roster bubble and no guarantee to stick in the majors through the end of the season.

San Francisco Giants

Tom Murphy, C ($4MM club option, $250K buyout)

San Francisco added Murphy on a two-year deal during the 2023-24 offseason. The veteran catcher has had a difficult time staying healthy throughout his career, and that’s continued in San Francisco. He played in only 13 games last year because of a knee sprain. He started this season on the shelf with a herniated disc that is going to keep him out for at least the first two months. This looks like a buyout.

Latest On Nolan Arenado

By Steve Adams | December 19, 2024 at 12:32pm CDT

The potential for a Nolan Arenado trade has been one of the most persistent storylines of the 2024-25 offseason, and Arenado surged into the spotlight yesterday when it was reported that he invoked his no-trade clause to quash a deal that would’ve sent him to the Astros.

Further details on the matter, unsurprisingly, have continued to leak out today and presumably will in the days and weeks ahead. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that while Arenado vetoed the potential deal to Houston, the Cardinals and Astros will continue to negotiate and an eventual deal remains possible. Of further note, while there’s been plenty of talk regarding the number of teams to which Arenado would approve a trade, Goold suggests that the third baseman has not at any point submitted a formal list of such teams to the Cardinals. Around five teams have spoken with the Cardinals about a trade, per the report.

The lack of a firm list could potentially be due to the fact that Arenado’s willingness to approve a trade to another club is context-dependent. Agent Joel Wolfe made clear at last week’s Winter Meetings that Arenado’s goal is to land with a clear win-now team that will continue to pursue a World Series title for the balance of the three years remaining on his contract. A team’s offseason dealings can impact the perception of whether they’re a true long-term contender.

Katie Woo and Chandler Rome of The Athletic report that, somewhat ironically, the very same move that in some regards paved the way for Houston’s pursuit of Arenado might’ve reduced his willingness to go there: the trade of Kyle Tucker to the Cubs. For a player seeking a perennial win-now atmosphere, a team simultaneously trading its best player and balking at re-signing a franchise cornerstone (Alex Bregman) logically raises some red flags. Woo and Rome write that Arenado wants to further see how the third-base market plays out before making any kind of decision, with Bregman’s eventual landing spot being one potential factor.

If that sounds counterintuitive, consider that Arenado could be viewed as something of a “Plan B” for teams with interest in Bregman. Bregman has been linked to both the Yankees and Red Sox, for instance. Either could hold appeal to Arenado, speculatively speaking, but they may choose not to ramp up their pursuit until Bregman is off the table. Revisiting the talks with Houston could also occur if Bregman signs elsewhere.

MLB.com’s John Denton appeared on 101 ESPN’s BK and Ferrario Show in St. Louis this morning and touched on the Arenado saga as well. He echoed many of the same points made in those reports and in his own reporting in helping break the no-trade development yesterday, but he added the wrinkle that Arenado is still holding out hope for a potential match with the Dodgers.

While Dodgers brass has publicly indicated that Max Muncy will be the team’s third baseman next season, Denton suggested some gamesmanship in those comments and reports that the Dodgers still have some interest in Arenado. It’s hard to see how that’d work with Muncy in the fold, Freddie Freeman at first base and Shohei Ohtani locked in at designated hitter.

Muncy would make a pricey and overqualified bench player. He’s a highly affordable starter at third, owed $12MM this year with a $10MM club option for 2026. Muncy doesn’t have a no-trade clause, but the 2023-24 version of Arenado isn’t a clear upgrade overall — certainly not when Muncy has been the superior hitter. Muncy’s .232/.358/.494 slash in 2024 (135 wRC+) outpaces Arenado’s .272/.325/.394 output (102 wRC+) — higher batting average for Arenado notwithstanding. Those roadblocks aside, Denton feels the Dodgers aren’t entirely out of the question and that Arenado isn’t likely to approve a deal anywhere “until the Dodgers tell him no to his face.”

There were clearly many factors that went into Arenado’s decision to utilize his no-trade provision, but regardless of the specifics, the scratched Houston deal leaves the Cards in limbo. They’d like to open third base playing time for younger players (e.g. Nolan Gorman, perhaps Jordan Walker) and are simultaneously hopeful of scaling back payroll ahead of next year’s player development-focused “reset” year.

Trading Arenado would’ve done just that, particularly with the Astros apparently willing to foot the majority of the bill. Woo and Rome indicate that Houston was willing to cover around $45MM of Arenado’s deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan hears differently, reporting that the Astros were willing to cover a heftier $59MM of the $74MM remaining on the contract. That’s on top of the $10MM the Rockies are covering under the terms of their prior deal. In essence, it seems the Cardinals would’ve only been on the hook for anywhere from $5-19MM in total — as compared to the $64MM they currently owe Arenado ($12MM of which is deferred). Woo and Rome write that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is “facing pressure from ownership” to further reduce payroll.

Taking a step further back, Arenado’s various reported reasons for saying no to the Astros — at least for the time being — suggest we may not get resolution on his trade candidacy anytime soon. If Arenado is waiting to see both whether the Dodgers make a serious push and to see where Bregman lands (perhaps opening the door for a match with an AL East contender), then the Cardinals’ hands are tied to an extent. Passan writes that the Houston veto could push the Cards to show willingness to eat more of the contract, thus bringing in additional suitors. Even in that scenario, the ball would be squarely in Arenado’s court, and if he’s willing to wait out several related market factors, this saga could drag on for some time.

In that scenario, the Cardinals might well be forced to look into other ways they could shed some payroll. Steven Matz ($12MM), Erick Fedde ($7.5MM) and Ryan Helsley (projected $6.9MM) are among the other short-term veterans on the roster who don’t hold the same no-trade provisions that Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Miles Mikolas hold. Both Contreras and Gray have reportedly told the Cardinals that they prefer to stay in St. Louis and do not plan to waive their no-trade rights.

Dodgers Designate Nick Ahmed For Assignment

By Anthony Franco | August 19, 2024 at 7:10pm CDT

The Dodgers designated shortstop Nick Ahmed for assignment and optioned rookie outfielder Andy Pages to Triple-A Oklahoma City this evening. The move opened spots on the major league roster for Max Muncy and Tommy Edman, both of whom have returned from the 60-day injured list. Ahmed’s DFA opened one spot on the 40-man roster, while the Dodgers transferred River Ryan to the 60-day IL to create an additional spot. Ryan underwent Tommy John surgery and is done for the season. Los Angeles also recalled catcher Hunter Feduccia and placed veteran backup Austin Barnes on the 10-day injured list with a toe fracture.

Ahmed signed with the Dodgers a month ago. With Mookie Betts and Miguel Rojas out at the time, Los Angeles added Ahmed directly onto the major league roster. The defensive stalwart started 14 games at shortstop. He continued to provide defensive value but didn’t produce much offensively. While Ahmed hit a go-ahead home run to help beat the Giants (his former team) early in his Dodger tenure, he ultimately hit just .229/.245/.292 in 49 trips to the plate.

Between San Francisco and L.A., Ahmed carries a .232/.271/.300 batting line through 221 plate appearances. While he has never been a huge offensive threat, Ahmed has particularly struggled at the dish over the last two seasons. The two-time Gold Glove winner remains a strong defender, but the lack of firepower at the plate has squeezed him off a trio of rosters within the past two seasons. The Dodgers have welcomed Betts and Rojas back in recent weeks. Even with Betts returning to the outfield, they were comfortable enough with their infield depth to waive deadline pickup Amed Rosario after five games.

Los Angeles now adds two more infield-capable players in Muncy and Edman. The former should return to his everyday work at third base, moving Enrique Hernández back into a utility role. Muncy has been out for three months after suffering an oblique strain that proved more significant than the team initially expected. The power-hitting infielder was out to a .223/.323/.475 start to the season.

Edman is a versatile defender who can play essentially anywhere aside from catcher. He has spent the entire 2024 campaign on the injured list. Edman underwent postseason surgery on his right wrist while he was a member of the Cardinals. St. Louis hoped he’d be ready around Opening Day, yet a much slower recovery process kept him from even going on a rehab assignment until mid-July. The Dodgers nevertheless acquired Edman alongside Michael Kopech in a three-team trade that was one of the biggest moves of deadline season. St. Louis landed Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham from Chicago, who centered their return around Miguel Vargas from Los Angeles.

The Stanford product is now set for his Dodger debut. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters last week that Edman will get the bulk of his work in center field (X link via Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic). A middle infielder by trade, Edman had never started a major league game in center until last season. The Cards gave him 310 2/3 innings there and were rewarded with strong defensive grades — which has been a theme for Edman no matter where he’s played — in that relatively limited sample.

Plugging Edman into the outfield squeezes Pages off the MLB roster for now. The 23-year-old has had a decent if unexceptional rookie season, hitting .246/.305/.388 across 394 trips to the plate. Kevin Kiermaier should move into a fourth outfield capacity while Pages gets everyday playing time for a couple weeks in OKC. Reporter Francys Romero tweets that the Dodgers are likely to recall the Cuban-born outfielder once active rosters expand to 28 players on September 1.

Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times first observed that Pages and Ahmed were being sent out.

Freddie Freeman Playing Through Hairline Fracture In Finger

By Nick Deeds | August 19, 2024 at 6:55pm CDT

August 19: Freeman was diagnosed with a hairline fracture, Roberts told reporters on Monday (X link via Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic). The former MVP will attempt to play through the injury and is in the lineup tonight against Seattle.

August 18: Star first baseman Freddie Freeman came out of the Dodgers’ game against the Cardinals yesterday due to what was at the time termed a jammed finger, but despite initial x-rays coming back negative, the situation has worsened overnight. As manager Dave Roberts told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times and other reporters, Freeman isn’t able to grip a bat due to swelling. Freeman was out of today’s lineup and is still considered day-to-day, but is scheduled to undergo a CT scan on Monday.

The loss of Freeman would be devastating for a Dodgers club that has had its trio of superstar hitters back on the roster together for just six games since Mookie Betts returned from the injured list to rejoin Freeman and Shohei Ohtani at the top of the lineup last week. Even with Betts having recently returned, however, the loss of Freeman’s .292/.391/.488 slash line is sure to be a major blow to the Dodgers’ offense for however long he’s out of action. With the Padres and Diamondbacks rapidly gaining ground in the NL West title hunt, a lengthy absence for Freeman could mean that the Dodgers might have to go down to the wire in this pennant race without one of their best hitters.

Fortunately for the Dodgers, reinforcements for the lineup appear to be just around the corner. DiGiovanna notes that the club is expected to activate infielder Tommy Edman from the injured list tomorrow, and could do the same with Max Muncy. Earlier reports suggested that Muncy wasn’t rejoining the roster until later in the week, but Roberts said (as per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) the infielder is flying into L.A. to make sure he’s available Monday if needed.

Edman, 29, won’t help the club’s situation at first base very much, but the versatile switch-hitter should improve the lineup in other areas. He’s previously been expected to play center field for the club on a regular basis, but it’s possible that he could see additional time on the infield given the small-sample success Kevin Kiermaier has had with the club since being acquired from the Blue Jays. If Edman, Miguel Rojas, and Enrique Hernández can cover the left side of the infield while Gavin Lux handles second base, that would allow Muncy to act as the club’s regular first baseman until Freeman is ready to return to the lineup.

The 33-year-old Muncy has been out of action since mid-May due to an oblique issue but was off to a strong start — a .223/.323/.475 slash line across 40 games that’s good for a wRC+ of 117, matching his 2023 performance. Edman, meanwhile, has not played in the majors this year due to a lengthy rehab from offseason wrist surgery, but the Dodgers still acquired him from from the Cardinals in a three-way trade with the White Sox prior to the deadline last month. Edman sports a lengthy track record as a roughly league average bat with excellent defense at multiple positions that will hopefully make him an asset to the Dodgers once healthy.

NL West Notes: Snell, Musgrove, Muncy, Blackmon

By Mark Polishuk | August 3, 2024 at 12:13pm CDT

Blake Snell made some more baseball history last night when the two-time Cy Young Award winner threw a no-hitter against the Reds. The 18th no-hit game in the history of the New York/San Francisco Giants franchise, Snell’s gem saw him rack up 11 strikeouts against three walks on 114 pitches. It was also the first time Snell had ever thrown eight full innings in any of his 202 career starts, let alone a complete game.

The no-no continues what has now become one of the better pitching stretches of all time. Snell has an 0.55 ERA over his last five starts (33 IP), in what has been an incredible turn-around after an injury-plagued first half of the season. Signing with the Giants only in the midpoint of March, the lack of a proper Spring Training resulted in Snell posting a 9.51 ERA in his first 23 2/3 innings and six starts, as well a pair of trips to the injured list. It was after his latest return from the IL that Snell began his amazing five-start run, capped off with his legendary game yesterday in Cincinnati. While the Giants received plenty of trade interest in Snell prior to last Tuesday’s deadline, keeping an in-form ace will go a long way towards helping San Francisco’s chances at the playoffs.

Dodgers Transfer Max Muncy To 60-Day Injured List

By Anthony Franco | June 21, 2024 at 8:24pm CDT

The Dodgers transferred third baseman Max Muncy to the 60-day injured list this evening. The move opened a spot on the 40-man roster for righty Kyle Hurt, who was reinstated from his own stint on the 60-day IL and optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Muncy has been out since May 17 with an oblique strain. While the team initially expressed hope that he’d back in relatively short order, that’s not how things played out. Muncy is now officially out of action through the All-Star Break. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement when the season’s second half gets underway. Muncy has been taking ground-balls but has yet to resume swinging a bat.

Enrique Hernández has gotten the majority of the third base work in Muncy’s absence. He’s hitting .191/.276/.324 in 76 plate appearances over that stretch. The Dodgers have given a few third base reps to Cavan Biggio, Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor as well. Neither Biggio nor Taylor has hit well this season. Rojas is having a nice year but had to move to shortstop after the Mookie Betts injury.

Muncy was out to his typically solid start before the injury. He’d driven nine home runs with a .223/.323/.475 slash in 167 trips to the plate. The Dodgers’ fill-in options at third base are a clear downgrade, though there’s no indication they’re especially alarmed. L.A. has built a wide enough lead in the NL West to withstand injuries to Betts, Muncy and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, among others. GM Brandon Gomes said earlier in the week that the team wasn’t changing its deadline approach to compensate for losing Yamamoto and Betts. The same is presumably true of Muncy, assuming the Dodgers expect him back sometime in July.

Mookie Betts Suffers Fractured Bone In Left Hand After HBP

By Mark Polishuk | June 16, 2024 at 11:08pm CDT

Mookie Betts was hit on the left hand by a Dan Altavilla fastball today, causing Betts to drop to the ground in immediate pain and then leave the field. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times) after the game that Betts has a fractured bone in the hand and will be out of action “for some time,” though the former AL MVP won’t require surgery.

More will be known about Betts’ status and a potential recovery timeline in the coming days, but this is undoubtedly a huge blow for the Dodgers. As with any wrist- or hand-related injury, there is plenty of potential for lingering after-effects even after a player is officially cleared for action, given how any changes to grip or hand positioning on a bat can alter a swing. The first order of business for Betts and the Dodgers is just to manage this injury and the recovery as well as possible, though the concern won’t go away until Betts is both back on the field and displaying his usual superstar form at the plate.

Heading into today’s game, Betts was hitting .307/.407/.493 with 10 homers over a league-leading 327 plate appearances, adding 16 doubles and nine stolen bases (in 10 attempts) to those impressive numbers. In addition to that typically excellent offensive production, Betts has also been playing a key defensive role for the Dodgers as their everyday shortstop, a role Betts adopted during Spring Training after Gavin Lux was moved off the position. While defensive metrics have been mixed at best on Betts’ glovework, simply the fact that Betts was willing to change positions and at least passably handled the shortstop role just added to his importance to the L.A. roster.

The Dodgers were still expected to pursue middle infield help at the deadline, both because Lux hasn’t hit much, and to potentially hasten Betts’ move back to second base if a new everyday shortstop was obtained. Today’s developments probably make it even likelier that Los Angeles will look to add a shortstop regardless of how much time Betts misses, though it remains to be seen whether or not the Dodgers now look to make an acquisition sooner rather than later. The team will first want to access Betts’ health, of course, and teams with available infield depth might suddenly raise their asking prices if they perceive the Dodgers are in any way desperate.

In the short term, Roberts said that Miguel Vargas will be called back up from Triple-A to rejoin the infield mix. Miguel Rojas will get the bulk of regular shortstop duty, with Enrique Hernandez also factoring in at both shortstop and third base. Max Muncy is still sidelined with a lingering oblique injury and Roberts said today that Muncy’s recovery has been “even slower than expected,” so it is anyone’s guess as to when the third baseman might be able to help a suddenly-depleted Dodgers infield. Cavan Biggio was recently acquired from the Blue Jays to add to the depth mix, so Betts’ absence will open up more playing time for Biggio at second or third base.

Rojas has long been an excellent defender, and he has been surprisingly productive at the dish with a .278/.328/.444 slash line over 116 PA this season. His 122 wRC+ would be the second-best mark of his 11-year MLB career, though it is obviously a reach to expect Rojas to keep this up for a lengthy amount of time, given that he isn’t making much hard contact at the plate.

Even though the Dodgers lineup is full of big bats, losing Betts also underlines the club’s somewhat top-heavy nature. Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Teoscar Hernandez have all been raking and Muncy was hitting well pre-injury, but Lux, Enrique Hernandez, and Chris Taylor have all been ice cold, while James Outman was struggling so much that Los Angeles optioned the outfielder to Triple-A.

With a 44-29 record, the Dodgers have arguably built up enough of a cushion to withstand losing Betts for a bit of time, as there doesn’t appear to be any danger that Los Angeles would suddenly fall out of the playoff race. However, it can’t be ignored that the Dodgers are now without Betts, Muncy, and more than an entire rotation’s worth of starting pitchers, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Michael Grove joining the long list of injured hurlers earlier today. The Dodgers have been able to both withstand and even thrive despite heavy injuries in past seasons, yet if this missing personnel is enough to drop the Dodgers out of a first-round postseason bye, it will give the team an even more difficult path to a World Series title.

Max Muncy Shut Down Following Setback

By Steve Adams | June 3, 2024 at 5:20pm CDT

Dodgers slugger Max Muncy has been out since mid-May due to an oblique strain but doesn’t sound closer to returning than he was at the time of his original placement on the injured list. Muncy told the Dodgers beat yesterday that he recently experienced a setback in his rehab when he felt pain in his ribcage while swinging a bat (X link via Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times). He’s currently shut down from all baseball activity, and there’s no timetable for his return.

Muncy, 33, got out to a typical start in 2024, hitting for a low average that was largely offset by a glut of walks and plenty of extra-base hits. He’s batting .223/.323/.475 with nine homers and eight doubles through 167 trips to the plate this season — about 24% better than league-average production, by measure of wRC+. The slugger’s 12.6% walk rate is four percentage points north of average but nevertheless represents a career-low mark (excepting his 2015 season, when he received only 112 plate appearances in his initial call to the big leagues). Muncy’s 29.9% strikeout rate, meanwhile, is the highest of his career.

In Muncy’s absence, utilityman Enrique Hernandez has seen the bulk of the workload at third base. The offensive struggles that plagued Hernandez early in the season haven’t yet subsided, however. He’s hitting .171/.209/.244 since Muncy landed on the 10-day IL and just .198/.255/.278 on the season overall. Veterans Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor have both seen fleeting time at the hot corner as well. The Dodgers have had plenty of struggles from the bottom-third of their lineup throughout the season even without Muncy’s injury, and dedicating regular time to Hernandez in lieu of Muncy hasn’t helped matters.

Poor production from the lower portion of the lineup is a flaw of this Dodgers club but hasn’t prevented the team from building a comfortable lead in the National League West. Buoyed by massive offensive performances from the star-studded top of the lineup featuring Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez, the Dodgers hold a lead of 6.5 games over the second-place Padres, tying them with the Phillies for the second-largest division lead in all of Major League Baseball. (The Brewers’ seven-game lead in the NL Central is currently the largest division lead in MLB.)

Dodgers Place Max Muncy On Injured List, Option James Outman

By Anthony Franco and Darragh McDonald | May 17, 2024 at 5:54pm CDT

The Dodgers made a series of roster moves today, activating outfielder Jason Heyward from the injured list while recalling outfielder Miguel Vargas and right-hander Ricky Vanasco. To open roster spots for that group, they placed third baseman Max Muncy on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain and optioned outfielder James Outman and left-hander Nick Ramirez.

Prior to the official announcement, Francys Romero reported on X that Vargas would be called up. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic was among those to relay on X that Outman no longer had a locker with the club.

While oblique strains typically lead to absences of multiple weeks, the Dodgers don’t seem especially concerned. Manager Dave Roberts told the team’s beat (including Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic) that it’s a mild strain. The club is hopeful he’ll only require a minimal stint. Muncy is out to his typical start to the season: drawing plenty of walks and hitting for power to compensate for a low batting average. Through 167 plate appearances, he has a .223/.323/.475 line with nine homers.

Muncy has gotten the start at third base for 36 of L.A.’s 46 games. Enrique Hernández is in the lineup tonight against Cincinnati right-hander Frankie Montas. Roberts told reporters that Hernández and Miguel Rojas will take the third base work while Muncy is out.

Heyward draws back into the lineup after missing six weeks with a back issue. The veteran should be in the lineup in right field against right-handed pitching. That bumps rookie Andy Pages from right field to center field, while Teoscar Hernández will be in one of the corners on an everyday basis. The Dodgers shield Heyward from left-handed pitching. Roberts said one of Vargas or Chris Taylor will be in left field against southpaws, pushing Hernández to right and Heyward to the bench.

The outfield shuffling sends Outman to the minors for the first time since 2022. The 27-year-old finished third in NL Rookie of the Year balloting last season, hitting 23 homers with a .248/.353/.437 slash line. His offensive production has plummeted this season. Outman has been one of the least productive hitters in MLB, turning in a .147/.250/.266 mark. He has fanned in more than 32% of his plate appearances and hasn’t made the same level of power impact he did last season.

Outman will try to get on track at Triple-A Oklahoma City to put himself back on the radar for an MLB call. He’ll need to do so quickly to stay on pace to reach free agency after the 2028 season. Outman entered the season with one year and six days of MLB service. A service year is tallied at 172 days, so he needs to spend at least 166 days on the MLB roster to surpass the two-year threshold in 2024. If he spends more than a couple weeks in Triple-A, he’ll fall short of that mark.

Dodgers Notes: Paxton, Muncy, Cartaya, Frasso

By Mark Polishuk | March 3, 2024 at 1:59pm CDT

James Paxton threw 96 innings with the Red Sox last season, marking his return to somewhat regular action after injuries limited him to 21 2/3 big league frames in 2020-21 and no innings at all in 2022. Paxton’s comeback year was then basically two seasons in one — the excellent 2.76 ERA he posted over his first 56 innings, followed by an ugly 6.98 ERA in his final 40 innings of work.

As Paxton tells Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, “I felt like I kind of reached a point where my body was just a little burned out. I didn’t have much left in the tank.” Paxton kept pushing since the Red Sox were still on the fringes of the playoff race, and struggled in particular once he was moved to a regular turn of four days’ rest between starts.

“Early in the season, I had a lot of extra rest, and then we went to a shorter leash. Coming off a surgery and that much time off, I wasn’t conditioned for that,” Paxton said. “If you start off going [every five days] your body gets accustomed to that, whereas if you go six all the time, that’s what your body gets accustomed to. We’re creatures of habit.”

Despite the rough finish to his season, Paxton still landed $7MM from the Dodgers on a one-year free agent contract, even if that $7MM total dropped from an initial $11MM guarantee due to some concerns the team had about his overall health. The 35-year-old lefty is hopeful that getting some innings under his belt last season will better help him manage the length of the 2024 campaign, plus L.A. will deploy “somewhat of a six-man rotation,” according to assistant pitching coach Connor McGuinness. The idea is to keep all of the Dodgers’ hurlers fresh and healthy, plus some other reinforcements in Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May could join the pitching mix after the middle of the season.

Whereas Paxton’s 2023 season was basically divided in two, Max Muncy’s year was a bit more of a roller-coaster before he finished a pretty typical year of production. The infielder hit .212/.333/.475 over 579 plate appearances while matching his career high of 36 home runs, translating to a 118 wRC+. Los Angeles was impressed enough to sign Muncy to a new contract extension, guaranteeing him $24MM through 2025 while also tacking a $10MM club option on his services for 2026.

Muncy’s recipe of homers, walks, low averages, and high strikeouts is pretty set, but as he enters his age-33 season, Muncy feels he has more to offer as a defensive player. He told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) that his offseason regiment included cutting 15 pounds and focusing more on flexibility training.

“It was just making sure my feet move a little bit more, and getting the knees healthy. Last year, I had a little trouble with just not staying down on the ball,” Muncy said. “I was coming up out of my fielding stance and everything. And when you’re doing that, it’s hard to read the hops and I kept putting myself in bad positions last year with bad hops….So the focus was just making sure that my feet stay moving. Just allowing myself to read the ball and make moves on it.”

There’s basically nowhere to go but up for Muncy defensively, as the public defensive metrics (-7 Outs Above Average, -3 Defensive Runs Saved, -14.8 UZR/150) were unanimously unimpressed with his third base glovework in 2023. The move to more or less a full-time third base role has come as the Dodgers have brought superstar talent into Muncy’s other positions — Shohei Ohtani is now locked in at DH, Freddie Freeman at first base, and Mookie Betts is now moving into everyday second base duty.

“I’ve been very open about how I want to stay here for the rest of my career….So if I want to play here, I need to make sure I’m in the field, and the best way to do that is just put myself in a good spot,” Muncy said.

In other Dodgers news, GM Brandon Gomes told Plunkett and other reporters that catching prospect Diego Cartaya has been dealing with a back problem but the “full expectation” is that Cartaya will be set for the start of the Double-A season. Back problems have bothered Cartaya in the past, and the last thing the catcher needs is an injury setback as he looks to bounce back from a difficult season. A top-20 prospect in the sport heading into the 2023 campaign, Cartaya hit only .189/.278/.379 over 403 PA at Double-A last season, dropping his stock as a potential catcher of the future.

Nick Frasso is another top-100 prospect looking at a lost year, as he was already expected to miss the 2024 season after undergoing shoulder surgery back in November. Gomes added that Frasso also had a “clean-up” surgery on his right hip labrum, though it doesn’t appear as though this second procedure will impact the right-hander’s timeline. If all goes well, Gomes thinks Frasso will be able to pitch in the Arizona Fall League.

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