Unheralded LCS Players: Dodgers’ 3B Max Muncy

Entering this phase of the playoffs, much of the baseball universe celebrated the feel-good stories of three of the four surviving clubs, the Blue Jays, Mariners and Brewers, two of whom have never won a World Series, and the other not copping one since 1993. Playing the foil, the black hat if you will, to that group are the mighty Dodgers, the defending champions who basically get whatever players they want, no matter the price.

The Dodgers did not have a great regular season, by their standards, but certainly seem to be peaking at the right time. They have been led by some of their marquee stars, starting pitchers Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, as well their all-purpose unicorn, Shohei Ohtani. Their new closer is another high-priced luxury signing, Roki Sasaki. There are multiple major league franchises who don’t have team payrolls higher than the salaries of just those four players combined.

But the Dodgers are much, much more than their superstars. One can argue that the club’s financial might isn’t just about those guys – it’s about their ability to fill in the cracks of their club with above average major league players who otherwise might be the primary offseason target of clubs with lesser means. A case in point is Dodgers’ 3B Max Muncy, currently playing out the last year of a two-year, $24 million contract. That deal has more than paid for itself, and it’s not done just yet – the club holds a $10 million option for 2026 that will certainly be picked up.

Muncy’s run in L.A. deserves quite a bit more attention than it’s received. He joined the organization a month into the 2017 season after being released by Oakland. For a minute there, it actually appeared his career might be over before it really got started. Since stepping in as their primary first baseman in 2018 (he then became a 2B and finally, a 3B), he’s hit .232-.358-.485 with 209 homers. Oh, and get this – in a franchise as storied as this one, no Dodger has ever hit more postseason homers. His solo shot in Game 2 was his 14th, nudging him ahead of Justin Turner and Corey Seager. Sure, I know that there are way more playoff rounds today compared to days gone by (Duke Snider, for instance, had 11 World Series homers), but that’s still a pretty big deal.

Muncy is a pretty one-dimensional player, but power (with plate discipline sprinkled on top) is an important dimension. His batting average has always been under pressure on several fronts – his K rate has typically been high, as has his pop up rate. He has an uppercut swing and a dead pull approach, and as such has never hit his line drives or grounders particularly hard relative to the league. Plus, after hitting lefties reasonably well for much of his career, that ability has increasingly slipped away from him the last couple of seasons.

But like yesterday’s subject, the Mariners’ Jorge Polanco (though not to as great an extent), Muncy has arrested and in some case reversed some of the drivers of potential decline in his skill set, in his case in his age-34 season. He cut his K rate significantly from 26.3% in 2024 to 21.4% in 2025, while his BB rate improved to a career best 16.5%. When your batting average is under pressure, you need a strong K/BB profile as the foundation of your offensive game. While his fly ball rate is as high as ever, he’s cut his pop up rate sharply, to 2.5% in 2025. Every little bit helps.

Each and every year that Muncy has been a regular in Los Angeles, his average fly ball exit speed (94.5 mph in 2025) has been over a full standard deviation higher than league average. His average liner exit speed has been in the league average range as often as not – his 2025 mark of 96.2 mph was the second best (behind 2021) of his career. His 84.1 mph average grounder exit speed, while still nothing special, marked only the second time he’s cracked the league average range, tying a career best set in 2024.

We haven’t even mentioned his defense yet. and while it too is nothing to write home about, it’s……fine? Reasonably close to league average. While his present is quite good, at his age, with his risky bat profile, the future is basically year to year. Guys like this hit until, well…..they don’t. Former teammate Joc Pederson is somewhat comparable, two years younger, and fell apart this season. If anything, Pederson’s bat profile was a little more well-rounded, though he had zero defensive value. Low doubles totals are a bit of a red flag to me, and Muncy hit only 10 of them this year. The Dodgers can afford to keep bringing him back until his inevitable sudden decline.

Muncy has gotten plenty of run thus far in the postseason, after returning from a July knee injury, as the Dodgers have faced a spate of righthanded pitching. With the Mariners their most likely next opponent if they are able to dispose of the pesky Brewers, this is likely to continue. The only reason the baseball populace isn’t swooning over Muncy right now is that his would-be Game 1 grand slam instead morphed into the game’s longest, and oddest, double play ever. Heck, this cat has hit 35 or more homers in a season four times, and deserves more of your attention.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyblengino/2025/10/16/unheralded-lcs-players-dodgers-3b-max-muncy/