This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat publication. To learn the total publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.
Many feared the worst when Max Muncy went down after a scary collision at third base earlier this month. Not solely did the Dodgers get the best-case situation on the harm entrance — it was a left knee bone bruise, slightly than a season-ender — however Muncy is poised to return before that they had hoped.
Rather less than three weeks after occurring the 10-day injured checklist, Muncy is working, swinging and taking grounders at third base, all of the whereas sporting an enormous sleeve over the injured knee. He initially thought he could be out for about six weeks, however he is trending towards a faster return.
“I feel a pair weeks, he ought to be again,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned Sunday, “one thing like that, with a little bit fudge room on the back and front finish of that. However taking grounders, taking swings, gonna take lives, go on rehab subsequent week, subsequent weekend … early the next week, one thing like that. So it is coming. It is coming so much faster than we had hoped or we anticipated.”
The progress Muncy has made will not be one thing that he takes frivolously.
“I feel all of us had been form of considering I would not get to the purpose that I am at now for an additional week or two, and so issues have been going nicely. We have been very fortunate,” Muncy mentioned. “Once more, simply the whole harm itself was extraordinarily fortunate, contemplating.
“I feel it is simply form of counting our blessings and never attempting to be too silly with some stuff,” he added with an enormous chuckle.
Whereas the Dodgers do not need to rush Muncy again earlier than he is prepared, his return couldn’t come quickly sufficient for a crew that is been going by a skid in his absence.
Since July 3, the day Muncy went on the IL, the Dodgers have gone 4-10. They’re hitting .204 with a .623 OPS as a crew in that span, with all however a handful of hitters scuffling.
Through the first month of the season, few would have foreseen that Muncy’s absence at this juncture would create a gaping gap in the midst of the lineup. The veteran third baseman was mired in a hunch that included the longest homerless stretch of his profession.
As Muncy trudged by the start of the season, he labored tirelessly behind the scenes to get again to being the hitter he knew he might be. His luck started to activate April 30, when he went deep for the primary time this season — and started sporting prescription glasses.
From then on, he slashed .287/.414/.575 with 13 homers and 51 RBIs.
Bone bruises could be difficult, so even after Muncy is wholesome sufficient to return, there’s an opportunity that he may nonetheless really feel the lingering results of the harm for a while. Dodgers catcher Will Smith sustained a bone bruise in his ankle in June 2024 that he may nonetheless really feel in Spring Coaching ’25, although he is previous any lingering discomfort now.
In the intervening time, Muncy mentioned his knee “feels nice” whereas he is lively.
However there are different elements of the harm that he is nonetheless working to get previous.
“You are feeling it extra mentally than possibly bodily, and that is a troublesome factor to recover from,” Muncy mentioned. “Mentally, realizing how shut you had been to presumably lacking a whole yr. So getting over that hurdle is one other field you are attempting to examine, be sure to’re not compensating.
“Are you getting down appropriately on floor balls? Are you within the batter’s field appropriately? Are you utilizing your legs correctly? You are not compensating? In order that’s all issues that we’re monitoring and attempting to make it possible for I am doing the suitable means.”
