Muncy, Dodgers know glove will keep them together

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Max Muncy entered this Spring Training on a mission -- a mission that resumed Saturday afternoon.

After having his camp briefly, rudely interrupted by a pitch that hit him on the left hand earlier in the week, Muncy returned to the lineup and immediately ripped a base hit off Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga in the Dodgers’ 8-5 split-squad win at Camelback Ranch. (Los Angeles' other squad beat the Brewers, 11-3, in Phoenix.)

Muncy was also hit by a pitch -- again -- when a Hayden Wesneski fastball got him in the back in his second plate appearance.

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As long as this unusual spate of HBPs doesn’t keep up, Muncy should be free to continue his mission to improve defensively. The Dodgers don’t necessarily need him to be an MVP candidate, but did they maintain their investment in him as the everyday third baseman despite some fielding frustrations last year.

“There were a lot of balls where I put myself in a bad position,” Muncy said. “I know that that's not the defender that I am.”

So Muncy dedicated himself this offseason to becoming the defender he knows he can be.

After ranking 33rd among 36 qualified third basemen in outs above average with a minus-8 mark in 2023, he dropped about 15 pounds to ease the pressure on the knees that gave him problems last year. He also trained with a smaller glove in order to force himself to increase his focus on getting the glove down to the ground.

“Defensively, Max looks more confident,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that last year, starting off slow kind of messed with him a little bit, and he became more tentative.”

Why was it so important to Muncy to right himself in the field?

“I’ve been very open about how I want to stay here for the rest of my career,” he said. “And let’s be real: There’s not really a DH spot [with the Dodgers] anymore.”

Not with Shohei Ohtani around.

Let the record show that while the Dodgers’ wild winter might have been highlighted by Ohtani’s arrival, it actually began with Muncy’s two-year, $24 million extension.

“I like to say,” Muncy said with a smile, “me taking a nice little deal gave [president of baseball operations] Andrew Friedman a lot of wiggle room to toss out a billion dollars.”

What the Muncy deal did do is demonstrate how important his booming bat, which tied a career-best with 36 homers and set a career-best with 105 RBIs despite a .212 batting average last season, remains to the Dodgers.

But given Muncy’s defensive struggles and shortstop Gavin Lux’s return from major knee surgery that cost him all of 2023, the Dodgers are taking on some risk on the left-hand side of their infield.

That makes Muncy’s dedication to his defense notable. He has said that an adjustment to the hops caused by a new field installed at Dodger Stadium last year caused some early errors that snowballed.

“This sport’s really hard,” he said. “When things get into your head, it’s really hard to play.”

Muncy’s head is right where it needs to be right now. On an especially windy day at Camelback, he wasn’t able to corral a couple of popups deep in foul territory Saturday. But overall, he’s feeling good about the way his feet are moving. He’s lighter, more mobile, and his knees aren’t barking the way they once did.

At the plate, Muncy’s single off Imanaga was his third hit (including a homer) of the spring off lefties, against whom he had a subpar .642 OPS last season. Opposing teams are sure to arrange their lefties to face the Dodgers’ lefty-heavy lineup, so this early success is a good sign.

Should Muncy regress in any of these areas, he knows his coaches and teammates will keep him honest and stay on him to keep working.

“It’s a beautiful thing about this team,” he said. “Everyone cares about everybody.”

Muncy wants to spend the rest of his baseball life with this team. After all, it’s with the Dodgers that he rediscovered his baseball joy after things didn’t work out for him with the Oakland A’s.

But Muncy knows the deal.

“If I want to stay here,” he said, “I’ve got to make sure I'm able to play defense.”

This spring, he’s not letting anything -- even these hit by pitches -- get in the way of that goal.