Muncy, not Betts

NOTE: I had a Dodger fan send me this today. He said that he likes his anonymity. He calls himself an “Anonymous, long-time reader and friend of LADT” and uses the moniker Bill Kreuger, who appeared in one game for the Dodgers in 1988. Here is what he wants to say:

I didn’t intend to write about Max Muncy, but I wanted to write about the Dodgers, and the subject found me. And I don’t intend this to be some long David Copperfield piece about how I became a Dodgers fan or a savage takedown of some stats-based argument making the rounds on the internet. Simply, I wanted to find a topic worthy of some [relatively] deep thought, and rather than focusing on our highly rated farm system, starting pitching depth, or Hall of Fame core, I chose Max Muncy, starting 3B for the two-time defending World Champion Dodgers.

When you try to write about everything, you end up writing about nothing. So the purpose of spotlighting just one thing is not to ignore the other things. Also, I’m leaving a lot out of this piece, so please feel free to fill in the gaps in the comments. There are limits to how far my research goes, often only as far as the end of my nose. I specialize in surface-level observations, those easily findable by anyone willing to look. And sorry for using so much On Base Percentage: I guess it’s my favorite stat. Any mistakes are 100% my own, and Mark had nothing to do with either requesting or approving of this submission. Enough of this–you get it by now.

Max Muncy, as one can easily find out by pulling up his B-Ref page on an open tab, was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 41^st round out of Keller HS in Texas. The year was 2009, and three years later, in 2012, he was again drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 5^th round out of Baylor University. He debuted on 4/25/15, going 1-4, and from 2015-2016, he appeared in 96 major league games. What’s interesting to me is the positions Muncy played during his Oakland days. In 2015, he appeared 23 times at 1B, 16 times at 3B, and once at DH. In 2016, his final year with the A’s, he played 21 games in the OF [17 RF/4 LF], 21 games at 2B, three games at DH, and once at 3B.

For whatever reasons, on January 3^rd, 2017, Muncy was DFA’d by the A’s, cleared waivers, and remained in the organization. But he was later released toward the end of Spring Training (April 3^rd, 2017). He signed with LA three weeks later and spent the entire 2017 season with AAA Oklahoma City. During that time, he appeared in 109 games, batting .309 with 12 HR and 44 RBI. (I did not look for the quotation, but I specifically remember something said by our organization along the lines of Muncy was to spend the entire year in the minors working on his game and not worrying about being called up.) Considering the A’s finished the 2017 season with a 75-87 record and in 5^th place in the AL West, it was fairly clear that whatever problem that team had, it wasn’t Max Muncy.

Nothing needs to be said about the Dodgers’ 2017 season except that the major league team was fully realized, having shaken off the disappointing 2016 finish of losing the NLCS in six games to the eventual champion Cubs–a series I thought they should’ve won—and finally fielding a team with stars or emerging stars at every position. While all this was going on, Muncy was working away in the minor leagues, ostensibly learning, unlearning, and relearning skills that would pay benefits the very next year, when he began his Dodger tenure in earnest.

From here, and with a fear of formatting, please enjoy a few highly selective data points from Max Muncy’s Dodger career: In 2018, his first year with the team, he finished 15^th in the MVP voting, nearly making the All-Star Game but competing in the Home Run Derby, losing to eventual winner Bryce Harper. In 2019, he again finished 15^th in MVP voting, and the thought that we had somehow added a suddenly elite player in the league was beginning to dawn. (The 2020 season happened, some have said—I’ll have to check the video.) And in 2021, he finished 10^th in MVP voting but did not play in the postseason due to injury.

Positionally, Muncy has moved around a bit as a Dodger. He generally began as a 1B, moved to 2B [largely because of David Freese playing 1B in 2021, which I can’t say I remember too well], then back to 1B before settling in on a permanent-for-now basis as the starting 3B.

Offensively, Muncy’s eight-year run with us has resulted in end-of-year HR totals of 35, 35, 12 [2020], 36, 21, 36, 15 [in 73 games], and 19. Interestingly, last year’s OBP of .376 was his second-best in a Dodger uniform to 2018’s .391.

Circling back to the 2020 season, in which the Dodgers finally bumped the now-grainy 1988 championship highlights to the back of the queue, Muncy had a quietly impactful postseason. He began somewhat slowly, going 0-5 [but with a .286 OBP] in the 2-0 Wild Card sweep of Milwaukee. But in the 3-0 sweep of San Diego in the Division Series, he sported an OBP of .467, while still not hitting a HR. In the electric NLCS, won 4-3 against the Braves, the real Max Muncy offensive profile started to coalesce, as he batted only .227, but his OBP was .452 (he also hit 2 HR). Finally, the World Series was his finest work, owning a BA of .318 while keeping his OBP a freakish .444 [thanks in part to 20BB/21K]. Only a supernova Corey Seager performance kept him from being the offensive hero. (Some of this stuff here might be debatable; I didn’t know how to fit in his 2018^th inning HR, and this thing is getting long and increasingly pointless as it goes—writing is hard!)

Quick question: Who is the epitome of the Dodgers’ recent [and ongoing] dynasty? Is it Kershaw, the pitcher I can’t describe because my words wouldn’t do him justice? Is it Ohtani, who is a perfect two-for-two on MVPs/Championships since he’s signed? How about Justin Turner? Remember him? Played here from 2014 to 2022 and seemed to personify the Dodgers ethos more than any other individual in the organization. What about Chris Taylor? No, okay. One of the first names that comes to mind—and Freddie Freeman belongs to baseball itself as much as to the Dodgers—is Mookie Betts. In fact, most people date the real beginnings of the Dodger Dynasty to the trade and signing of Betts, locking him up from 2020-2032.

But what about Max Muncy? His dates are 2018—2028, assuming his $10m club option for that final year is exercised. He’s one of the few true enforcers on the club (I always felt Yadier Molina was the real reason those STL teams were so dangerous), the ultimate team player, and willing to sign under-value contracts year after year. He’s also the owner of the “forgotten” HR [not to real fans], much like Mike Scioscia’s in 1988.

So then there you have it. You decide. I think I already have. Max Muncy is the most “core” member of the current Dodger Dynasty [unless I forgot someone!]. Others have come and gone and others have arrived more recently, but nobody better expresses the struggles and triumphs of this organization as it has gone from also-ran to alpha dog. It’s funny, because I wrote a pretty bad line but original line to begin paragraph two, and then, completely independent of writing that, came across a very similar line mere minutes later as I took a break from my meager hunting-and-pecking to finish a reading of a contemporary fiction book, The Candy House by Jennifer Egan:

“But knowing everything is like knowing nothing; without a story, it’s all information.”

 Thank you for reading,

— Bill Kreuger

Thank you, Bill!