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 Sunday that he recently experienced a setback in his rehab when he felt pain in his ribcage while swinging a bat 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.)
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