Max Muncy: Dodgers Need To Keep Their Focus Internally

The MLB season is a marathon, not a race. But even in that context, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2025 season has been underwhelming and frustrating at times, to say the least.

The Dodgers have played below .500 since July 1, with plenty of ugly losses mixed in along the way. For a team coming off a World Series title and with a long history of success and significant offseason additions, the result up to this point has been inexplicable.

Injuries and underperforming players are the two main culprits for the Dodgers’ struggles. The organization has earned the benefit of the doubt that everything will eventually work out, but even that has worn thin at times this season.

Max Muncy has twice been the victim of the injury bug in 2025, but he found it difficult to pinpoint the reason why the Dodgers recently were mired in a downward trend.

“I don’t know. It’s one of those things where when you’re not with the team, you don’t know what’s going on inside the clubhouse,” he said. “You try to talk to guys, but you never really know unless you’re there.

“So for me, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. It’s definitely one of those stretches that’s gone on for a while.”

In his opinion, the way for the Dodgers to get back to playing their brand of baseball is to flush the past two month and reset their focus on themselves.

“Time is running out to come out of it, so again, that’s where to me, I think the biggest thing for us is try to get the focus back on what’s going on today,” Muncy said.

“What happened this last week doesn’t matter, what happened two months ago doesn’t matter. What matters is what are we going to do today? The only team we need to be worrying about is ourselves. What can we do to get our guys out there and put our best foot forward, put the best plan forward to win this game tonight.”

It is a challenging proposition, as the Dodgers are in a position they often don’t find themselves in. They are currently looking up at two teams in the National League standings, with another one nipping at their heels in their own division.

But it is a message that Muncy has been preaching this message since August following their loss against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 11.

While the extent of the Dodgers’ regular season struggles in 2025 is a pretty foreign concept based on the past 10 years or so, Muncy has seen the team dig themselves out of worse holes during manager Dave Roberts’ tenure.

“Every year has its own,” Muncy said of low points in a season. “My first year here in ’18, when I first got called up, we were five or 10 games under .500. You’ve just got to find a way to weather it. It’s a long season.

“I know time is running out at this point, but there’s still a lot of games left. That’s where to me, we have to get the focus back on ourselves.

“Take any outside noise away, it’s what do we need to do for these guys in the clubhouse to help us win.

Max Muncy hit by pitch

Only days into his return, Muncy endured yet another injury scare on Friday as he was hit by a pitch in his right forearm. Muncy initially remained in the game before eventually being removed because of some stiffness.

Roberts said that was largely precautionary and Muncy underwent an X-ray that came back negative.