Max Muncy Shares Spring Training Outlook After Delayed Start

Max Muncy became the latest veteran to play in his first Spring Training game of the year as the Los Angeles Dodgers take a methodical approach to preparing for the 2026 season.

"For me, it was kind of just when we felt I was ready for games, we were going to get in there. We'll just build off that," Muncy explained of not being in the lineup until the Dodgers' sixth Cactus League game.

Muncy went 1-for-3 and played five innings at third base.

"Try to get some back-to-backs, couple day-nights in there, and towards the end start playing three in a row to get the soreness out of the body for the season," he said of the plan ahead.

"The biggest thing is trying to build up endurance for the season. You can train all offseason, but the first day you put on cleats and go out there, it's stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, just a normal baseball game, it kind of kills the body a little bit.

"So really, spring is about building up baseball endurance. Going out there every inning, getting at-bats. Because when you're training, you're just swinging over and over again. You're not taking a break in between, so you're trying to build up that endurance."

Thursday's game against the Chicago White Sox also saw Kyle Tucker and Freddie Freeman in the Dodgers lineup. They again hit second and fourth, respectively, which manager Dave Roberts said is the expected order for the regular season.

Mookie Betts is the last of the Dodgers' regulars who has not yet appeared in a Cactus League game.

Max Muncy embracing change in Spring Training

That Muncy and some other Dodgers would approach Spring Training differently was first raised during the offseason. He noted with the roster featuring several veterans, that rest after consecutive long years would be paramount to remaining healthy in 2026.

"It's the first normal spring we've had in several years. We don't have to make a cross-world trip this spring, so for a lot of us, the back-to-back World Series, tried to prioritize rest in the offseason," he said.

"That was a conversation that was had with multiple people, and it was kind of just, 'Get your body as much rest as possible. We'll start ramping things up later than normal.' "Because of that you're just not ready for the first week of (Spring Training) games, but we're still scheduled to get more than 50 at-bats, which is definitely plenty to get ready for a season."