Dodgers News: People Are Writing Off Max Muncy and Dave Roberts Loves It

Dave Roberts believes Max Muncy is playing with the best mindset for success.

For Max Muncy, 2022 was an absolute nightmare. He got off to a horrid start batting under .200 for the first four months of the season while battling the mental hurdles that followed a gruesome elbow injury to end the 2021 season. But a late-year adjustment helped the Dodger All-Star get back to form at the plate and sent him off into the offseason feeling a bit better about things to come.

Still, altogether, Muncy hit just .196 with a .713 OPS over 136 games in 2022. And, unless you're watching the team day in and day out, you're not going to know the full story of the difficult season. With that, Muncy isn't getting the same love from baseball pundits and analysts that he's got in the past. 

At least, that's how Dave Roberts sees it. 

Doc spoke about his third baseman with The Athletic last week. In his view, he believes the perceived lack of respect is a good thing for Muncy.

“He’s not blind to people, in his mind, writing him off for 2023. He’s a player that works better when he’s got a chip on his shoulder. So I do think for this year, he feels as though he’s the forgotten man. That’s a good thing for the Dodgers.”

Muncy put in a lot of work this offseason. He was also part of a group of Dodgers that traveled to the Driveline training facility during the winter where he worked on regaining some of the strength lost during the offseason after that elbow injury.

As Max told DodgersNation.com in January, when you look at his bad seasons with LA, usually there was some sort of schedule irregularity. In 2020 (when he hit .192) the pandemic wiped out 102 games of the season and pushed the start back to July. The MLB lockout affected the start of spring training in 2022, and that offseason he was unable to communicate with the team while he was recovering from a UCL tear in his left elbow. 

Now, he's in a good spot body and mind, according to Roberts.

“This is as good as I’ve seen Max, body and mind, since he first came over here. Really, it is. I think a lot of that is because he’s healthy.

During spring training, Muncy echoed that sentiment to DodgersNation.com.

“My body feels as good as it’s felt coming into spring in a long time. I feel strong. I feel healthy. My swing feels good. My path feels good. It’s just one of those things where, these early games in spring, you gotta get your rhythm back. It’s just exciting to be back out here.”

Every year Max has been a Dodger and it's a full, normal season from start to finish, he's been one of the top sluggers in baseball. In 2018 he hit 35 home runs and posted a .973 OPS. In 2019 he hit 35 homers again with a .889 OPS. And in 2021, he hit a career-high 36 dingers with a .895 OPS.

He was not happy with how last season went and that chip is firmly on his shoulder heading into the new campaign. The field is set for Muncy to return to form in 2023.