Max Muncy Injury Update
Max Muncy is dealing with yet another injury, this time some right side soreness that had him scratched at the last minute from the Dodgers’ lineup against the Angels. Just when Dodger fans were getting ready for a nice easy scoreboard-watching night, boom—out goes Muncy, in comes that familiar mix of anxiety and hope that comes with our favorite infielder getting banged up again.
A little honesty—seeing Muncy scratched so close to game time brought back that “oh no, not again” feeling. According to Dave Roberts and most beat writers, this isn’t the same as last year’s more serious setback. They’re calling him day-to-day for now, and apparently, he flagged the issue right away, which is a small relief.
He felt the issue in the cages, just getting ready like always. There’s something about those weird, in-between injuries—when a player feels “off” rather than clearly “hurt”—that always makes me wonder about the mental toll. Muncy’s no rookie to this game, and he knows his body. That said, Roberts claims this isn’t muscular, so we can exhale—at least for now. As of the latest, he’s supposed to get some tests, but the best-case hope is that, with the team’s off day on Thursday, he’ll be healed up enough to get back in the mix for the weekend Padres series.
What Happened to Him?
Muncy felt soreness in his right side while hitting in the cage, and the Dodgers decided to play it safe and yank him before the game. Nothing dramatic, no “cart him off” moments—just every fan’s least favorite kind of update: “precaution.” Honestly, after the run of injuries in LA, this sort of cautiousness almost feels like management playing defense, not offense. And after last year’s chaos? You can’t blame them.
In past years, the Dodgers seemed to push through things, sometimes to disastrous results (shoutout to the ghosts of 2022 pitching injuries). But Muncy said himself this “doesn’t feel muscular” and, maybe more importantly, “not like last year”. The thinking is, if you catch these weird little pains early, they won’t turn into something that requires ten weeks of therapy, embarrassing clubhouse karaoke, and our star third baseman learning to knit (just a guess, but I hope Muncy’s got some hobbies lined up just in case).
Is Max Muncy Playing Tonight?
Nope, he’s not playing tonight—and he didn’t last night either. The last-minute scratch meant a shuffling of the lineup, with rookie Alex Freeland taking over at third and Dodgers fans everywhere refreshing their notifications with a mix of dread and blind optimism.
Here’s hoping Muncy is back there soon, doing what he does best (grinding out at-bats, launching moonshots, and occasionally looking like he’s just woken up from a nap between pitches). The team needs him, even if we’re all just a little relieved this doesn’t sound like last summer’s multi-month absence. Fingers crossed, wood knocked, lucky hats on standby.
Dodger baseball—never boring, always stressful, sometimes just downright weird.
