The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed back one of their key players in Friday’s series opener against the New York Mets as Max Muncy was activated off the 10-day injured list.
He returned just over two weeks after sustaining a fracture in his right wrist as a result of being hit by a pitch. Muncy was able to avoid a more serious injury like what Justin Turner and Chris Taylor both suffered when being hit on their respective wrists the last two years.
Muncy only needed a few days without or limited baseball activities before building up to taking batting practice and facing live pitching at Camelback Ranch.
While he is back in the lineup, Muncy revealed his wrist is not fully recovered an causes some trouble when he throws the ball but expects to continue playing through it, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“It still feels weird, but thankfully I don’t have to make many throws at first,” said Muncy. “It feels better than it did. It doesn’t feel completely normal, but probably won’t for a while.”
One of Muncy’s biggest strengths at the plate is his discipline and that clearly did not go away as he worked two walks in his first game back against the Mets. Though, he then went hitless with two strikeouts in Saturday’s loss.
Muncy has played multiple positions this season but with his injury, it would make more sense to play him at first base. Luckily, the emergence of rookie Gavin Lux at second base should allow the Dodgers to do that.
Muncy is expected to play first base against right-handed pitching and second against lefties for the remainder of the year.
The Dodgers have been hit by the injury bug a bit in recent weeks as not only was Muncy on the shelf, but also key players like Alex Verdugo and Rich Hill.
Muncy is perhaps the most important of that bunch though as he ranks second on the team with 33 home runs and 87 RBI on the year.
