Max Muncy’s 2025 season can be sliced into three individual pieces; a rocky beginning, a two month stretch where he was arguably the best left handed hitter in baseball, and an injury plagued second half to the season.

Muncy was coming off an injury riddled 2024 season that saw him miss 89 games due to an oblique injury, yet his batting average and weighted runs created plus both increased from the year before. Muncy had another stellar spring training, slashing .280/.513/.560 with two home runs and seven RBI in 14 games, but his regular season started out in horrible fashion.

Muncy began the regular season with just one hit in his first five games, and in the month of April, he was one of the worst hitters in the entire league. Over his first 28 games of the season from March 18 until April 29, Muncy posted a wRC+ of just 58, ranking 151st out of 168 qualified players while going on to slash just .180/.295/.236 with zero home runs.

Once Muncy finally connected his first home run against Miami Marlins starting pitcher Cal Quantrill on April 30, his season immediately turned around.

It wasn’t necessarily about his swing mechanics, which were off to begin the season, but his actual vision at the plate. In 2024, Kiké Hernández was diagnosed with astigmatism in one of his eyes, requiring him to wear corrective lenses on the field. Muncy was also diagnosed with astigmatism early in the season, and he finally looked like the Max Muncy of old once he began wearing corrective lenses, which he debuted at April’s end.

Once Muncy and the rest of the Dodgers ventured off on a road trip that began in Atlanta, he revived his season and started to hit like one of the very best hitters in all of baseball.

From April 30 until July 2, Muncy slashed .287/.414/.575 with 13 home runs and 51 RBI, walking 37 times and striking out 35 times over his next 53 games. His .414 on-base percentage ranked third best among all qualified hitters, trailing teammate Will Smith and the season’s AL MVP Aaron Judge, and his 171 wRC+ ranked seventh among all qualified hitters in that span.

Just as Muncy’s season was ascending him to All-Star caliber, it quickly came to a scary and abrupt halt. During the sixth inning on July 2 against the Chicago White Sox, Michael A. Taylor decided to steal third base, which he did unsuccessfully. During the attempt, Taylor’s helmet collided with Muncy’s left knee, and the third baseman dropped to the ground writing in pain, and from the on-sight, it appeared that Muncy’s 2025 season was in jeopardy.

Thankfully for the Dodgers, Muncy was diagnosed with a left bone bruise, but he was forced to miss the team’s next 26 games, not returning until Aug. 4, right in the middle of a tumultuous summer for the team. During Muncy’s absence, the Dodgers posted a 10-15 record, and their grip onto the National League lead further slipped with the San Diego Padres on their heels. Muncy played another eight games once he made his return to injury, slashing .348/.531/.870 with four home runs and nine RBI.

Just as quickly as he came back with a force, his reign of terror was once again placed on hold as he aggravated the same oblique that forced him to miss three months of the 2024 season. Muncy would miss the next 23 games before returning again from the injured list on Sept. 8. It was clear that his oblique was still a thorn in his side, as he finished the season slashing just .118/.268/.294 over his final 11 games of the regular season, and he would fare with similar struggles in the postseason.

Max Muncy did have his moments of glory in the postseason and especially in the World Series. His home run in Game 2 gave him 14 career postseason home runs, placing him at the top of the Dodgers all-time playoff home run list as he surpassed former teammates Corey Seager and Justin Turner. His home run in Game 7 against Trey Yesavage helped the Dodgers cut their deficit to one run, and of course, the ending to that game was as chaotic as a World Series game could be.

Outside of that, Muncy wasn’t as productive as he’d been in postseasons past. Despite a career postseason batting average of just .217 before the Wild Card series against the Cincinnati Reds, Muncy finished with a .214 batting average in the 2025 postseason. All of his home runs came with nobody on base, and his only other RBI of the postseason came in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers when he took Freddy Peralta deep.

While Muncy remained powerful at the plate, posting similar weighted runs created plus in both 2024 and 2025, his defense took a massive hit. His arm speed showed marginal signs of improvement, rising from an average of 84.1 to 84.2 miles per hour, yet his outs above average ranked in just the ninth percentile at -6, and his overall fielding run value dropped to -4, ranking in the 20th percentile.

Stats: .243/.376/.470, 19 HR, 67 RBI, 64 BB, 83 K, 137 wRC+, 3.6 rWAR, 2.9 fWAR, 100 G

Funny enough, Max Muncy had two games this year where he had two home runs and seven RBI. One of them came in an 18-2 blowout of the New York Yankees, and the other, the one where his performance made the difference, came against the Washington Nationals on June 22. Muncy’s first home run of the game was a go-ahead grand slam against left-hander Jose A. Ferrer, which also happened to be his 200th career home run, bringing the Dodgers from scoreless to up 4-3. Muncy then drilled a three-run home run in his next at-bat, blowing the game wide open as the Dodgers took an 11-3 lead, eventually winning by a final score of 13-7.

Muncy will make $10 million after the Dodgers exercised his club option for the 2026 season.