This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen's Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Many feared the worst when Max Muncy went down after a scary collision at third base earlier this month. Not only did the Dodgers get the best-case scenario on the injury front -- it was a left knee bone bruise, rather than a season-ender -- but Muncy is poised to return sooner than they had hoped.
A little less than three weeks after going on the 10-day injured list, Muncy is running, swinging and taking grounders at third base, all the while wearing a big sleeve over the injured knee. He initially thought he would be out for about six weeks, but he's trending toward a quicker return.
"I think a couple weeks, he should be back," manager Dave Roberts said Sunday, "something like that, with a little fudge room on the front and back end of that. But taking grounders, taking swings, gonna take lives, go on rehab next week, next weekend … early the following week, something like that. So it's coming. It's coming a lot quicker than we had hoped or we expected."
The progress Muncy has made is not something that he takes lightly.
"I think all of us were kind of thinking I wouldn't get to the point that I'm at now for another week or two, and so things have been going well. We've been very lucky," Muncy said. "Again, just the entire injury itself was extremely lucky, considering.
"I think it's just kind of counting our blessings and not trying to be too stupid with some stuff," he added with a big laugh.
While the Dodgers don't want to rush Muncy back before he's ready, his return could not come soon enough for a team that's been going through a skid in his absence.
Since July 3, the day Muncy went on the IL, the Dodgers have gone 4-10. They are hitting .204 with a .623 OPS as a team in that span, with all but a handful of hitters scuffling.
During the first month of the season, few would have foreseen that Muncy's absence at this juncture would create a gaping hole in the middle of the lineup. The veteran third baseman was mired in a slump that included the longest homerless stretch of his career.
As Muncy trudged through the beginning of the season, he worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get back to being the hitter he knew he could be. His luck began to turn on April 30, when he went deep for the first time this season -- and began wearing prescription glasses.
From then on, he slashed .287/.414/.575 with 13 homers and 51 RBIs.
Bone bruises can be tricky, so even after Muncy is healthy enough to return, there's a chance that he could still feel the lingering effects of the injury for some time. Dodgers catcher Will Smith sustained a bone bruise in his ankle in June 2024 that he could still feel in Spring Training '25, though he's past any lingering discomfort now.
For the time being, Muncy said his knee "feels great" while he's active.
But there are other aspects of the injury that he's still working to get past.
"You feel it more mentally than maybe physically, and that's a tough thing to get over," Muncy said. "Mentally, knowing how close you were to possibly missing an entire year. So getting over that hurdle is another box you're trying to check, make sure you're not compensating.
"Are you getting down correctly on ground balls? Are you in the batter's box correctly? Are you using your legs properly? You're not compensating? So that's all things that we're monitoring and trying to make sure that I'm doing the right way."