Max Muncy knew he had gotten fortunate, after his ugly-looking knee damage earlier this month proved to be nothing greater than a bone bruise.
However, when medical doctors defined how shut he got here to struggling one thing a lot worse, from when Michael A. Taylor slid into his leg at third base on July 2, even Muncy was amazed by the infinitesimal margins.
“If the timing was just a millisecond different either way,” he was informed, “you’re probably looking at surgery, and done for a long time.”
As an alternative, barely two weeks faraway from having the surface of his knee bent inward on that play, Muncy was out doing early work at Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon; operating within the outfield, enjoying catch with coaches and performing agility drills in entrance of trainers with none apparent indicators of ache or discomfort.
“We’re pleasantly, not surprised, but happy with the spot that I’m in right now,” Muncy mentioned afterward, having additionally taken swings for the primary time since his damage earlier on Friday afternoon. “It feels great. I’m moving well. Progressing quickly. We’re trying to be smart about it, and understand where we’re at, and what it’s gonna take to get back on the field. But we’re in a really good spot … We’re kind of right where we think we should be at.”
If not, it appears, already a number of steps forward.
Whereas Muncy was initially anticipated to overlook roughly six weeks along with his left knee bone bruise, supervisor Dave Roberts struck a extra optimistic tone because the Dodgers opened the second half of their season.
“He’s in great shape right now,” Roberts mentioned Friday. “I don’t really know a timeline. But I do know … it’s going to be a lot sooner than anticipated, which is good for all of us.”
Since Muncy — who was one of many hottest hitters in baseball in Might and June — acquired harm, the Dodgers haven’t seemed like the identical offense. Of their final 11 video games coming into Saturday, the membership was 3-8, averaging lower than three runs per recreation, and struggling to fill the gaping gap their slugging third baseman has left in the course of the lineup.
For the reason that begin of July, solely the penny-pinching Pittsburgh Pirates have been worse than the Dodgers in batting common (.205) and OPS (.594).
“We’ve still got a lot of good players,” Roberts mentioned. “But yeah, there’s a certain line of demarcation when Max is not in the lineup, what happens to our offense.”
The Dodgers’ issues, in fact, transcend Muncy’s absence. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman have all been slumping of late (or, in Betts’ case, for a lot of the season). Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman have been nowhere close to their typical commonplace since coming back from accidents in Might. And the depth choices the Dodgers have referred to as upon have supplied few sparks of life.
Nonetheless, Muncy figures to be a linchpin within the Dodgers’ long-term potential on the plate — along with his restoration rising ever-steadily in significance as the remainder of the lineup flounders in his wake.
“We got to figure out how to get something going,” mentioned outfielder Michael Conforto, chief among the many Dodgers’ underachievers this season. “Every time we go out there, we expect to score, and that’s what we’ve been doing all year. It’s just one of those stretches [where it’s] a little bit tougher to get runs in. But, you know, obviously, we have faith in our guys, and some big names in here that made their careers on scoring runs and driving guys in. I think we’ll be OK.”
Muncy, in fact, is a kind of confirmed names.
And in one other lucky stroke along with his restoration, he stays assured his damage gained’t considerably influence his swing as soon as he does come again.
“If [the injury] was on the inside of the knee, it’d probably be a different story,” Muncy mentioned. “But just being on the outside, I think it’s a good spot, knowing that I don’t feel it at all when I’m pushing off on the backside.”
Muncy examined that concept for the primary time Friday, taking some gentle swings within the cage that he mentioned “felt fine.”
“It’s a lot of work, more work than actually playing in the game, which always sucks,” Muncy mentioned of his rehab course of. “But it’s that way for a reason … You don’t want to have any other injuries that are a side effect from it.”
To date, even that latter concern has been quelled, with Muncy noting that “there’s no lingering side effects with it.”
“All in all,” he reiterated, “we’re about as lucky as we could be.”
