Max Muncy on offseason preparation and season expectations 2023 Dodgers Fan Fest

And a two-time Dodger all-star Max Muncy is joining us as well. Max, I want to go back to last offseason because you were coming off a terrible elbow injury. You weren't able to work out at all the way you normally would during an offseason to get ready for the next season. You all said the lockouts, you're not able to communicate with doctors, use the facility. How much different was this offseason for you being healthy and being able to have a normal offseason to get ready? Yeah, it was very different and it was very good. I feel really good right now. I feel very healthy. To me, that was the biggest thing is getting healthy and getting strong again. And, you know, essentially it's been two years since I've been able to go through my offseason program. So, you know, it feels really good right now. You know, oftentimes when we have an injury, especially to our arms, right, we don't recognize that maybe our swing's off just a little bit or some of the things that our body naturally is adjusting to protect itself. Were you able to recognize maybe some of those things this offseason and what did you maybe focus on when it came to your swing? Yeah, that was one of the things we saw last year was, you know, I got to a point where I thought my swing felt comfortable. And in reality, it wasn't it wasn't a good comfortable. It was just what felt comfortable in terms of, you know, not hurting. And so it was not a good swing at all. You know, I was still doing a lot of things good, but my swing wasn't where I needed to be. And so, you know, the biggest thing this offseason is getting the body back to moving in the way I needed to move and just focusing on those things and just kind of simplifying everything. You talk about getting the body where it needs to be. And listen, you've always been in shape. You always taking care of your body. But I was at Dodgers fantasy camp at Camelback Ranch a couple weeks ago. And I saw a couple of guys in the cage from afar. And look, who is that dude swinging the cage? And it was Max Muncy. You have really taken care of yourself from a body standpoint. Did you do anything different this offseason with your body? It's just being able to get after it in the weight room. You know, last year with the elbow injury, the whole offseason was spent trying to rehab that. Wasn't able to touch any weights. Wasn't able to do anything that I normally do. And on top of that, I wasn't able to have any communication with the team because of the lockout. And so, you know, that to me I think was one of the biggest issues was, you know, I'm trying to go through a middle guy to talk to the trainers and, you know, the strength staff and understand like where I need to be, where's my checkpoints, where's, you know, my benchmarks for my health standpoint. And I think that hurt me the most is because when I showed up in spring training, I thought I was in a certain spot and we felt like I was in a certain spot. And looking back at it, I wasn't anywhere close to that spot. You look back at the last several years and I don't know if left-handed batters have nightmares hitting line drives and seeing a guy catch the ball in the outfield grass when he's normally playing third base like a Manny Machado. Now that the shift is gone, Max, how does it feel? And how much better are you going to feel just standing in the box not seeing somebody over there? I've been working on my tennis swing, trying to make sure I get that ball into the holes. Yeah, no, no, but all joking aside, I think it will be a little interesting. You know, I think the biggest one for me is the guy at the middle. You know, I've always been a guy that said if you roll over a ball, you shouldn't get rewarded for that. You know, so that, you know, when you hit a ground ball into the outfield and the guy's standing there, I've always been understanding of that one. It's when you hit the line drive that the pitcher is ducking out of the way, you know, jumping out of the way and the shortstop's just standing there not even taking a step. That's the one to me that's always been most frustrating. And then in the last year or two, especially looking at the Padres, what they do when Manny's out there playing almost on the warning track, that's the other one. You know, people ask me about that all the time. I talk about there's a ball a couple years ago I hit that Manny dove for and his ball, his glove hit the wall. You know, he's playing that much of a shift that his glove hit the wall diving for a ball. And so it's like, man, that's not baseball anymore. Speaking of that, that's the offensive side. But what about from the defensive side? Now, you know, if you're over at third, are you going to miss that run where you have to go all the way to right field to go do that? And then also, does that also change maybe how you prepare from a defensive side this year? Well, let's start with, you know, I think we have the new time rules coming in. And when I actually did a rehab assignment last year, when you're going back and forth on the infield with that time restraint, you're kind of, you got to move it a little bit. So it'll be nice not having that this year. But in terms of everything else, just trying to improve on what I was able to do last year. I feel like I made a lot of huge step forward with my defense and just trying to improve on that. You know, speaking of defense, you were an incredible defensive first baseman. You've made incredible strides at second base the last couple years. But now the Dodgers are looking at you as an everyday third baseman. Are you comfortable there playing every single day? Absolutely. You know, with the amount of time I got there last year, I felt like I started getting very comfortable and it started becoming a natural position to me. And people have always asked me, and I tell them, third base is a position that I find extremely difficult when you're not playing there every single day. When you're moving around the infield and you're just playing there once, you know, once every two weeks, it's a very, very hard position to play. And you can ask everyone, you know, CT, he mixed in over there from time to time and he hated it just because when you're not over there every single day, it's such a unique position, it becomes very hard. And so I felt like I finally got to a point last year where I started getting really comfortable over there. Nomar talked about this early when Freddie was on the show, how teams didn't play for the double play because of the shift. And so when you're playing third base, all of a sudden there's a ground ball and you have a runner on first. Sometimes your second baseman might be over where Trey Turner normally stands. So now you might see more conventional double plays. Do you think that's going to be a huge factor this year as well? I think it could be. You know, from a fan perspective, I think it'll be fun. You know, you're going to start seeing, you know, a little bit more old school baseball in terms of, you know, your middle infielder's got to be able to turn it. And, you know, it's no longer guys are just standing in one spot because they're playing and, you know, you have six guys on one side of the field. So I think it'll be, you'll see a lot more athleticism out on the field and I think it's going to be exciting. You know, are you looking forward to, I mean, there's obviously these new rules, right? And I'm sure we all can't keep up with them yet. But I know this team is going to go over them with you guys at spring training. And I'm sure they're also going to say, hey, this is how we're going to take advantage of some of these as well. Are you looking forward to that day and say, okay, how can we gain that little advantage? You know, they got bigger bases and maybe a little bit, but that could be a little advantage. Go ahead and ask the question. Are you going to steal more bases? Freddie already said he wants to steal more bases. Well, I feel like Freddie comes in every year trying to beat his previous best. So, yeah, you know, I think you might see some more stolen bases. I think I'll for sure probably try a few extras. That's not saying much considering I didn't really try any in the past. So, you know, I think if I try once or twice, that's more than I normally try. But, yeah, I think I'll try it some more. And as for what you were saying, I don't know if I'm looking forward to the day of them going over that because that's going to be a long day for sure. But it'll be interesting to see because I'm sure we've already got a full team of guys looking at how we can take advantage of it. You know, Max, being around this team the last several years, you know, Justin Turner has been one of the leaders in that clubhouse. Now he is gone. Do you see yourself kind of being a little bit more vocal? Because there have been a plethora of young guys the last year or so come into the organization. Are you going to be more of a vocal leader along with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman? I think the beauty of our team is we don't have to have any one guy step up and be any more vocal. We have so many leaders in that clubhouse as it is. You know, and we have a couple of vocal guys, but I think the majority of our guys lead by example. And I've always been under the impression that's the best thing you can do. You know, if you're a young pitcher and you're coming in and you're seeing just how hard Clayton Kershaw is working in the weight room on his non-start days, how he's preparing, no one works harder than that guy. And I feel like when you see a guy with his resume, first ballot Hall of Famer for sure, one of the best pitchers in the history of this game, and he's still out there working like he's a non-roster guy trying to prove himself, I feel like that's the best example you can do and that's the best leadership you can have. You guys won 111 games last year in the regular season. Only one National League team has ever won more than that. We know what happened in the playoffs, but I always wonder how do you define a successful season in your mind? We had a very successful season last year. Obviously the ultimate goal is to win the World Series and that's the only reason you play this game is to win the World Series. But we had a very special team last year and, you know, just between the clubhouse, on the field, off the field, you know, it's the most special team I think I've ever been a part of with the exception of the World Series team. That's because we achieved the ultimate goal with that one, but, you know, we still had a successful season last year, but I know that everyone is using how it ended as a huge motivation to get better for this year. I know from our standpoint, 10th year of our network now, it's been, last season was a lot of fun because you guys won a lot of baseball games and really we've been very fortunate because year after year this team's been in the postseason and you've been a big part of that. So Max, thank you so much for being here today and we'll see you in a couple weeks in Arizona. Thanks, Max. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it, guys.