Max Muncy is expected to be out until roughly the second week of August after sustaining a bone bruise in his left knee on Wednesday. While losing Muncy for six weeks will leave a significant hole in the Dodgers’ lineup, the club seems content to just stick with internal replacements rather than seek out infield depth at the trade deadline, manager Dave Roberts and GM Brandon Gomes told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times).
“Even if [Muncy’s recovery] is way slow, you have a full month of baseball before we hit the playoffs,” Gomes said. “So we’re giving him that time to get back into a good place and try to set a good foundation, like we try to do with all of our guys, to be prepared for that stretch run.”
The Dodgers have baseball’s best record (56-33) and an eight-game lead over the second-place Padres in the NL West. With yet another postseason trip already looking like a lock, the Dodgers can afford to play the long game in even their post-deadline plans, on top of the remaining weeks to evaluate things prior to the July 31 trade deadline.
“With the time we have, there’s nothing pressing as far as needing to rush [Muncy] back,” Roberts said. “I think we’re in a good spot….Knowing the certainty of Max coming back at some point. I don’t think that will really impact our thinking going into the deadline.”
Of course, this could be gamesmanship on some level for Gomes and Roberts, as it wouldn’t exactly help the Dodgers’ leverage to publicly announce a quest for infield help. It is also possible that the duo are being completely forthright, yet Los Angeles could still change course before the deadline if Muncy has a setback, or if he isn’t progressing well as July 31 approaches. Bone bruises are often hard to officially diagnose in terms of a recovery timeline, since the nature of the injury lends itself to lingering discomfort.
The L.A. roster is also deep enough that Muncy’s absence opens up some room for others to get some deserved playing time. Most prominently, Hyeseong Kim will likely get more time in the lineup, after hitting .360/.406/.506 over his first 96 big league plate appearances. Kim’s playing time at second base should increase as Tommy Edman is used along with Enrique Hernandez and Miguel Rojas in the third base rotation while Muncy is out.