The Los Angeles Dodgers earned a sweep of the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, reaching the halfway point of the season with a significant lead in the National League West division.
Content as the team can be with its performance so far, that lead was to be expected after two blockbuster offseasons in a row that included the additions of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and other All-Stars. It’s been made clear that the Dodgers will pursue virtually any win-now talent if an opportunity becomes available.
And that pursuit drove some trade speculation around veteran Max Muncy earlier this season, as fans called for the team to replace him with 10-time Gold Glove Award winner Nolan Arenado.
“As he slumped through the first six weeks of the season — batting .190 with a .599 OPS and just one home run in his first 150 plate appearances — Muncy became a favorite target of fan ire and speculation that the Dodgers would be looking to replace him at some point,” Bill Plunkett wrote for The Orange County Register. “Nolan Arenado’s name became a frequent companion to Muncy’s — despite the fact that Arenado was enduring his own struggles (which continue).”
Since then, Muncy has turned things around at the plate. In the past 36 games leading up to Thursday’s win, the third baseman hit .321 with 10 homers and 39 RBI. His decision to start wearing prescription goggles might have driven the turnaround, but he also credited the Dodgers’ front office for reassuring him during his harsh start to the season.
“When you have as close a relationship as I do with the front office, they’re up front with you and they’ve been up front in the past,” Muncy revealed, per Plunkett. “When all that (Arenado trade) stuff came out, they called me immediately and they told me where they were at with it. I’m not going to say what they said. But if you know where the team is at with these decisions, that kind of gives you a little confidence about where you stand.”
The calls for a blockbuster trade replacement for Muncy have died down in recent weeks as his numbers return to their career norms. And it seems that if the Dodgers stuck with him during his slump, the team will continue to do so as he returns to form.
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