The dream Max Muncy solution the Dodgers are too afraid to make

Despite ending a month-long homer drought a couple of days ago, it’s become clear that the Dodgers have a Max Muncy problem. Once one of the most feared left-handed bats in the game, Muncy had large chunk of his 2024 season stolen by injury. Now, with his 35th birthday approaching later on this year, it would appear that age is wearing on him as well.

Muncy’s always had some swing-and-miss to his game with a career 24.9% strikeout rate. This season, despite a still healthy walk rate, his strikeout percentage has reached an untenable 31.8% through May 1, while his trademark power has evaporated.

The Dodgers’ offense has largely still been potent even with Muncy adrift; however, once the unexpected power surges from the likes of Tommy Edman and Andy Pages come to an inevitable end, the team will need reliable contributions from third base. It certainly seems that Muncy is no longer able to provide that.

Fortunately for the Dodgers, a creative solution should provide the perfect alternative. They just need to muster up the courage to make it.

Inserting Will Smith at third and top prospect Dalton Rushing behind the plate is the solution to the Dodgers’ Max Muncy woes

When the Dodgers agreed to a 10-year, $140 million extension with a then- 29-year-old Will Smith last March, they knew sooner rather than later he’d have to move out from behind the plate. Smith has only played one big league game at third, but the position isn’t exactly foreign to him.

Coming up through the minor leagues, Smith spent some time working around the infield, getting reps at both second and his most-often-played position aside from catcher, third base. It’s been a while, though. His last significant experience at the hot corner came in 2018, where he logged 43 games at the position across Double-A and Triple-A, but for a leader like Smith, the transition shouldn’t come with too many growing pains.

As an added bonus, his already elite offensive production so far in 2025 where he owns a fantastic .316/.426/.500 slash line, should only get a boost without the physical toll that catching every day takes on the body.

In his stead, the Dodgers could then call up top prospect Dalton Rushing, who has put on quite the show at Triple-A Oklahoma City and looks ready to take over as the heir apparent at catcher.

After clubbing 26 home runs and posting a .271/.384/.512 line between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024, he’s picked up right where he left off, beginning the season at Triple-A and posting a .316/.419/.513 line.

The 24-year-old is certainly ready with the bat and brings versatility in his own right, with experience playing both first base and left field in his minor league career. Promoting Rushing would still allow for Smith to catch occasionally while mostly supplanting Muncy in the starting lineup, giving the Dodgers the best shot to maximize the talent available to them while taking some pressure off the struggling Muncy to figure it out in a lesser role.

The former Giants right-hander is hanging it up after nine big-league seasons, perhaps because his work to destabilize the Giants was complete.

It was always suspicious when former San Francisco Giants team president Farhan Zaidi brought in a player from his past (and now current) employer, the Los Angeles Dodgers. But after helping torpedo the Giants’ 2023 season, and pitching even worse for the Oakland Athletics last year, Ross Stripling announced his retirement from baseball.

Stripling signed a two-year, $25M deal with the Giants before the 2023 season, a classic Zaidi contract with a player option for the second year. He proceeded to go 0-5 with a 5.36 ERA, giving up 20 home runs in 89 innings, splitting his time as a starter and a reliever. After the season, Stripling (of course) picked up his $12.5M option for 2024, and the Giants responded by sending him to the then-Oakland Athletics along with $3.25M in cash. Stripling went 2-11 for the A’s with a 6.01 ERA, then had a disappointing tryout with the Kansas City Royals before deciding to call it a career.

The 2018 All-Star was just one of a number of former Dodgers that Zaidi brought in for the Giants during his tenure. Joc Pederson, Jake McGee, Scott Alexander, and Alex Wood all came north to San Francisco, while Pederson, Stripling, and Alexander were on-field and financial disasters in 2023.

There’s no hard evidence that Zaidi was actively working against the Giants, though it was highly suspicious that he had a job waiting for him with the Dodgers, who also signed Giants pitcher Blake Snell as a free agent. And that the Giants lost out on a number of free agents to the Dodgers while Zaidi was in charge. And we’re pretty sure the concept of relying on relief pitchers an openers was a strategy that Andrew Friedman convinced Zaidi to do as an elaborate prank.

Stripling finished his career with a 40-54 record, a 4.17 ERA, one All-Star appearance, and a World Series ring from 2020, a season where he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in late August. He wasn’t a memorable Giant, but he wasn’t on a memorable team. But for a guy without much of a fastball, Stripling did carve out a nine-year career. While we can’t endorse his decision to be part of Zaidi’s long-term sabotage effort, it’s hard to fault Stripling for turning down the big contract, and whatever secret bribes he also received. Enjoy retirement, Chicken Strip!