“We’re as good as we want to be,” starter Rich Hill stated confidently back in 2019. The Los Angeles Dodgers were already in the middle of a dominant regular season. Six years and three World Series championships later, the standard around the franchise has only become more demanding. Even chasing a third consecutive title as a second-seeded team in the current regular season somehow seems less than spectacular. And that is the backdrop to Max Muncy’s blunt assessment.
The Dodgers are 88-57 this season, and Erik Kratz from Foul Territory asked him about the challenge of getting to 104 wins. The third baseman said:
“You think about the last two seasons that we played, obviously we won, but they were also two of the longest seasons in history in terms of when we started to when we finished, starting overseas. So it’s just, it’s a lot of mileage on everybody. And to show up and try to win 110 games like that, that would have been almost impossible to do. It’s just not realistic.”
In 2024, the MLB regular season started with the Seoul Series in South Korea. The Dodgers played the opening series against the San Diego Padres at Gocheok SkyDome. The following year, the season started in Japan. Los Angeles played the opening series at Tokyo Dome, facing the Chicago Cubs. Playing approximately 30 games in Spring Training, then going overseas to start a 162-game season isn’t the easiest ask for an athlete.
Although they didn’t go to a different country this year, Dodgers players had already traveled internationally before Spring Training. 9 of the Dodgers players participated in the World Baseball Classic. So, it didn’t really reduce the workload.
Back in 2019, the Dodgers had won 55 of their first 81 games. That put them on a pace of winning 110 games that year. They finished the season winning 106. The following season was reduced to just 60 games due to COVID-19. They still managed a .717 win percentage and went on to win the World Series.
The next three regular seasons were phenomenal. They won 106 in 2021 and exactly 100 in 2023. They created a franchise record for the highest regular season wins in 2022 with 111 victories, but they didn’t win the World Series in any of them.
The Dodgers had 98 and 93 wins in the last two seasons, respectively, but they were the champions in both years.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have already demonstrated that a huge number of regular-season victories isn’t mandatory to win the World Series. That’s why Muncy said demanding 110 wins “is just not realistic.”
They have 17 games remaining this season, and to get to 104, as Kratz asked, they would need to win 16 of them. That seems like a lot of unnecessary pressure on the players, particularly when they have been going through several setbacks.
They have 13 players on the injured list, and that includes their biggest superstar, Shohei Ohtani. The two-way player was already spared from pitching duties, and his recent issues with knee inflammation and biceps discomfort aren’t making anything easier.
The Dodgers have finally put him on the IL. Although they are currently positioned as the second-seeded team, the Atlanta Braves have the chance to overtake them in the remaining season. So, they have to be prepared to play the Wild Card Series if things don’t go their way.
Maintaining their position is important, but that doesn’t call for a 100% win scenario. The most crucial thing for them is to have a fit roster for October, and Max Muncy didn’t seem worried about fulfilling unrealistic expectations. Rather, they would aim for their third ring.