max muncy

The now two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers made their first move of the offseason on Thursday.

It will ensure a familiar face is back for their pursuit of a three-peat next year.

The team picked up its $10-million club option for third baseman Max Muncy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly, bringing the now longest-tenured member of the roster back for what will be his ninth season in Los Angeles.

The decision was not surprising. This year, Muncy had perhaps his best all-around season at the plate since a 2021 campaign in which he received MVP votes. He hit .243, his highest mark since that 2021 season, with 19 home runs, 67 RBIs and an .846 OPS in 100 games. He atoned for a relatively quiet postseason by hitting a crucial home run in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, setting the stage for the team’s ninth-inning comeback and eventual extra-innings, title-clinching victory.

Muncy was in the final season of a two-year, $24-million extension he signed in the 2023 offseason. And injuries have been a problem for the 35-year-old in recent years (he was limited this past season by a knee contusion in July and an oblique strain in August).

However, the $10-million option was a relative bargain for a player who, prior to second-half injuries, had shaken off a slow start to the year by being one of the hottest hitters in the majors in May and June.

His return will also help keep a key part of the club’s veteran core intact, bringing back a player who — in the wake of Clayton Kershaw’s retirement — has been with the Dodgers longer than anybody else.

Muncy’s 2025 season did not start well. After an offseason in which trade rumors involving Nolan Arenado swirled, and a spring training spent working through the lingering after-effects of an oblique and rib injury that limited him in 2024, Muncy hit .176 through his first 34 games, and had only one home run.

In early May, however, he started wearing glasses to address an astigmatism in his right eye. Around that same time, he also found a breakthrough with his swing, one that helped him begin punishing fastballs up the zone. From May 7 to the end of June, he hit .315 with 12 home runs and a 1.039 OPS, one of the best stretches of his 10-year, two-time All-Star career.

That streak was derailed on July 2, when Muncy suffered his knee injury after being slid into at third base. His return a month later was cut short, too, when his oblique began bothering him during a batting practice session in August.

Those IL stints preceded a September slump that carried into the postseason, when Muncy hit just .173 entering Game 7 of the World Series.

But that night, he collected three hits, had the pivotal eighth-inning home run off Trey Yesavage that got the Dodgers back within a run, and became one of six players to contribute to all three of the Dodgers’ recent World Series titles.

“It’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here,” he joked from atop the stage at the Dodgers’ World Series celebration on Monday. “Let’s keep it going.”

On Thursday, the team ensured his run with the Dodgers will, for at least one more season.

Alex Vesia’s option also picked up

The Dodgers on Thursday also picked up their $3.55-million club option for reliever Alex Vesia in 2026, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly. That was also not a surprise, though Vesia still would’ve been under team control and eligible for arbitration if they hadn’t.

Vesia was one of the few consistent performers in the Dodgers’ bullpen this year, posting a 3.02 ERA in a career-high 68 appearances. He was also one of their most trusted relief arms in the playoffs, bouncing back from a two-run outing in the wild-card series opener with 4 ⅓ scoreless innings the rest of the way.

Vesia was not available for the World Series as he and his wife dealt with what the team described as a “deeply personal family matter.” But he figures to be a key cog in their bullpen again next season, in what will be his last before reaching free agency.

The Dodgers walked into a packed home stadium when their World Series parade was over, waving to an adoring crowd that viewed them as more than back-to-back champions.

They were beloved Angelenos.

Many of the players are on a first-name basis with the city, and if they aren’t, they’re identified by a nickname.

Freddie, Mookie and Shohei.

Yoshi and Roki.

Miggy Ro and Kiké.

Players who were once strangers are now extended members of hundreds of thousands of families.

Ordinarily, a team as old as the Dodgers would have to consider a roster makeover. Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas will be 37 by the start of the next World Series. Max Muncy will be 36, Kiké Hernández 35, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández 34 and Shohei Ohtani 32.

But under these circumstances, how could the Dodgers think of breaking up their team?

How could they unload any of their superstars, regardless of how much they could decline in the next year? How could they not retain their key free agents, regardless of how old they are?

They can’t, they can’t and they can’t.

The Dodgers have to run this back — again.

“Obviously, we would love everybody to come back,” Freeman said.

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Muncy has a $10-million team option for next season. The Dodgers have to pick it up.

Rojas and Kiké Hernández are free agents. The Dodgers have to re-sign them.

Freeman won’t be making the calls on his teammates, of course. The decisions will be made by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who was characteristically evasive when asked about the efforts the Dodgers would make to keep their out-of-contract players.

“Obviously, guys who have been here and been a big part of it start with a major upper hand,” Friedman said. “That being said, they’re free agents. They’ve earned the right to go out and talk to the 29 other teams as well.”

Muncy doesn’t have a choice to leave if the Dodgers exercise his option, but Rojas and Kiké Hernández have said they would like to return next season.

Whatever Friedman decides shouldn’t preclude the Dodgers from shopping on the free-agent market, with Kyle Tucker and Steven Kwan being potential additions to their outfield.

But the nucleus of the Dodgers would be even older than it was this year when their collective age presented a variety of problems.

Their 18-inning victory in Game 3 clearly diminished them more than it did the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the next two games. In retrospect, that should have been expected, as the Dodgers struggled to maintain consistency on offense over a grinding six-month regular season.

While Betts transformed into one of the league’s best defensive shortstops, he experienced a sharp offensive decline. Muncy was limited to 100 games because of injuries. Teoscar Hernández wasn’t close to being the same player he was last year.

There were times that even Ohtani started to show the effects of being on the wrong side of 30. Ohtani’s father acknowledged this reality in a congratulatory open letter he wrote to his son, which was published in the Monday edition of Sports Nippon.

“Shohei, you’re 31 years old,” Toru Ohtani wrote in Japanese. “I think that as a baseball player, you’re in your prime, but there will come a time when you have to decide between pitching and hitting. When you can’t pitch anymore, you can be an outfielder. I think that if you practice, you can definitely do it.”

That being said, the team has to be kept together.

A championship can force teams into sentimental decisions, as was the case last winter when the Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66-million contract.

This winter, they will have to settle similar disputes between their hearts and minds. They should listen to their hearts.

The players deserve it. The fans demand it.

Max Muncy stood in the middle of what is normally an underground batting cage. But on Friday, moments after the Dodgers completed a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, it had been transformed into the most exclusive drinking spot in the city, the place where the players came to toast their return to the World Series.

Cheap champagne and even cheaper beer flowed freely — mostly over people’s heads — before forming deep puddles on some plastic sheeting that had hastily been laid along the floor.

“You never get tired of this. You can’t ever take this for granted,” Muncy, the Dodger third baseman said, as he clutched a lit cigar in one hand and two red Budweiser bottles in the other. “This is the whole reason that you play baseball. You want to be in this moment.

“You want to play postseason baseball. And to be able to do it for as many times as I’ve done it, it’s just truly a blessing.”

The moment Muncy referred to is the alcohol-infused postseason series victory celebration, a tradition that dates to the 1960 World Series when members of the Pittsburgh Pirates chose not to drink the champagne that had been wheeled into their victorious clubhouse, but began spraying it on one another instead.

As baseball’s postseason format expanded, so did the number of champagne celebrations; Friday’s was the Dodgers’ fifth in 29 days and 10^th in less than two years. And it may not be the last since they’ll open the World Series next weekend with a chance to become the first repeat champion this century.

“It’s a grown man acting like a little kid. You look forward it,” reliever Blake Treinen, who has played for seven playoff teams in his career, said as he leaned on a giant red cooler stuffed with mostly empty bottles of champagne.

When the Dodgers qualified for the playoffs last month, they toasted that achievement at home, then toasted themselves again six days later in Arizona when they clinched the division title. This month they’ve beaten the Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card series, the Philadelphia Phillies in the Division Series and now the Brewers in the LCS.

And with each victory, the celebrations have grown in fervor and joy.

“It gets better and better each round,” pitcher Tyler Glasnow agreed.

As soon as Caleb Durbin’s fly ball settled in Andy Pages’ glove near the right-field bullpen gate Friday night, extending the Dodgers’ season while ending the Brewers’, fireworks filled the air and Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” blared from the stadium’s sound system. As a small army of workers rushed to set up a temporary wooden stage behind second base, the players pulled on gray t-shirts with words National League Champions and the script Dodgers set against a baseball diamond outlined in yellow.

On their heads they wore black caps that read World Series 2025. But the public ceremony on the stage, in which chairman Mark Walter was presented with the league championship trophy and Shohei Ohtani was handed the series MVP trophy, was short and tame compared to raucous fiesta that started in the batting cage a few minutes later.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the clubhouse after the team’s NLCS-clinching win over the Brewers at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“These kinds of celebrations, you can never have too many,” infielder Miguel Rojas shouted in Spanish over a loud soundtrack of percussive music that played in a loop. “A moment like this is really important, really beautiful.

“Five times this year. We’ve got one to go.”

A few feet away outfielder Teoscar Hernández surrounded himself with a handful of journalists in an unsuccessful attempt to hide from the champagne sprays directed at him by teammates.

“I don’t think there’s anybody that gets tired of this. I’m not tired,” he said. “I want to get one more, and then five more next year.

“This is the only time that you can get to celebrate something, to be free, not thinking about your job, not thinking about what you got to do tomorrow.”

As the party began to wane and players left the batting cage to join their families in a quieter gathering on the field, Muncy looked down at the thick victory cigar between his fingers and turned reflective. The celebration wasn’t about champagne or beer or victory cigars. It wasn’t even about winning.

It was more about surviving the crucible of the longest schedule in pro sports and celebrating that with the people who were with you every step of the way.

“It’s amazing, is what it is,” he said. “This is one of the best parts about being in the postseason. You grind with your teammates and your brothers for seven, eight months, all the way back to spring training.

“This is just like a culmination of all your collective efforts.”

Who wouldn’t want drink to that?

The Milwaukee Brewers have no chance.

Neither will the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays.

The clear truth emerged from the Dodger Stadium shadows late Thursday amid a downtown-shaking roar of delight and disbelief.

This is ridiculous. This is simply ridiculous, how well the Dodgers are playing, how close the history books are beckoning, and how an ordinary summer has been followed with unbelievable days of the extraordinary.

The Dodgers are not going to lose another game this October. Write it down, bet it up, no major league baseball team has ever played this well in the postseason, ever, ever, ever.

With their 3-1 victory over the Brewers Thursday in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers take a three-games-to-none lead with a sweep likely in the next 24 hours and coronation coming in the next two weeks.

The Dodgers are going to win this NLCS and follow it with a four-game whitewash of the World Series because, well, you tell me.

How is anybody going to beat them?

Match their aces-flush rotation? Nope. Equal their hot closer and revived bullpen? Sorry. Better than their deep lineup? Nobody is even close.

The Dodgers are more than halfway to finishing the most dominant postseason in baseball history, it’s all there in the numbers.

The only team to go undefeated through the playoffs since the divisional era began was the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. But the Big Machine only had to win seven games. Since the playoffs were expanded and the test became tougher, the greatest October streaks have belonged to the 2005 Chicago White Sox and 1999 New York Yankees, both of whom went 11-1.

These Dodgers were forced into that early wild-card series, so if they end this postseason without another loss, they will finish 13-1.

The last time a team in this town had such a dominating postseason was the champion 2001 Lakers, who went 15-1 in the postseason with only one stumble against Philadelphia on the night Allen Iverson famously stepped over Tyronn Lue.

Those Lakers were legendary. These Dodgers will be soon.

They are currently 8-1 in the playoffs and have won 23 of their previous 29 games and again, who’s going to beat them?

Start with that rotation. Tyler Glasnow followed gems by Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto Thursday by twirling 5 ⅔ innings of swing and miss, holding the Brewers to one run with eight strikeouts, and in three games the Brewers have scored two runs in 22 ⅔ innings against Dodger starters.

And perhaps their best pitcher hasn’t even taken the mound yet, that being Friday’s starter Shohei Ohtani.

Now for their deep lineup. Ohtani is still mired in a career-worst slump, but his one hit Thursday was a leadoff triple that led to him scoring the first run, and seemingly everybody else chipped in. Mookie Betts had the first RBI, Tommy Edman knocked in Will Smith with the go-ahead run in the sixth, a hustling Freddie Freeman scored on a wild pickoff attempt, and on and on..

Finish with their bullpen, which is actually finishing. Taking over for Glasnow with a runner on first and two out in the sixth Thursday, Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda and Roki Sasaki shut the Brewers down the rest of the way, and their regular-season weakness has become their strength.

Incidentally, Sasaki’s ninth-inning shutdown was aided by a brilliant in-the-hole putout by shortstop Betts, and that’s just one more way the Dodgers can beat you.

All this, and as Thursday confirmed, they have arguably the best home-field advantage in baseball.

No place is bigger. No place draws more fans. And no place is louder, from the bleacher-rattling roar to the cover-your-ears sound system.

“This place has an aura about it,” Max Muncy said of Dodger Stadium. “It’s the biggest capacity in baseball. Everybody talks about it when you come here. The lights seem a little brighter. The music seems a little louder — that might actually be because it is a little louder.”

Yeah, fans, you might hate the otherworldly stadium volume, but the players like it.

“That’s part of the perks of being at Dodger Stadium, we have that sound system,” said Muncy. “It sounds silly to say something like a sound system could be an advantage. But it really is. When the speakers in the center field are cranking and the crowd is going absolutely nuts and you feel the field shaking beneath your feet, it’s a really big advantage. And that’s something we’ve always had here.”

The stadium rose to the occasion Thursday as it always does this time of year, filling up despite the weird mid-afternoon starting time, constantly standing and screaming by the game’s end.

“When we’ve had those big moments, there’s arguably no place that can get louder than Dodger Stadium, especially in the postseason,” Muncy said. “When you have 56, 57,000 people screaming all at the same time in a big moment, it’s pretty wild. That’s an advantage that we’ve always had here, and the guys love it.”

There’s a lot to love.

MILWAUKEE — He did not scream. He did not pump a fist. He showed hardly any of the emotions the moment seemed to call for, accomplishing something no major league pitcher had achieved in almost a decade.

Instead, after completing MLB’s first postseason complete game since 2017, and the first by a Dodgers pitcher since 2004, Yoshinobu Yamamoto simply walked around the mound, casually removed his glove, and didn’t break into a smile until he looked back at the center-field scoreboard.

“Wow,” he finally mouthed to himself, as the realization of his nine-inning, three-hit, one-run gem finally started to set in.

The reaction came after his old-school, matter-of-fact performance lifted the Dodgers to a 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

“I was able to pitch until the end,” Yamamoto said in Japanese afterward. “So I really felt a sense of accomplishment.”

This was a night almost no one saw coming. And not just because Yamamoto failed to complete even one inning in his last trip to American Family Field against the Brewers during the regular season.

In an era of strictly controlled pitch counts and a steadfast reliance on relievers come October, Yamamoto turned back the clock on a night reminiscent of a bygone generation.

He dominated the Brewers with ruthlessness and efficiency. He controlled the game with a steady rhythm and confident demeanor. He gave up a home run on his first pitch, a fastball that Jackson Chourio launched to right field, then barely looked stressed for the 110 throws that followed.

He struck out seven batters. He walked only one. And he left manager Dave Roberts with an easy ninth-inning decision, going back to the mound to finish what he started.

“He’s got true confidence from me that [even the] third time through, at pitch 90, he feels that he’s the best option,” Roberts said. “For me, that just gives me that confidence. … The way he was throwing, I felt really good about him starting the ninth.”

Yamamoto’s outing wasn’t quite like what Blake Snell did in Game 1 of this series, when the team’s other co-ace dazzled with virtually unhittable stuff in a scoreless eight-inning, one-hit, 10-strikeout gem — a start in which he probably could have also gone the distance, had Roberts not turned to his shaky bullpen in the ninth.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during Game 2 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Rather, Yamamoto collected outs much in a more industrious manner — giving the Brewers plenty to hit, with the confidence they wouldn’t punish him.

“From the start, I felt they were being very aggressive,” Yamamoto said. “And I threw pitches that took advantage of that.”

Early on, it did take time for the 27-year-old right-hander to find his footing. After Chourio’s homer, he had to work around baserunners in each of the next four innings.

But eventually, Yamamoto dialed in his trademark splitter, found a groove while sharing pitch-calling duties with catcher Will Smith, and finished the night by retiring the final 14 batters.

He made it all seem so easy and simple, the way modern postseason pitching is no longer supposed to be.

“What he did tonight,” Smith said, “that was just domination.”

So much so, Kiké Hernández joked he got “bored” playing left field.

It had been eight years to the day since Justin Verlander tossed the majors’ last complete game in the playoffs. Not since José Lima’s shutout in the 2004 NL Division Series had a Dodgers starter accomplished the feat.

Of the 23 postseason complete games in the club’s Los Angeles history, Yamamoto’s three hits given up were tied for the fewest. His four baserunners allowed were fewer than Sandy Koufax or Orel Hershiser or Fernando Valenzuela had ever yielded in such an outing.

“Good pitching beats good hitting any day of the week,” said future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who has never thrown a complete game in the playoffs. “And you’re seeing that right now.”

It helped that the Dodgers had plenty of good hitting themselves, staking Yamamoto to a lead by the time he returned to work in the second.

Teoscar Hernández hits a solo home run for the Dodgers in the second inning against the Brewers on Tuesday in Game 2 of the NLCS.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

After Chourio’s home run, Teoscar Hernández tied the score with a solo home run in the second inning. Andy Pages added a two-out RBI double three batters later, putting Brewers ace Freddy Peralta in a hole he wouldn’t dig out of.

Peralta’s final pitch led to another run in the sixth, with Max Muncy taking him deep with what was his 14th career postseason homer, setting a franchise high.

In the seventh and eighth, the Dodgers added on again, including an RBI single from Shohei Ohtani that snapped his one-for-23 drought since the start of the NLDS.

“Right now, our entire team is playing the best baseball we’ve played all year,” Roberts said. “We’re peaking at the right time.”

Still, all the Dodgers really needed on Tuesday was the brilliance they got from Yamamoto.

After working around an error from Muncy in the second, then third- and fourth-inning singles before a walk in the fifth, the pitcher was in total control by the night’s end.

From the fifth inning on, the Brewers only hit two balls out of the infield as Yamamoto mixed curveballs, cutters and sinkers to go along with his late-biting splitter and high-riding fastball. The Brewers’ plan was to be aggressive, but all it did was allow Yamamoto — who never threw 20 pitches in a single inning, and needed just 46 total for the final four — to stay on the mound.

“Sometimes,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, “great pitching brings out the worst in you.”

“Just super efficient tonight,” Smith added. “That was really special.”

Highlights from the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS.

The outcome has the Dodgers in total command of this series, leading 2-0 and having hardly even exposed their bullpen.

Tyler Glasnow is set to start Game 3 at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. Ohtani will follow him in Game 4. Even if things go sideways, Snell and Yamamoto will be back on deck for the two games after that.

Technically, this remains a battle for a pennant. But really, it has become a showcase for a Dodgers rotation that has a 1.54 ERA in the playoffs — and the first complete game in recent postseason memory.

“All of them are throwing the ball amazing, but we kind of knew that,” Kershaw said, describing this starting staff as the best he’s ever seen in his 18 years with the Dodgers. “Snell did it, and you can’t pitch much better than that. And then what Yama did today was amazing.”

No, he didn’t.

Yes, they did!

No, it’s inconceivable that Philadelphia Phillies’ reliever Orion Kerkering would botch a grounder and throw it away with the season on the line.

Yes, it happened with the bases loaded and the Dodgers scored to steal a National League Division Series clinching 2-1 victory in 11 taut innings Thursday at Dodger Stadium!

Clinched, just in time.

Clinched, when they could have clenched.

Clinched, like a champion.

With their backs quickly approaching the wall, faced with a loss that would return the series to Philadelphia for a deciding Game 5, the Dodgers dug in and lashed out and, at the last possible minute, shoved the talented and favored Philadelphia Phillies out of their path to take a three-games-to-one series win and clear the way toward their second consecutive World Series title.

And they did it with a mad, mindless throw from a frozen, frightened reliever.

Has any postseason series ended with such an error?

It happened in the 11th, after Tommy Edman hit a one-out single to left, then moved to third one out later on a single by Max Muncy. Kiké Hernández walked to load the bases, bringing up the struggling Andy Pages, who entered the day with an .053 playoff average and had gone hitless in four previous at-bats.

He proceeded to hit into his fifth out… except Kerkering muffed the grounder. When the pitcher finally picked up the ball, he still had plenty of time to throw out Pages at first. Instead, he panicked and threw it home, launching it far over catcher JT Realmuto’s head.

Pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim scored the winning run as Kerkering stood stunned on the mound and the Dodgers danced wildly across the field.

How the Dodgers defeated the Phillies in the 11th inning in Game 4 of the NLDS.

They now advance to the National League Championship Series, where they will be heavy favorites against either the Milwaukee Brewers or Chicago Cubs.

A victory in that seven-game set will land them back in the World Series, where they will be even heavier favorites against whatever inferior team the American League can muster.

Yeah, the rest of their journey should be the easy part, the Dodgers already conquering their Goliath equal in a Phillies series that was essentially the World Series.

Remember last fall when they defeated the San Diego Padres in a tense five-game fight before cruising to the title? This was that. This was the two best teams in baseball. This was the Dodgers once again swallowing all the pressure and refusing to relent.

After a breathtaking six-inning scoreless pitching duel between the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow and the Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez, the Phillies struck first in the seventh with a single, an error by reliever Emmet Sheehan, and a double by Nick Castellanos.

The Dodgers countered in the bottom of the seventh with two walks and a single followed by a bases-loaded walk drawn by Mookie Betts against closer Jhoan Duran.

This set the stage for the Error Heard ‘Round The World. This set the stage for what should absolutely be a second consecutive World Series championship.

Before these playoffs there was a lot of talk about the Dodgers’ late-season struggles that were symbolized by that blown no-hitter in Baltimore. They had no bullpen depth. They had no offensive patience. They were headed for another early October exit.

At least, that’s what outsiders thought. That’s not what the veteran, pressure-proof Dodgers thought.

“I think it boils down to the guys we have in the clubhouse,” said Max Muncy earlier this week. “We have a lot of experience, a lot of really good players. We’ve been there before. We accomplished it.”

Turns out, nobody knew the Dodgers like the players wearing the uniform.

“We knew who we are as a team all year long,” said Muncy. “Even though we weren’t playing up to it at certain points, we trusted who we were. Like I said, we knew who we were in the clubhouse, not one person faulted in there, even in the rough times.”

They were impressive in the four games against the Phillies. Here’s predicting they’re going to get even better before the month ends.

“I still think there’s another gear in there,” said Muncy. “I don’t think we fully reached where we can be at. And that’s not saying we are, and that’s not saying we aren’t. But I still think there’s a whole other level in there we haven’t reached yet.”

The Times’ Bill Shaikin quickly asked, “What would tell you you’ve reached it?”

“I think you would know,” said Muncy.

The media laughed. The rest of baseball shivered.

Despite missing the last three weeks of the season with a fracture on his right hand, catcher Will Smith was included on the Dodgers’ roster for their best-of-three wild card series against the Cincinnati Reds this week, the team announced ahead of Game 1 on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear if Smith would be able to start Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Ben Rortvedt was also on the roster, and is expected to start behind the plate if Smith can’t go.

Still, even having Smith’s presence as a potential pinch-hitter will be a boon for the team, which was bracing to begin the playoffs without the two-time All-Star before he made late progress this week in his recovery from his hand injury.

Max Muncy and Tommy Edman, who both missed time last week with minor injuries, were also on the roster as expected.

The other big development from Tuesday’s roster announcement was the absence of outfielder Michael Conforto, the $17 million offseason signing who struggled mightily for much of the regular season but had continued to get playing time through the end of the schedule.

Conforto hit only .199 this season, the lowest mark of any hitter with 450 plate appearances. He also managed just 12 home runs (a full-season career-low), 36 RBIs and struck out 121 times (albeit while drawing 56 walks and keeping his on-base-percentage above .300).

Conforto did finish the season better, batting .228 with a .678 OPS after July 1 and going 15-for-61 (.246 average) in September. As a left-handed hitter, he also appeared to have potential value off the bench.

However, the Dodgers elected to roster trade deadline acquisition Alex Call and defensive specialist Justin Dean (who finished the season in the minors) on their wild card roster. They also kept infielder Hyeseong Kim, who is a speed threat but has been equally inconsistent from the left side of the plate down the stretch.

There were few surprises among the Dodgers’ pitching staff, which included only 11 arms (not including two-way player Shohei Ohtani) for this abbreviated opening-round series.

Rookie phenom Roki Sasaki, who returned from a shoulder injury and impressed in two late-season relief appearances, was on the roster as manager Dave Roberts had hinted the day before.

So too were right-handed veteran Blake Treinen and embattled left-handed closer Tanner Scott, who were major disappointments in late-inning roles this year but flashed some improvement in the final days of the regular season.

The rest of the Dodgers’ bullpen includes converted right-handed starters Tyler Glasnow (who will likely return to the rotation if the team advances to the division series) and Emmet Sheehan, hard-throwing rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, and three other left-handed options in addition to Scott: Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Justin Wrobleski.

Anthony Banda was the only snub from the team’s regular-season roster. Clayton Kerhsaw was also left off the roster as expected, but could have a role in future rounds if the Dodgers advance.

SEATTLE — When the Dodgers traded for Brock Stewart at the trade deadline, they knew he came with some risk.

But on Friday, their worst-case scenario was realized.

Stewart will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, manager Dave Roberts announced, leaving the Dodgers without the only significant deadline addition they made to bolster their struggling bullpen.

Although the Dodgers have been managing several injury concerns — from Will Smith’s fractured hand, to Tommy Edman’s sore ankle, to leg bruises that Max Muncy revealed on Friday he has been dealing with — Stewart’s status had become among the most alarming.

Even after completing a minor-league rehab stint for a shoulder problem that had kept him out since early August, he continued to feel residual soreness.

After meeting with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, Stewart and the team decided surgery would be best. According to general manager Brandon Gomes, the 33-year-old is having a debridement procedure that should allow him to pitch the “majority” of next season, when he will still be under Dodgers control.

But for this October, the club will have to proceed without him.

“We had a lot of conversations with Brock, and he was like, ‘Hey, I want to help this team in any way possible,’” Gomes said. “But watching him throw and just having the conversations with him, there was still something that was just bothering him. As much as we would love to have him right now, we don’t want to put his long-term health at risk.”

Shoulder problems are nothing new for Stewart. Last season, he made just 16 appearances with the Minnesota Twins before undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery in August.

While this latest injury is not believed to be directly related to last year’s issue, Gomes did acknowledge that “any time you’re taking on a pitcher, we understand that there are risks.”

It’s not that the Dodgers overpaid for Stewart, giving up only former prospect James Outman in their deadline deal with the Twins. But, by not adding a bigger name in a bullpen that had been slumping even before the deadline (and has further spiraled in the two months since), the Dodgers put a lot of eggs in the right-hander’s basket. He was supposed to give the unit some experienced stability. Now, he leaves yet another hole to fill.

Without Stewart, the Dodgers’ right-handed relief hierarchy is somewhat unclear. They still have longtime stalwart Blake Treinen, but he has posted a career-worst 5.47 ERA and dealt with first-half arm troubles. Hard-throwing rookie Edgardo Henriquez has a 2.50 ERA in 21 appearances, but still has just 21⅓ career innings in the big leagues. And then there’s Roki Sasaki, the rookie Japanese phenom who returned from a nearly five-month shoulder injury with an auspicious inning out of the bullpen this week.

Another name that could enter the mix: Starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan, who was scheduled to pitch Friday’s series-opener against the Seattle Mariners but will likely be shifted to a multi-inning relief role out of the bullpen come the postseason.

In any event, however, Stewart’s absence will still hurt. What the Dodgers hoped would be a high-upside play, given his 2.38 ERA with the Twins this season, has instead become yet another bullpen letdown.

SAN FRANCISCO — Teoscar Hernández pumped his fist. Ben Rortvedt let out a scream. Mookie Betts put some oomph on the end of the Dodgers’ arm-waving, hip-shaking, hit celebration.

After struggling for so long in high-leverage situations, the team’s offense finally had reason to celebrate.

For weeks now, the Dodgers have technically been in a tight division race.

The real battle, however, has often been with themselves.

At a time of the year typically dedicated to scoreboard watching and monitoring the standings, the team had instead been preoccupied by its own inconsistent play. Chief among their recent problems: Capitalizing on scoring opportunities.

In a 13-7 defeat of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, they finally vanquished those demons.

After trailing by three runs early, and reaching rock bottom again after coming up empty with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, the Dodgers mounted the kind of rally that had so often been missing during their lackluster second half of the season, scoring six runs in the top of the fifth inning to key what felt like a statement win.

“A lot of guys put together really good at-bats,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We found a way to keep the ball moving forward, keep moving to the next guy. It was really impressive.”

Early in Saturday’s game, the Dodgers (83-65) had honed a sound approach. They stressed Giants ace Logan Webb. They stayed alive in two-strike counts. They worked long at-bats and put runners on base.

The missing ingredient, as usual, had been the big hits needed to build a big inning. Then, in the top of the fifth, it all so suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped.

That’s what happened in the second, when Webb wiggled out of trouble by getting Miguel Rojas to hit an infield pop-up and Rortvedt to roll into a double-play, preserving the 4-1 lead the Giants had taken against Clayton Kershaw in a 36-pitch first inning.

“It’s real easy, if you don’t get any runs in that inning, to sit there and start pouting and start letting the emotion take over,” Muncy said. “It’s tough to dig out of that hole.”

This time, however, the Dodgers came back from the dead.

Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run in the third inning Saturday against the Giants.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

The turnaround started in the third, when Shohei Ohtani bat-flipped a leadoff home run that traveled 454 feet (the longest of his 49 long balls this season) and Hernández belted an RBI double off the wall with two outs.

That momentum carried into the fifth, when the Dodgers’ recently unproductive offense suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped the bases-loaded script.

After a walk from Betts, a single from Freddie Freeman and a walk from Muncy chased Webb from the game, Hernández came to the plate against Giants reliever José Buttó.

Hernández quickly fell behind to newly inserted Giants reliever José Buttó, taking a first-pitch fastball before fanning on a slider out of the zone. But after laying off another slider in the dirt, Hernández got a mistake, with Buttó leaving a fastball up and over the plate. Hernández lined it to the gap, where center fielder Luis Matos struggled to get a bead. It dropped in under Matos’ diving attempt, rolling past him for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.

“Getting closer to October, everybody is trying to do the little things, not trying to do too much and just getting on base for the next guy,” said Hernández, who was one of three Dodgers hitters to record three hits and lead the way with three RBIs.

“That was a big difference today. Everybody was into the game. It didn’t happen in the second inning, but we came back and started fighting again, every at-bat and scored some runs.”

Indeed, from that point on, the floodgates burst open. Michael Conforto lifted a sacrifice fly to right. Rortvedt lined another two-run double to left-center. Betts bounced a run-scoring single up the middle.

By the time the side was retired, 11 Dodgers had come to the plate. Eight had reached safely. Six had come around to score.

An exorcism, exhale and sigh of relief for the Dodgers’ long-scuffling offense.

“That was awesome,” said Kershaw, who exited after the third. “For them to grind out at-bats — especially after me putting them in a hole after the first inning — getting guys on base, not trying to do too much, taking what they’re giving you, walks, hits, all the things, it was really impressive.”

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw reacts after giving up an RBI single in the first inning Saturday.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Over their 26-33 stretch since July 4, the Dodgers had lost so many games like this one, letting bad outings from starters or wasted opportunities early in games send them into spirals that lingered for days (and sometimes weeks) after.

But on this night, every moment of adversity was met with an answer.

After Kirby Yates gave back three runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers responded with another three-spot in the sixth punctuated by an RBI double from Rojas. When the bullpen needed someone to calm the waters, rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski produced 2⅓ scoreless innings.

Even on a day that Will Smith was placed on the injured list (finally being shelved after battling a bone bruise on his hand for the last 10 days) and Muncy left the game after taking a pitch to the head (he passed postgame concussion protocols, and will have a scheduled day off Sunday), the Dodgers didn’t wilt.

Instead, their lineup finally produced as expected, going seven for 15 with runners in scoring position, producing 11 of their 23 combined hits and walks with two strikes, and fueling a win that keeps the team 2½ games up in the National League West standings — all while helping ease concerns about their recently inconsistent offense.

“I just don’t see why we can’t do that, as far as approach, on a nightly basis,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With two strikes, you got to give something up. And I think for me tonight, I saw us give up the pull side. And then you’re starting to get hits to the big part of the field, hits the other way to the other gap, winning pitches. We did that all night long. Good stuff.”

Max Muncy was activated Monday following his second stint on the injured list, and the struggling Dodgers wasted no time getting him back in the lineup against the Colorado Rockies, with Muncy starting at third base and batting cleanup.

“I wanted to be back sooner, but obviously that’s just not a realistic option sometimes,” said Muncy, who was hitting .258 with an .880 OPS, 17 homers and 64 RBIs before he sustained an oblique injury that caused him to miss 23 games.

Muncy went 0 for 3 with an intentional walk at the plate. In the field, he snagged Hunter Goodman’s line shot for the final out of the Dodgers’ 3-1 win.

“It’s a big boost. We’ve been waiting for this one for a long time,” said manager Dave Roberts, whose team had a losing record in Muncy’s absence. “Just kind of having his presence in the lineup, that obviously adds length to our lineup.”

Muncy missed 25 games with a bone bruise in his left knee earlier in the summer and returns with the Dodgers stumbling through an offensive slump that saw them lose five of six games to the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles.

Muncy said he’ll need to fight the urge to do too much too soon.

“What they need is for me to be myself and not try to do anything outside of what I usually do in a baseball game. And so it’s trying to understand that and just letting everyone else get back to being themselves,” said Muncy, who went two for seven with two walks in three games with triple-A Oklahoma City.

“Obviously, it was a rough road trip for the guys,” Muncy said. “We have to keep our focus just one day at a time. Prepare for today. How are we going to beat the pitcher today? And you know, if we get an entire group of guys buying into that, then I’m going to feel pretty good about.”

Muncy is just the first member of a big cavalry riding to the Dodgers’ rescue in time for their playoff stretch drive. Left-hander Alex Vesia could return from an oblique strain on Tuesday, Roberts said, while utility player Tommy Edman, out since Aug. 4 with a sprained ankle, is expected to be activated for the final game of the brief three-game homestand Wednesday.

Right-hander Brock Stewart, who has missed 25 games with shoulder inflammation, threw a bullpen session last Saturday in Arizona and is expected to throw another Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. If that goes well, Stewart said, he‘s expected to throw to live hitters Friday before making a brief rehab assignment with Oklahoma City.

“I’m just trying to take it one day at a time. The odds are good,” he said. “I want to help the team, but I have to focus on myself because I’m not out of the woods yet.”

In the standings, all is right again in the Dodgers’ world. Clayton Kershaw was, well, Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers won.

In the box score, all was not well. As you already have guessed, the bullpen: Five relievers were needed to cover the final three innings, in which the San Diego Padres put potential tying and/or go-ahead runs on base in each of those innings.

And, on Day 1 of Life Without Muncy 2.0, the Dodgers managed four hits.

With 40 games to play, the Dodgers and Padres are tied atop the National League West. If Max Muncy can play in even a handful of those games, the Dodgers will be grateful.

The Dodgers put their third baseman on the injured list Friday afternoon because of a strained oblique muscle. When Muncy went on the injured list last month because of a knee injury, the Dodgers led the majors in runs. He missed 25 games, in which the Dodgers ranked last in runs.

Of the Dodgers’ four hits on Friday evening, three were delivered by the bottom three batters in the lineup. That means Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages went a combined 1 for 17.

“Max just has that balance in the lineup, as far as another left-handed (hitter),” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “but also handles left-handed pitching and has the ability to get on base.

“He’s a threat. Now, without him, other guys have got to step up.”

The Dodgers’ left-handed bats, as of Friday: Ohtani, Freeman, outfielder Michael Conforto (.189) and backup catcher Dalton Rushing (.202).

It should go without saying that Ohtani and Freeman remain imposing. It should also go without saying that opponents might well line up right-handers against the Dodgers, including the Padres throwing Dylan Cease against them Saturday and Yu Darvish on Sunday.

Teoscar Hernández hits a solo home run in the seventh inning during the Dodgers’ 3-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“We’re going to see a slew of right-handed pitching,” Roberts said. “There are going to be right-handers coming out of the pen.

“Our right-handers have got to be better.”

On that score, the most encouraging development for the Dodgers on Friday was Hernández hitting what turned out to be the decisive home run.

“Teo came to life with a big homer,” Roberts said.

Hernández hit 33 home runs last season, when his OPS was at least .762 in each month of the season. His OPS has been below .762 in each month this season except the first one.

In the Dodgers’ first 29 games, he hit nine home runs. In the 93 games since then, he has hit 10.

“Some days, it’s good. Some days, it’s bad,” Hernández said. “Some days, it’s in between. Hitting is not easy. But I’m going to continue to keep working and try to be consistent for the month and a half, and hopefully in the playoffs.”

The pennant stretch comes first, and Roberts has faith in Hernández.

Said Roberts: “It’s an easy bet that, when the stakes get higher, Teo is going to really show up for us.”

Muncy does that, in getting on base and in circling the bases. In October, when the pitching can rise to the occasion, so can Muncy.

His OPS is higher in the playoffs than in the regular season. He walks way more often. He can elevate the Dodgers’ lineup in October, if the rest of the lineup can step up and help get him there.

It might be a cliché this time of year, how injured players who return after the trade deadline can serve as de facto deadline acquisitions themselves.

But in the case of Max Muncy and the Dodgers, the team needed it to be true. Badly.

Immediately after Muncy went down with a knee injury in early July, the club’s lineup entered a deep midseason slump. Its actual deadline acquisitions, which included only one hitter in outfielder Alex Call, had underwhelmed the fan base.

Thus, when Muncy returned to action Monday night, the Dodgers were desperately hoping the veteran slugger could provide a spark.

Twenty-four hours later, he did it with two thunderous swings.

In the Dodgers’ 12-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Muncy officially christened his comeback with a four-for-five, four-RBI performance that included a pair of no-doubt home runs off Miles Mikolas — picking up almost exactly where he left off before suffering a July 2 knee injury that he feared would end his season.

“As I was laying there on the ground that night, I thought for sure this is it,” Muncy recalled this week, after not only recovering from what proved to be just a bone bruise, but doing it two weeks faster than the initial six-week timeline the team had expected.

“It’s hard to stay positive in a moment like that,” Muncy added, while reliving Michael A. Taylor’s slide into his left knee a month earlier. “But extremely thankful and blessed to be back on a baseball field this year.”

Muncy did have some rust to knock off, going hitless in three at-bats with a walk and strikeout in his first game back Monday night against crafty Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray.

On Tuesday, however, Mikolas gave him the chance to do some long-awaited damage.

In the first inning, after Shohei Ohtani doubled and scored on a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly, Muncy clobbered a center-cut, first-pitch sinker 416 feet into the right-field pavilion, giving the Dodgers a quick 2-0 lead.

In the third, after the Cardinals leveled the score on Nolan Gorman’s two-run homer off Emmet Sheehan an inning earlier, Muncy went deep again, whacking an elevated fastball 404 feet for a two-run blast.

The Dodgers (66-48) wouldn’t relinquish the lead again, going on to their first double-digit scoring effort since June 22 thanks to a five-run rally in the seventh, when Muncy also added an RBI single, and two more runs in the eighth, when Muncy tacked on his fourth hit.

There were other positive signs for the Dodgers’ recently scuffling lineup on Tuesday.

Mookie Betts, who was mired in a career-long five-game, 22 at-bat hitless streak, recorded three knocks: A double right before Muncy’s second homer in the third, a line-drive single in the fifth, and a seeing-eye grounder in the eighth.

Andy Pages, who was batting just .211 since the All-Star break, made hard contact on doubles in the sixth and the seventh.

And Teoscar Hernández, who was hitting just .213 since returning from a groin strain in May, came roaring to life with a two-homer game, going back-to-back with Muncy on a solo home run in the third before smashing a game-sealing three-run drive after Muncy’s RBI single in the seventh.

Leading up to the deadline, manager Dave Roberts cited that subset of slumping hitters as potential quasi-deadline additions in their own right. Part of the reason for the team’s relative inaction at the deadline was its trust that the healthy, but scuffling, members of its lineup would get back on track down the stretch.

Still, Muncy’s eventual return had long been seen as the Dodgers’ biggest potential boon, especially after they went from leading the majors in scoring before he got hurt to ranking last in runs over the 25 games he missed.

“We’ve certainly missed him,” Roberts said ahead of Muncy’s return Monday. “The night he came off the field, you’re starting to think of it potentially being season-ending. So to get him back in a month, we’re all excited. He’s put in a lot of work to get back with this timeline. And yeah, we’ve needed him.”

Two games in, the importance of his return is already being felt.

Max Muncy knew he had gotten lucky, after his ugly-looking knee injury earlier this month proved to be nothing more than a bone bruise.

But, when doctors explained how close he came to suffering something so much worse, from when Michael A. Taylor slid into his leg at third base on July 2, even Muncy was amazed by the infinitesimal margins.

“If the timing was just a millisecond different either way,” he was told, “you’re probably looking at surgery, and done for a long time.”

Instead, barely two weeks removed from having the outside of his knee bent inward on that play, Muncy was out doing early work at Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon; running in the outfield, playing catch with coaches and performing agility drills in front of trainers without any obvious signs of pain or discomfort.

“We’re pleasantly, not surprised, but happy with the spot that I’m in right now,” Muncy said afterward, having also taken swings for the first time since his injury earlier on Friday afternoon. “It feels great. I’m moving well. Progressing quickly. We’re trying to be smart about it, and understand where we’re at, and what it’s gonna take to get back on the field. But we’re in a really good spot … We’re kind of right where we think we should be at.”

If not, it seems, already a few steps ahead.

While Muncy was initially expected to miss roughly six weeks with his left knee bone bruise, manager Dave Roberts struck a more optimistic tone as the Dodgers opened the second half of their season.

“He’s in great shape right now,” Roberts said Friday. “I don’t really know a timeline. But I do know … it’s going to be a lot sooner than anticipated, which is good for all of us.”

Since Muncy — who was one of the hottest hitters in baseball in May and June — got hurt, the Dodgers have not looked like the same offense. In their last 11 games entering Saturday, the club was 3-8, averaging less than three runs per game, and struggling to fill the gaping hole their slugging third baseman has left in the middle of the lineup.

Since the start of July, only the penny-pinching Pittsburgh Pirates have been worse than the Dodgers in batting average (.205) and OPS (.594).

“We’ve still got a lot of good players,” Roberts said. “But yeah, there’s a certain line of demarcation when Max is not in the lineup, what happens to our offense.”

The Dodgers’ problems, of course, go beyond Muncy’s absence. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman have all been slumping of late (or, in Betts’ case, for much of the season). Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman have been nowhere near their typical standard since returning from injuries in May. And the depth options the Dodgers have called upon have provided few sparks of life.

Still, Muncy figures to be a linchpin in the Dodgers’ long-term potential at the plate — with his recovery growing ever-steadily in importance as the rest of the lineup flounders in his wake.

“We got to figure out how to get something going,” said outfielder Michael Conforto, chief among the Dodgers’ underachievers this season. “Every time we go out there, we expect to score, and that’s what we’ve been doing all year. It’s just one of those stretches [where it’s] a little bit tougher to get runs in. But, you know, obviously, we have faith in our guys, and some big names in here that made their careers on scoring runs and driving guys in. I think we’ll be OK.”

Muncy, of course, is one of those proven names.

And in another fortunate stroke with his recovery, he remains confident his injury won’t significantly impact his swing once he does come back.

“If [the injury] was on the inside of the knee, it’d probably be a different story,” Muncy said. “But just being on the outside, I think it’s a good spot, knowing that I don’t feel it at all when I’m pushing off on the backside.”

Muncy tested that theory for the first time Friday, taking some light swings in the cage that he said “felt fine.”

“It’s a lot of work, more work than actually playing in the game, which always sucks,” Muncy said of his rehab process. “But it’s that way for a reason … You don’t want to have any other injuries that are a side effect from it.”

So far, even that latter concern has been quelled, with Muncy noting that “there’s no lingering side effects with it.”

“All in all,” he reiterated, “we’re about as lucky as we could be.”

When Max Muncy first went down on Wednesday night, clutching his left knee and writhing in pain after a collision with Chicago White Sox baserunner Michael A. Taylor on a steal attempt at third base, Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes couldn’t help but let his mind go to a dark place.

“Obviously, [there were] a lot of emotions,” Gomes said. “From a coping mechanism in my head, it was like, ‘OK, he’s done for the year. We’re gonna have to figure out what the next path is. We have to be prepared for whatever is coming.’”

What came the next day, however, was unexpectedly good news.

Despite having his knee bent awkwardly, gruesomely inward, Muncy escaped with only a bone bruise. There were no ligament tears. No structural damage. No season-ending catastrophe.

Dodger Max Muncy grimaces as he holds his left knee after colliding with White Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“We’ve had a lot more [injury situations] where we’ve gone in optimistic and then come out the other side not as optimistic,” Gomes said. “So it was nice to have that turned on its head and know that, ‘Hey, he’s gonna be out there.’”

On Thursday, Muncy said he is expected to miss roughly six weeks. But even that timeline would give him a month-plus before the playoffs to try and rediscover the swing that made him one of the hottest hitters in baseball the past two months.

And because Muncy’s injury was to the lower half of his body, manager Dave Roberts noted, the hope is that “it’s not something that should affect the swing” when he does return.

“With the time we have, there’s nothing pressing as far as needing to rush him back,” Roberts said. “I think we’re in a good spot.”

That’s why, as of Friday, Gomes had shelved those contingency plans that were running through his mind 48 hours earlier. His front office wasn’t urgently scouring the trade market looking for an instant replacement.

Instead, Gomes and Roberts insisted the Dodgers’ trade deadline plans are unlikely to be altered in the wake of Muncy’s injury — with the team content to rely on internal options now, while awaiting Muncy’s return later this year.

“Knowing the certainty of Max coming back at some point,” Roberts said, “I don’t think that will really impact our thinking going into the deadline.”

“Even if [his recovery] is way slow,” Gomes added, “you have a full month of baseball before we hit the playoffs. 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.”

Fans cheer after Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy hit a three-run homer against the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium on June 22.

(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)

Trade speculation surrounding the Dodgers’ third base position is nothing new.

Earlier this year, when Muncy was struggling mightily through the opening month of the year, there were growing calls from the fanbase for the team to find a more productive replacement before the July 31 deadline.

Lately, however, Muncy had quieted such noise with one of the best stretches of his career. Before getting hurt, he was batting .308 over his past 46 games with 12 home runs, 48 RBIs and more walks (32) than strikeouts (26).

“When he’s not in the lineup,” Roberts said, “our offense tapers off.”

Whether Muncy can return to such levels of production, of course, won’t become clear until well after the deadline passes. But finding impact bats on this year’s trade market might not be an easy task, especially at third base.

Nolan Arenado has long been linked to the Dodgers in trade rumors. But he has career-lows in batting average (.247) and OPS (.701) this year, and is still due some $40 million over the next two-and-a-half seasons on his contract.

The Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado watches his double in the sixth inning of a game against the Cleveland Guardians in Cleveland on June 27.

(Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

Lower-profile names such as Eugenio Suárez, Ryan McMahon and Ramón Urías (who could be a better roster fit for the Dodgers as a utility weapon) could also be moved. But the Dodgers won’t be desperate to overpay for an impact bat knowing Muncy should be back well before the start of the playoffs.

“Obviously, he’s been so dialed in, one of the best hitters in the game over the last six weeks, so there’s always some [question of], ‘How are we going to get back to that spot?’” Gomes acknowledged of Muncy.

“But I don’t think that is something that Max has never done before,” he added, referencing Muncy’s ability to contribute to last year’s World Series run despite missing three months in the regular season with an oblique injury. “So there’s a comfort level. We have some time. We’ll make sure that he’s eased back in. We have enough technology that he can take at-bats and see pitches before he ever has to go out on rehab and is back in a major-league game. We should be getting some approximation of what his swing was, and then use that time to get into a rhythm.”

In the meantime, the Dodgers plan to incorporate Tommy Edman at third base, where he has 94 career big-league appearances (mostly in 2019 and 2020 with the St. Louis Cardinals, before Arenado’s arrival there).

“It’s a position I’m comfortable with,” Edman said Friday, after taking grounders at third at the start of his pregame work. “The hops [there] are weird, so you gotta play a little bit more one-handed … But it’s still the infield. You still gotta work on the footwork, just like you would at second and short. Catching the ball, getting behind your throws. It’s a lot of the same concepts.”

Kiké Hernández and Miguel Rojas will also see time at third, typically against left-handed pitching, while triple-A prospect Alex Freeland could offer depth from the minors if needed.

Hyeseong Kim, meanwhile, should also get a bump in playing time at second base on days Edman is at third.

“It’s gonna be a good opportunity for him,” Roberts said of Kim. “It’ll be good to know more and get him some more experience.”

When the deadline rolls around at the end of the month, the Dodgers will have more information to work with — not only on the state of Muncy’s rehab, but also about how their lineup fares without him.

With a top-five farm system in the sport, according to MLB Pipeline and Baseball America, they will have the ammunition to make a splash if needed.

But for now, their expectation is that Muncy’s injury won’t force them into a drastic midseason roster makeover. They are hopeful that what initially appeared to be a season-altering moment will be nothing more than a temporary speed bump in their pursuit of a second consecutive title.

“We’re playing good baseball as a team. We’re in a good position division-wise right now,” Gomes said. “So if we keep doing that, we can weather [Muncy’s absence].”

The Dodgers will be without Max Muncy for approximately six weeks after the third baseman was placed on the injured list Thursday with what the team is calling a bone bruise in his left knee. Muncy was injured in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s walk-off win over the Chicago White Sox when Chicago’s Michael Taylor slid headfirst into third on an unsuccessful attempt to steal third base.

The Dodgers now have 13 players on the injured list.

Taylor’s helmet hit Muncy’s knee, bending it sideways and flipping the infielder to the ground. The collision was so gruesome, SportsNet LA, which was broadcasting the game, did not show replays. Muncy writhed on the ground in obvious pain before being helped to the clubhouse.

Muncy, who entered the Dodger clubhouse Thursday afternoon wearing a blue elastic support bandage on his left leg, said he originally feared the worst, but an MRI found no structural damage.

“It was tough news, but it was also great news,” he said. “I still get to play baseball this year instead of coming back next year around April. So it was kind of best-case scenario.”

Muncy, who said his knee felt stiff but not painful, was scheduled to meet the Dodger doctors later Thursday but said he intended to embark on an aggressive rehabilitation process.

“Everybody’s body is different,” he said. “You know, some guys heal extremely fast, some guys heal extremely slow. Traditionally, I’ve always healed fairly fast.”

Taylor also left the game with a shoulder contusion. The White Sox have listed his status as day to day.

Muncy’s place on the roster was taken by outfielder Esteury Ruiz, who was acquired on April 2 from the Athletics in exchange for minor league right-handed pitcher Carlos Duran. Ruiz appeared in 66 games for triple-A Oklahoma City, batting .292 with eight homers, 37 RBIs and 38 stolen bases.

Muncy’s absence will leave a big hole in the Dodgers’ lineup. He led the team with a .333 average and 24 RBIs in June, when he matched Shohei Ohtani for the lead in home runs with seven. He is hitting .250/.375/.457 for the season and is third on the team with 55 RBIs.

“He’s huge,” pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who was on the mound when the injury happened, said of Muncy. “I don’t really know why he stole there. It just seemed unnecessary. We’re all holding our breath that Munc is going to be OK.

“He’s obviously a huge part of our team, especially the last two months.”

Michael Taylor’s helmet collided with Max Muncy’s left knee on his unsuccessful attempt to steal third base, injuring Muncy in the process.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Miguel Rojas, who hasn’t played since injuring his left hand on an attempted steal Sunday, started at third base Thursday. Kiké Hernández, who took Muncy’s place Wednesday, is also likely to see some time at third in Muncy’s absence.

Hernández is hitting .204/2.70/.383 while Rojas, primarily a second baseman, is batting .250/.289/.380.

As someone who has permanent ringing in the ears (tinnitus) as a result of hearing damage from concerts, I must take exception to how loud the music is played at sporting events these days. Despite quotes from Dodger players and executives stating how “great” the loudness at Dodger Stadium is, they are putting the paying customers and employees at risk for hearing loss with the excessive volume. Entertaining the fans is one thing, assaulting the delicate instrument that is our ears is quite another. I’m sure they could turn it down to safer decibel levels and everyone will still have a good time.

Mark Furcick
San Pedro

Dodger Stadium hosts a Military Appreciation Night, a Salvadoran Heritage Night, and a Guatemalan Heritage Night. But we will never see an Autism Spectrum Night. The ear-shattering sound system would cause fans to run from the stadium screaming in pain and terror.

I suffer from a condition called hyperacusis, where loud noises can cause ear pain lasting for days or even weeks. It’s rare in the general population, but more common among autistic people. I love baseball, and used to love going to Dodger Stadium from the year it opened until 20-something years ago. But now I’d have to wear industrial-strength ear protection.

Russell Stone
Westchester

I used to like bleacher seats but won’t sit there again — way too loud right under the sound system.

Bob Wieting
Simi Valley

Sure it’s “entertainment.” Sure the players like the enthusiasm. But there are seats located beneath or near speakers that are simply painful to the ears.

Richard Melniker
Los Angeles

DENVER — The rain came out of nowhere. So too, it seemed, did Max Muncy’s infield pop-up.

In the top of the sixth inning at Coors Field on Tuesday night, Muncy was at the plate with two out and two runners aboard when a sudden rainstorm opened up from overcast skies. Within moments, sheets of rain were pouring down. But as fans scattered for cover, umpires let the at-bat roll on.

“My glasses were pretty full of water at that point,” Muncy said. “Was just kind of praying to put the ball in play.”

In a full count, Muncy did, launching a sky-high pop-up down the first base line.

In clear conditions, it would have been a routine catch to end the inning.

But this time, neither Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia nor second baseman Thairo Estrada could locate the blur of leather as it came hurtling back to earth.

“When rain is falling that thick,” Muncy said, “it’s really hard to look up and find a baseball.”

Indeed, as Muncy pulled into first base, and teammates Shohei Ohtani and Dalton Rushing came trotting across the plate, Toglia looked toward Estrada, who initially appeared to be calling for the ball. But then, Estrada looked back at Toglia in confusion, neither appearing certain exactly where the pop-up went. At the last second, both instead ducked for cover, turtling with their arms around their heads. The ball landed between them, seemingly startling Toglia after dropping a few feet to his right.

In the scorebook, the play went down as a two-run single, representing the first runs in a game the Dodgers went on to win 8-1 — with the help of a victory-sealing grand slam from Muncy in the top of the seventh.

But in reality, it was another example of the Rockies’ helplessness in this historically hapless season — and a comical stroke of luck the Dodgers were more than happy to take.

“At first, I was just happy I made contact,” Muncy said. “Then you’re upset you pop it up. Then you see them kind of scrambling around and you start getting a little excited. Then it drops and obviously you’re happy about it.”

Entering this week’s trip to Colorado, manager Dave Roberts emphasized the importance of stacking wins against a Rockies team on pace to set an MLB record for losses in a season. He noted how it was part of a softer overall stretch in the team’s schedule, with the Dodgers (50-31) in a run of 12 straight games against teams with losing records.

“You need to beat the teams you’re supposed to beat,” Roberts said. “That’s just the way it is.”

In both games in Denver this week, the Rockies (18-62) have aided in that cause. On Monday, Toglia misplayed three balls in a six-run fourth-inning rally for the Dodgers that catapulted them to a series-opening win.

Tuesday’s blunder, however, was even more of an egregious eyesore; even if Roberts and Muncy both described it as a tricky play.

“I give Max a lot of credit for just staying in the at-bat, fighting to put the ball in play, to allow for something like that to happen,” Roberts said. “It certainly changed the momentum … With no runs [right there], it might have been a different ballgame.”

The next time Muncy came to the plate, he added to his RBI total in a more traditional way.

With the bases loaded and two out in the seventh, the scorching hot slugger turned on a hanging 0-and-2 slider and launched his second grand slam in the last three games way out to right field.

It gave Muncy six RBIs on the night, and a staggering 42 runs driven in over his last 37 games.

“Not everyone is swinging the bat well,” Roberts said, a group that most notably includes Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who went a combined 0-for-nine. “So to have that production from Max in the middle of the lineup has been paramount.”

“He’s got a lot of confidence right now,” Roberts added.

The offensive output — which continued with a towering home run from Michael Conforto in the eighth — marked one of the few times this year the Dodgers provided Yoshinobu Yamamoto with ample run support. On Wednesday alone, they matched the eight total runs they had scored in his previous four starts this month.

It proved to be plenty on a night the right-hander spun a much-needed gem, bouncing back from the 5.23 ERA he had in June entering the night with five scoreless innings that included one hit, one walk and six strikeouts.

Even at mile-high altitude, his ability to locate curveballs and splitters was particularly sharp, helping him rack up 39 strikes out of 56 pitches.

“I started feeling good last week, and going into today’s game,” Yamamoto said. “And then today I was attacking with first-pitch strikes pretty good. I think that was [the biggest difference].”

The only thing that stopped Yamamoto was the rain, forcing him to make an early exit after a one-hour, 27-minute delay that began immediately after Muncy’s pop-up. But by that point, the sudden showers had already done enough, helping the Dodgers take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish on a routine pop-up the Rockies’ infield lost sight of.

Said Muncy, with a laugh: “Hit it to the right spot, I guess.”

Upstaging Shohei Ohtani, especially on a day he pitches, is no easy feat.

But at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon, teammate Max Muncy did it twice — hitting two home runs and matching a career high with seven RBIs to lift the Dodgers to a 13-7 defeat of the Washington Nationals, and make Ohtani more of the sideshow in his second pitching start of the season.

Despite two strikeouts over a scoreless first inning from Ohtani to begin the day, Dodger Stadium had sat in relative silence for the next five innings.

Ben Casparius, who replaced the still workload-restricted Ohtani on the mound in the second, gave up a three-run home run in the third, when a flyball deflected off Hyeseong Kim’s glove at the wall before hitting a fan reaching over the barrier.

Michael Soroka, the former All-Star turned inconsistent journeyman, held the Dodgers hitless into the fifth, racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts while protecting the 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, however, an opportunity for the Dodgers finally arose.

Dalton Rushing led off with a slicing ground-rule double down the left-field line. Ohtani drew a walk with the help of two favorable ball-strike calls. Badly slumping Freddie Freeman was bailed out of an 0-and-2 count on a wild slurve from Soroka that hit his foot.

And suddenly, the Nationals had to go to the bullpen, summoning left-hander Jose A. Ferrer to face Muncy with the bases loaded.

After just three pitches to Muncy, Ferrer called out the grounds crew to rake the mound and smooth out his landing area on the downslope.

But at the plate, it gave Muncy time to think about his at-bat against Ferrer the night before, mentally lock in on what to expect, and catch his breath in the biggest moment of the game.

“When he’s ready, he’s ready,” Muncy said he told himself. “And let’s get a swing off.”

Muncy did on each of the next two pitches, fouling off one center-cut sinker before lining the next deep to left for a script-flipping, deficit-erasing, go-ahead grand slam.

“I saw the guy last night, so had a good idea of what he was throwing in there and how to approach it,” Muncy said. “I was trying to keep the ball off the ground, get something in the air, get at least one run in. Just trying to do a job. And I got a good swing off and got the ball in a good spot.”

Ohtani started the day as the main attraction.

Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani delivers in the first inning against the Nationals on Sunday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The two-way star drew a crowd as he came onto the field for pregame warm-ups and got loose in the left-field bullpen — prompting fans even up in the upper reserve-level deck to lean over railings and get a look at his dual-role talents.

And once the game began, Ohtani climbed atop the mound and showed progress from his season debut as a pitcher six days before.

“I thought he was considerably better today,” manager Dave Roberts said. “The stuff, the life of the fastball, the command of his pitches — much better.”

Ohtani’s scoreless inning included strikeouts of Luis Garcia Jr. on a sweeper and Nathaniel Lowe on a cutter, representing his first strikeouts since returning from Tommy John surgery. He worked around a dropped infield pop-up from Mookie Betts in an otherwise efficient 18-pitch, 12-strike outing. He hit 99 mph with his fastball while mixing in a healthy dose of sweepers, cutters and splitters to complement it.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a home run in the eighth inning Sunday against the Nationals.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

“Overall, I was able to relax much better compared to my last outing,” said Ohtani, who noted that the plan for Sunday’s start was to once again be limited to only one inning.

“I think that it’s just more of just trying to get the foundation, the building blocks as he’s taking at-bats,” Roberts added. “Getting an inning here, an inning there, and then just gradually progress.”

Ohtani also quieted recent questions about whether his return to pitching was affecting his bat.

After entering the day two-for-19 in five games since resuming two-way duties, Ohtani helped the Dodgers (48-31) pull away late. In the seventh, he laced a bases-loaded, three-run triple past the first base bag, turning a narrow one-run lead into a comfortable four-score cushion over the Nationals (32-46). In the eighth, he added more insurance, belting a two-run homer to left-center field for his National League-leading 26th long ball.

“When he’s going to the big part of the field, I think he’s really, really good,” Roberts said. “So today was good. And hopefully it quiets the noise a little bit with the days that he pitches.”

Not to be outdone, however, Muncy raised the ante himself in the latter innings, following Ohtani’s seventh-inning triple with a three-run home run to right three batters later.

“You look at the last 30 days, I think he’s been our best hitter,” Roberts said. “We never wavered in our confidence, and we’ve shown that, and he’s proven us all right.”

Indeed, Sunday continued a stunning mid-season turnaround for Muncy — giving him a .305 average with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs over his last 39 games; compared to a .177 average, one home run and seven RBIs in his first 35 contests.

It moved him into third place among National League third basemen this season with an .815 OPS — making a player who once seemed bound for trade rumors this summer unexpectedly on the fringes of the All-Star conversation.

And, it somehow managed to top the all-around production Ohtani displayed in his two-way encore, lifting the Dodgers to a weekend series win and 7-3 record overall on this 10-game homestand.

“It’s definitely a snowball effect,” Muncy said. “Confidence is high right now.”

Twenty-nine hours before his official return to the Dodger Stadium mound, Emmet Sheehan took a moment to get himself reacquainted with his home ballpark.

In an empty Dodger Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, Sheehan walked onto the field at Chavez Ravine, climbed up a slope he hadn’t toed since the 2023 season, and practiced his pitching motion a few times before returning to the clubhouse.

For Sheehan, such dry tosses are part of his normal pre-start routine. In any ballpark where he pitches, he likes to get a feel for the mound and its surroundings before the game.

The only difference this time: how long it had been since he’d taken the bump in a big-league stadium.

After an auspicious rookie season in 2023, in which his 4.92 earned-run average belied the potential he flashed with his low-arm-slot, high-velocity delivery, Sheehan missed all of last season and the first three months of this campaign after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

A former sixth-round draft pick who blossomed into one of the organization’s top pitching prospects during an impressive minor-league career, Sheehan became one of the many homegrown Dodgers pitchers to endure a major surgery after injuring his elbow in spring training last year.

In recent months, however, his relatively seamless recovery process had fueled excitement throughout the organization leading up to his return on Wednesday.

And over four sharp innings in the Dodgers’ 4-3 win against the San Diego Padres — one that ended on a walk-off home run by Will Smith in the ninth — the 25-year-old right-hander showed exactly why.

With his fastball sitting around 95 mph, and a tantalizing combination of sliders and changeups keeping Padres hitters off balance, Sheehan gave up just one run while striking out six batters in his big-league return.

He threw 65 pitches, 43 for strikes. He didn’t issue a walk, while yielding only three hits. And the lone score against him came when second baseman Tommy Edman failed to corral a hard-hit one-hopper with two outs in the top of the second.

Other than that, he posted nothing but zeroes.

Sheehan wasn’t the winning pitcher. That honor went to another former prospect, left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who followed Sheehan with five stellar innings of long relief, flashing his own promising signs (including a fastball that touched 99 mph at one point) after an up-and-down start to his big-league career.

For most of his outing, Wrobleski was protecting a 3-1 lead the Dodgers took in the bottom of the fifth, when Max Muncy hit a leadoff triple, Hyeseong Kim followed an Andy Pages sacrifice fly with a double, and slumping rookie catcher Dalton Rushing plated the game’s go-ahead runs on a two-run single.

But with the Dodgers’ bullpen worn thin from back-to-back bullpen games the previous two nights, Wrobleski went back to the mound in the ninth to try to finish things off. He couldn’t, giving up two runs after a Max Muncy throwing error put him in a jam.

However, Smith made sure it didn’t matter, coming off the bench in the bottom of the ninth to whack a walk-off home run just over the right-field wall.

Will Smith runs to first after hitting a walk-off home run in the ninth inning for the Dodgers against the Padres on Wednesday night.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Despite the late dramatics, it was Sheehan’s return that had the biggest future implications on the Dodgers’ season, giving their shorthanded rotation a badly needed, and highly intriguing, new option for the second half of the season.

While discussing Sheehan before the game, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers always “liked his makeup, his toughness, his ability to repeat his delivery, the swing-and-miss stuff, the preparation.”

But the way he navigated his Tommy John recovery — returning to action 13 months after undergoing the procedure last May — had added another element of optimism among team officials.

Roberts noted how Sheehan had seemingly increased his physical strength during his rehab, with the once lanky 6-foot-5 pitcher now possessing noticeably more mass. He also explained how Sheehan has “had a chance to watch a lot of baseball, learn and then now apply it.”

“I think that’s going to make him a better major league pitcher,” Roberts said.

One start back, signs of such growth were already becoming clear.