A's Prospect Max Muncy on MLB's Doorstep

The Oakland A's selected Max Muncy (2.0) in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft, and the 21-year-old has quickly risen through the system. Now in Triple-A, Muncy is ranked as the No. 7 prospect in the A's system, and is hoping to make his Major League debut in 2024.

Muncy is a shortstop, and according to his manager from Double-A, Bobby Crosby, he has the tools to stick at the position. "It depends how big he gets, but he can play shortstop. There's no doubt about that."

In his first full season in pro ball, Muncy struggled. He hit a combined .229 with a .352 OBP between Low-A Stockton and High-A Lansing. He hit 19 home runs, but he also struck out 169 times for a 30.4% strikeout rate.

The following year he showed improvement, batting .275 with a .353 on-base and dropping the strikeout rate to 26.8% between Lansing and Double-A Midland. The impressive part of his development was that his numbers were actually a good deal better in the higher level, and his strikeout rate dropped to 23.2% in 51 games.

On Saturday in Sacramento, I talked with Muncy about the adjustments he made in between the 2022 and '23. He credits a lot of the higher ups in the organization for crafting him. "I think it maybe took them a year to figure out how I receive information." Muncy said that he's more of a tough love guy, and that he needs to be shown what he's doing wrong in order for him to buy it.

"If I'm if I think I'm doing fine and you're telling me to change, I'm gonna trust my own intuition. But if you kind of show me the numbers and show me, 'Hey, you're actually not doing that well in this part of the game,' I'll probably be more open to what you have to say."

Through 18 games in 2024, Muncy's production at the plate has been right where he was a year ago when he began to take off. His walk rate (8.5%) is right where it was in Midland, and his strikeout rate (23.9%) is in line with where it was too. So what's the next step for his game?

The way that Muncy sees things, he needs to improve his defense to reach the next level, and to do that he needs more reps. For Crosby, it's more about slowing the game down because Muncy is a "quick-twitch" player that thinks fast. "His biggest fault is thinking he can make every play and thinking he has to get to it now, and get rid of it quick. The more he can slow the game down, make the simple plays and still be able to make great plays, which he will. For me, it's not more reps, but it's his mentality. When his mentality slows down a tiny bit, then the better he's going to be."

Muncy also mentioned that he'd like to get his strikeout rate down to about 15% in Triple-A, because it's going to go up in the big leagues with pitchers having better stuff up there, so he wants to have that skill honed in when he arrives.

Crosby gave some insight into the approach that he'd like Muncy to have that would help him reach the next level. "He's a guy who, hitting-wise, he's really got to focus on right-center field. He's so quick, that he can focus on hitting fastballs that way and still be able to react to a fastball in. When he goes bad, he wants to pull everything. I was very similar in that respect as a player, so it's easy for me to look at him and say 'he needs to do this, this, and this.'"

The goal for Muncy is to obviously make it to the big leagues, and he knows he has some improvements to make to get there. I asked him if making it to Oakland this year would mean anything to him with this being the club's final season in The Town.

"I mean, you always want to be in the big leagues, but there is some extra umph to being in Oakland. I went there and I signed my contract at the Coliseum. So there is a dynamic of I want to go there and play because when you're drafted as a teenager, that's the vision. This is where I'm gonna play. That's the goal. So I think in the back of my mind the past couple of years it's been, I want to make it to the Coliseum.

I think it would be nice if I got the chance and if they need me this year, to go play in the stadium I saw myself playing three years ago."