Muncy See Muncy Do
Max Muncy (LAD): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 7 RBI.
Max Muncy flipped the script of Sunday’s Dodgers-Nationals game with a couple of swings. Leading 3-0 in the sixth inning, Washington’s bullpen couldn’t hold starter Michael Soroka’s lead, serving up a grand slam to Muncy, which he followed up with a three-run shot in the seventh. Muncy is now up to 11 home runs on the season, and is slashing .242/.373/.442 with 45 RBI. His final line of the night was 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 7 RBI, his second two-homer, seven-RBI game of the season.
It’s been a tale of two seasons for Muncy in 2025. He didn’t hit his first home run of the season until April 30, when he had an underwhelming line of .194/.309/.301 with only five RBI. Since then, he’s been one of the Dodgers’ most reliable hitters, hitting a vintage Max Muncy-like .250/.376/.475 in May, and a whopping .310/.461/.621 in June. His OPS of .815 is now third among all third basemen.
What sparked this magical change on April 30? A pair of glasses. At the end of April, Muncy learned he had astigmatism in his right eye. Since Muncy is a left-handed hitter, his right eye is his lead eye, so he turned to prescription glasses to try and rekindle his career success at the plate. And boy has it paid off. His K rate plummeted from 34.4% to 22.3%, his best rate since 2021. Always with one of the top walk rates in the league, his BB% is now a career high 17%, second in the league behind Juan Soto’s 18.5%. Merge those two stats with his 50.9% HardHit rate, and there’s your season turnaround. His Process+ rolling chart below is a great way to visualize the pre- and post-glasses Muncy in 2025.
The ironic thing is that fantasy managers were blind to Muncy’s resurgence, and he was left languishing on waivers through mid-May before his ownership started to rise. He’s still only 75% owned in Yahoo leagues and 47.4% owned in ESPN leagues. Fix this now if you’re in one of the lucky leagues where he’s a FA, and buy-high in all 12-team leagues or higher for a solid rest-of-season CI, especially in OBP or points leagues.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Sunday:
Shohei Ohtani (LAD): 2-4, 3B, HR, 3 R, 5 RBI, BB.
Shohei had a solid day of his own, hitting his 26th homer of the season, along with a bases-clearing triple, and is up to 49 RBIs after a 5-RBI day. Oh, and he also struck out two over one hitless inning of work. It’s only a matter of time until the reigning NL MVP headlines both the Batter’s Box and SP Roundup articles on the same night.
Nathaniel Lowe (WSN): 1-3, HR, R, 4 RBI, BB.
Lowe was a popular late sleeper pick for those looking for a patience-power combo, but we haven’t seen much of either on a consistent level in 2025. Suddenly, Lowe has four homers over the past week, including two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Don’t be fooled by the results. The blue all over his Statcast page, and his recent dip in his Process+ this month, mean Lowe has rightly earned his spot on the waiver wire of your leagues.
Seiya Suzuki (CHC): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI.
The ball was flying out of Wrigley on Sunday, and while Seiya was one of three players to hit two home runs, he was the only one to crush two homers off an All-Star pitcher, Seattle ace Logan Gilbert. He’s up to 20 on the season in only 73 games, just one shy of his career-high of 21 in 2024, which he achieved over 132 games. Seiya has the highest average EV of his career at 92.6 mph (top 10% of the league) and is barreling the ball at a much higher rate than previous seasons (17.3% in 2025 to 11.5% in 2024). While his 36 barrels are about to tie his career high of 41, his power surge is coming at the expense of his BA and OBP, with his BB% down almost three percent from last season, leading to a season line of .256/.312/.539. Fantasy managers won’t be complaining if Suzuki stays healthy and finishes the season with 35+ homers.
Cal Raleigh (SEA): 2-3, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB.
Is this man for real? Another homer, his 31st of the year, and it’s only June 22! Raleigh has a legit shot at beating Aaron Judge’s AL home run record of 62. There aren’t many true objective league winners in fantasy baseball, but Raleigh might be one that everyone can agree on.
Cal Raleigh’s 31st home run! He’s on pace to hit 66! pic.twitter.com/HMX7EA01kE
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 22, 2025
Donovan Solano (SEA): 3-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 5 RBI.
Hey, look, a two-homer, five-RBI game for a 37-year-old vet! How’d he do it? “You see like every fly ball is almost going … the wind is blowing out, so like, on those soft pitches, I try to hit them hard.” Well done, Donovan, but you know and I know he’s not going to produce every night and has no fantasy value. Wait, even though he’s playing more regularly and is hitting .520/.538/.920 with 11 RBI over his last 25 at-bats? Yes.
Byron Buxton (MIN): 3-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, SB.
Buxton is having the season we always wished for. You know, the one he could have had years ago if we could just turn off injuries in real life like you can in video games. Buxton swatted two more homers on Sunday, and is now slashing a cool .285/.353/.575 on the season, with 17 homers. His career-best HardHit rate of 54.1%, coupled with a clean bill of health, will hopefully help him best his career-high 28 homers from 2022. Hopefully.
Rhys Hoskins (MIL): 2-3, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB.
Rhys had a nice day at the ballpark on Sunday, collecting a double and his 12th homer of the year. While I was higher on Hoskins entering the season, and even though his current line is a respectable 248/.340/.439, his Contact Ability+ chart below is frightening, making me think his final 2025 line will probably be closer to his 2024 line of .214/.303/.419. This is a roller coaster ride that I do not want to ride, even as a one-week streamer.
Mauricio Dubón (HOU): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB.
Dubón flashed some power at the plate on Sunday and has now hit four of his five home runs over the last week during the Astros’ California road trip. Is this the start of a hot streak for Dubón? Given that he never hit more than 10 homers in a season and only has 48 barrels over his seven-year career, no, I don’t think so.
Nolan Schanuel (LAA): 3-5, 2B, HR, R, 4 RBI.
A man known more for his patience than his power had a nice little stat line on Sunday, collecting his sixth home run of the season, along with four RBI. Schanuel is a nice fantasy piece to pair with some free-swinging sluggers, especially in deeper leagues. His season line is 283/.372/.412, and maybe some counting stats will start accumulating from the No. 2 spot now that Taylor Ward and Jo Adell are producing. Imagine if Mike Trout and his 98% Yahoo ownership started producing as well …
