Launch Angle — from minus to MAX

Max Muncy signed a 3-year extension with the Dodgers in February. The 2019 All-Star accumulated with 70 homeruns in 2018 and 2019. The Dodgers signed him to a minor league deal in April, 2017. Before that, he played 96 games with the Oakland Athletics and his BA was only .195. What did the Dodgers do to make Muncy an All-Star?

Max Muncy did not play any games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017. He spent that year with the OKC Dodgers, hitting .309 with 12 homeruns. In 2018, Muncy was called up in mid-April. He got 29 ABs in April, he hit 2 homeruns, while the batting average was only .207. However, Muncy started to heat up. In May, he had 5 homeruns and crushed 10 HRs in June. Since then, Muncy has become an important part of the Dodgers lineup. 

Muncy didn’t have plenty of opportunities in 2015 and 2016. In the 2 years with the Oakland Athletics, he played less than 100 games in total. In 2015, we saw the dramatic differences of launch angles against different pitches. Since he didn’t have MLB plate appearances in 2017, there’s no statcast data to track. In 2018, Muncy’s launch angle against fastballs was 21 degrees, against breaking balls, the launch angle increased to 15 degrees and the launch angle against offspeed pitches was 12 degrees.

Muncy seems to be relatively comfortable at hitting fastballs. His hard hit rate against fastballs remains at least 30%, growing to 54% in 2018. Compared to his time in Oakland, he’s much better at hitting breaking balls and offspeed pitches.

Muncy did hit lots of balls on the ground in 2016. But things changed when he played for the Dodgers, he hit the balls in the air more.

Muncy hit lots of breaking balls and offspeed pitches on the ground in 2015 and 2016, however, the story is totally different after he joined the Dodgers.

Against fastballs and offspeed pitches, Muncy didn’t have many problems to hit line drives. In fact, he hit more line drives in 2019 when facing fastballs and offspeed pitches.

Compared to the days in Oakland, Muncy truly hit the balls in the air in the Dodgers jersey.

In last 2 seasons, Muncy became a different player. He’s very good at hitting fastballs and he improved against breaking balls.

Muncy is another good example of changing his approach and becomes a power hitter. With adjustments of launch angle, Muncy’s hard hit rate increased a lot last 2 seasons. There’s no doubt that he had such great performance and he’s an elite hitter in the league now. His xwOBA ranked 6^th in 2018 and 20^th in 2019. In the meantime, Muncy was walked 169 times last 2 seasons, that’s 11^th most in the MLB. He’s highly disciplined and patient. Thus, it seems that the Dodgers front office was making a good deal to extend Muncy.