Max Muncy: ‘The thing I wanted most was to stay in LA for more than just one year’

Max Muncy had a busy and lucrative extended weekend. First he signed a two-year contract extension with the Dodgers that was finalized on Thursday. Then on Friday he was inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and spent the weekend at his alma mater.

The Dodgers held a club option on Muncy for 2024 worth $14 million. Per the collective bargaining agreement, all option decisions must be made within five days after the World Series ends, which this year meant Monday.

But Muncy and his representative reached out to Andrew Friedman and company in the Dodgers front office on something possibly beyond that, Muncy said as a guest on Foul Territory on Monday.

“For me the most important thing was staying as a Dodger for more than just the one year that I had with my option,” Muncy said. “We made that very clear, that we wanted to be here longer than just the one year. They agreed with us on it, and we were able to get a deal done.”

Muncy signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in 2017 after getting released by the A’s. He played a full season in Triple-A before getting a chance in Los Angeles. But since he reached the majors he hasn’t looked back, ranking seventh in the majors with 175 home runs since the start of 2018.

Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs last week argued that Muncy’s two-year, $24-million contact was a team-friendly deal for the Dodgers, a sentiment echoed by Muncy on Foul Territory on Monday.

“There’s no telling what my market would have actually been,” Muncy said. “But we felt the deal we got was definitely undervalued, but we discussed that the value to us was being able to stay in LA, and keeping my family in LA, where my kids are comfortable now, my wife is comfortable there now.

“More than likely, even if we didn’t have any discussions the Dodgers would have picked up my option and I would have had another year anyways. But just to know that my family’s going to be able to be there a couple more years, that was the more important thing.

“It’s an organization that I love, it’s organization that I’ve been there for a very long time now. When I was out of baseball, they gave me a chance, and they kind of helped me rediscover my love for baseball and rediscover myself as a player. They’ve been loyal to me, they’ve stuck with me when I’ve had some downs. That’s meant a lot to me. For me it was kind of a no-brainer. The thing I wanted most was to stay in LA for more than just one year. This gives me the opportunity potentially to be there up to three more years.