Can Muncy's glove at third base catch up to his bat?

MESA, Ariz. – The Athletics have never doubted that Max Muncy could hit at the highest level. His abilities showed up in flashes over his first big league season in 2025 and have carried into Spring Training, where he’s performed as arguably the top hitter in camp.

To land an everyday role with the A’s in 2026, Muncy has to prove he can handle third base on a regular basis. So, even as he entered Thursday’s game against the Rangers at Surprise Stadium leading the team in batting average (.393), on-base percentage (.514), slugging (.750) and OPS (1.264), it’s his defense that the coaching staff is closely evaluating this spring.

“Offensively, he’s more than ready to contribute at the Major League level,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “Our biggest focus right now is on the defense. We’ve been working really hard with him in those areas, and we’ve seen some improvement. We’re going to continue to follow that progress.”

A first-round Draft pick by the A’s in 2021 out of Thousand Oaks High School (Calif.), Muncy is a natural shortstop who has played up the middle for most of his life. It wasn’t until last season that he saw any sort of regular playing time at third, grading out as a below-average defender in his 32 games at the hot corner.

With Jacob Wilson establishing himself as the starting shortstop and Jeff McNeil brought in this offseason to be the starting second baseman, third base is the only infield spot that remains open for the A’s. Including Thursday, Muncy has appeared exclusively at third and at designated hitter for the A’s in all 14 of his games played this spring.

“It’s still fairly new,” Muncy, who crushed a 440-foot solo homer off Jack Leiter in Thursday's 7-6 loss to the Rangers, said of playing third base. “Over time, it’ll become normal. That’s why I’m going through the growing pains right now, so it’s not a concern later.”

While Muncy is used to playing on the left side of the infield, the shift to third is a big adjustment. The angles are different. The reaction times are shortened. The ball is generally coming at you harder with more topspin, especially off a right-handed bat. All those nuances of the position are things he’s been working on constantly with A’s infield coach Bobby Crosby.

“It’s just the normalness of the balls that I see,” Muncy said of the differences between shortstop and third. “At short, you categorize balls that you’ve seen. Certain hops or certain ways a guy hits it, you know what it’s going to do. At third, I’m still getting used to certain balls off the bat and reading them right away, just because I haven’t fully seen them too many times.”

Just because all eyes are on his defense does not mean that Muncy has neglected his offense. After being struck on the hand by a fastball from Leiter last year on July 21, which caused him to miss two months, Muncy went to the Arizona Fall League to make up for valuable lost time.

Treating the AFL as a lab to experiment on his swing, Muncy worked on a few different adjustments. Some he discarded quickly. Others, he carried into spring, which has helped fuel his early tear through the Cactus League.

“I told myself going into the Fall League, ‘I don’t care what I hit here,’” Muncy said. “I obviously wanted to play well, but I wanted to try a bunch of different things that I can’t try during the year.

“A lot of the stuff that I tried with my swing as far as swing changes weren’t super successful. It was more the thought process that was successful. Like, when I think about hitting the ball in a certain spot, I tend to stay through it more. When I think about looking for ‘this’ pitch, I tend to hit that pitch better. Stuff like that.”

A regular presence of this version of Muncy, the hitter, would only lengthen what is already projected to be one of the top offenses in baseball.

That only happens, however, if Muncy, the fielder, can be a steady defender at third. That process has seen its ups and downs this spring, but the A’s are remaining patient and seeing him get more comfortable the more games he plays over there.

“I feel pretty good right now,” Muncy said. “If I stay on this trajectory, I’ll be ready to go.”