Exclusive | Max Muncy doubted hed be an All-Star again now his return feels a little bit more special

PHILADELPHIA –– There were many times early in his career that Max Muncy never thought he’d be an All-Star.There were plenty more moments in recent years when he doubted he’d ever get back again.That’s why, as Muncy arrived in Philadelphia this week for his third career All-Star Game, the veteran third baseman reflected on his previous trips and realized this year’s felt a little more meaningful.“Once you hit 30, you kind of wonder,” Muncy told the California Post.“The world tries to tell you that you’re past your prime.

So you start wondering about that a little bit.And then for me, just with the injuries the last couple years, it’s not something you necessarily expect to happen.”Instead, in what has been a renaissance season for the 35-year-old slugger, Muncy was voted in as the National League’s starting third baseman, returning to the Midsummer Classic for the first time in a half-decade after previous nods in 2019 and 2021.And this week, he allowed himself to soak up the experience, relishing an accomplishment that once felt out of reach.“I always knew I’m still this kind of player,” Muncy said.

“It’s just that I had to be healthy.And this year, I’ve been able to show that.”In Muncy’s previous All-Star seasons, of course, his selections to the games were their own kind of surprises.

Up until 2018, he had been a minor-league player who toiled with limited MLB opportunities.But then, in one of the most unlikely development stories of the Dodgers’ decade-and-a-half-long run of dominance, he emerged as one of the team’s most potent hitters.Looking back now, however, Muncy’s recent return to the summit has felt almost as unlikely as that initial breakthrough ascent.At the end of 2021, he infamously blew out his elbow on the last day of the regular season and underwent surgery, the after-effects of which dogged him over the following couple of years (he hit a combined .204, albeit with 57 total home runs, in 2022 an...