Max Muncy has a new look.
And, he hopes, slightly better sight.
On Friday night at Truist Park, Muncy took the field for the Dodgers’ series opener against the Atlanta Braves wearing clear prescription eyeglasses. He subtly did the same during the Dodgers’ last game of the most recent homestand on Wednesday afternoon, using sunglasses with prescription lenses when he hit his first home run of the season.
It’s not that Muncy has bad eyesight. His vision, he said, is actually an excellent 20/12.
Read more: After ‘rough’ month, Dodgers’ Max Muncy hopes first homer is ‘something to build on’
However, Muncy did learn he has astigmatism in his right eye, making him slightly left-eye dominant. Given that he’s a left-handed hitter — positioning him with his right eye forward in the batter’s box — he thus decided the glasses were worth a try.
“If there’s anything that can help out a little bit,” Muncy said, “I’ll try it.”
Based on his results from Wednesday, the benefits might have already been felt.
After enduring a career-long 28-game home run drought to start the season, Muncy went deep in his first at-bat Wednesday, launching a low-and-away sinker to straightaway center field.
He struck out in his next trip to the plate, then flied out to left in the fifth inning. After that, however, he tripled and drew a walk, giving him his most productive performance of what had been a slow start to the season.
Granted, Muncy’s performance had started to tick up before he started using his new glasses.
Thanks to some recent swing adjustments, he entered Wednesday with three hits in his previous two games (he’d recorded just four in the 11 before that) and as many walks as strikeouts in his prior 13 contests overall (10 each).
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy wore sunglasses with prescription lenses during Wednesday’s game against the Marlins, and hit his first home run of the season. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“The swing feels like it’s getting closer and closer,” said Muncy, who entered Friday with a .194 batting average on the season. “I still have to clean some things up. Have to be better in certain situations. It’s a work in progress. But … it’s just getting the ball to go forward.”
Still, in recent days, Muncy decided it was time to break out the glasses, too.
The 34-year-old third baseman had been testing his glasses in pregame batting practice and infield drills since the start of last week’s homestand. He’d initially been hesitant to take them into game action, noting a “fish-bowl” effect he felt while wearing them, but said he has since adjusted by using them even when he’s away from the field.
Muncy isn’t the first Dodger player to begin utilizing glasses midseason.
Last year, Kiké Hernández did the same thing after discovering astigmatism (a condition caused by imperfections in the curvature of the eye that can impact vision) in his own right eye.
Like Muncy, Hernández described an adjustment period when his glasses arrived midseason.
“It took me like a week or two to really feel like my depth perception felt normal,” Hernández recalled.
Unlike Muncy, Hernández began wearing them in games as soon as they arrived.
“You can’t be afraid to fail,” he quipped.
Fail, Hernández did not. Before last year’s All-Star break, Hernández was batting .191 with just five home runs in 71 games, wearing glasses for only the final series of the opening half. After the break, once his eyesight adjusted to his new lenses, Hernández finished the year batting .274 with seven home runs in his final 55 games. He then proceeded to have a monster postseason (.294 average, two home runs, six RBIs) during the Dodgers’ run to a World Series title.
Read more: Shaikin: The Dodgers are good, and old. Should they try NBA-style load management?
This year, the glasses have remained a fixture. And even though he batted just .188 in March and April, he did tally five home runs and 13 RBIs.
The biggest benefit Hernández noticed from his glasses: An ability to see the actual spin on the baseball, and more easily identify each pitch type.
“Before the glasses, I was trying to see the shape of each pitch,” Hernández said, which forced him to wait a split-second to see if the ball would dive or slide away from its starting location.
“Once I got the glasses,” he added, “I could actually see the spin.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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