4:05pm: Muncy did indeed suffer his injury against the Rangers on April 13 and tried to play through it, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com.
4:00pm: The Athletics placed infielder Max Muncy on the 10-day injured list due to a fractured fifth metacarpal in his left hand, per a team announcement. Fellow infielder Brett Harris is up from Triple-A to take his place on the active roster.
The 23-year-old Muncy — not to be confused with the unrelated Dodgers third baseman of the same name — was the Athletics’ first-round pick in 2021 and has been their primary third baseman so far in 2026. He’s out to a decent .239/.308/.402 start. Muncy has smacked a pair of homers, gone 2-for-3 in stolen base attempts, and added five doubles and a pair of triples. He’s walked at a below-average 5.8% clip and struck out in an alarming 35.6% of his plate appearances. He’s been a thorn in the side of left-handed pitching, in particular, tallying five extra-base hits and five walks in only 34 plate appearances against southpaws.
It’s not entirely clear when Muncy suffered the injury, though his performance gives us a good clue. He had a mammoth showing in spring training (.380/.466/.800, five homers in 58 plate appearances) and sprinted out of the gates with a .317/.349/.533 showing in his first 63 trips to the plate during the regular season. Muncy was hit on the bands by a Nathan Eovaldi pitch on April 13, and his bat his since gone in the tank. He’s mired in an awful 3-for-32 stretch and has fanned 15 times in his past 41 turns at the plate. The original diagnosis at the time was a bruised left hand, but it’s fairly common for swelling to obscure a fracture in the immediate aftermath of a hit-by-pitch.
Muncy has yet to firmly cement himself as an everyday player in the big leagues and probably won’t do so unless he’s able to whittle down that sky-high strikeout rate. (He had a 34.9% strikeout rate even in that torrid stretch of 63 plate appearances to begin his season.) He knocked Triple-A pitching around at a hearty .325/.397/.504 clip in 141 plate appearances last year and has been consistently productive in the minors since reaching the Double-A level. Strikeouts haven’t been a major issue in the upper minors — he’s fanned at just a 23% clip in Triple-A — perhaps giving cause for optimism that he can eventually scale back his strikeouts in the majors.
Even if Muncy doesn’t settle in as a regular at the hot corner, there’s enough pop in his bat and enough versatility in his defensive repertoire that he could profile as a utility option. He has experience at shortstop, third base and second base. Scouting reports have long pegged him as an adequate shortstop who could handle second or third if needed. His hit tool is below average, but he’s generally credited with average power, if not slightly better. He’s not a burner on the bases but has above-average speed, sitting in the 72nd percentile of big leaguers this season.
The A’s haven’t provided a timetable, but a broken finger in the infielder’s glove hand seems like it’ll sideline him for more than a minimum stint. In the interim, the A’s can go with a combination of Harris and Darell Hernaiz at third base. They could also slide Jeff McNeil over to the hot corner in order to clear some playing time at second base for Zack Gelof, although the 26-year-old Gelof has struggled immensely since a promising rookie showing back in 2023.
