The A’s entered spring training without a draft pick at third base, but at 23 years old Max Muncy has begun to separate himself from the pack, writes Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. There’s no shortage of coincidences in that the A’s landed a hit-over-glove named Max Muncy at third base for the second time in the last decade, but the hope now is that the younger Muncy (no relation to the older one) can bolster the hot corner.
A first-round pick back in 2021, the 23-year-old Muncy hit .325/.397/.504 in Triple-A last season. He struggled badly in 220 big league plate appearances but had a productive spot in the Arizona Fall League and is absolutely hitting this spring: .419/.526/.839 with three homers and as many walks as strikeouts (seven) in 38 plate appearances. The question about Muncy is not about hitting but whether he can handle third base defensively.
“Our main focus right now is on defense,” the manager Mark Kotsay Galegos recounted. “We’ve been working hard with him in those areas, and we’ve seen progress. We’ll continue to follow that progress.” Readers will want to check out Gallegos’ piece in full, as he also talks with Muncy at length about one of the swing/approach changes he used in the Fall League and the challenges of moving from shortstop to third (a move that is often taken for granted).
Meanwhile, another young player who played for Athletics, Zack Gelofmade his Cactus League debut this week, writes Courtney Hollmon of MLB.com. Gelof went 2-for-4 with a double in his first game since suffering a shoulder injury while diving for second last year. That injury ended his season, but Gelof’s 2025 campaign was derailed by a hamstring fracture and a stress fracture in his rib. He played in just 30 games with 101 plate appearances last season, hitting just .174/.230/.272.
It’s easy to write off the 2025 campaign as one marred by injuries, but Gelof already faced some questions this past year. Was he the dynamic player we saw in 2023, when he hit .267/.337/.504 with 14 homers and 14 steals in just 60 games, or was he a fraction of the player we saw in 2024, when he hit .211/.270/.362, with 4% steals and 4% sky 4 and 4% sky 4 . strike rate?
Gelof, still only 26 years old, hopes to return to that form in 2023 but now has a limited role at the club. A’s are earned Jeff McNeil from the Mets this offseason and tied him at second base. Muncy is the leading rusher at third base, a position Gelof hasn’t played since 2022. The former second-rounder tells Hollomon that he has been working on the infield and outfield as he hopes to improve his skills and win a spot back in the lineup. Gelof still has a minor league option for the remaining years, so he could open the season in Triple-A if the A’s want to give him more exposure in more positions in the upper minors.
Elsewhere in the A’s camp, there is unwelcome news for the heavily injured righty Gunnar Hoglund. The 26-year-old righty, who made headlines when the Athletics returned from a trade Matt Chapman in Toronto, he made his major league debut last season but pitched just 12 games between Triple-A and the majors. He was recovering from Tommy John surgery at the time of the trade and missed the final three months of last year with a hip strain.
This spring, Hoglund suffered a knee injury early in camp. Now he’s dealing with a back problem, according to Gallegos. Hoglund hasn’t pitched in the spring game and doesn’t appear likely to do so before the season opener. He could have been Triple-A bound even healthy, but some injuries are disappointing in the 2021 opener (he was picked six picks ahead of Muncy and 41 ahead of Gelof).
Hoglund pitched well in Triple-A last season and enjoyed two good starts to begin his MLB career (11 1/3 innings with three runs on 11 hits and one walk along with 10 strikeouts). He rattled off 20 runs over his next 21 frames, however, including an eight-run shutout at the hands of the Blue Jays before going on the disabled list for the rest of the season.
