Eric Karros rooting for Max Muncy to break his LA-era Dodgers home run records

If Max Muncy wasn’t already thinking about it before, Eric Karros made sure to remind him this spring.

With potentially 2 ½ years remaining on his contract, Muncy is within striking distance of Karros’ franchise record for most home runs hit by a Dodgers player in the club’s Los Angeles history, needing just 39 more long balls to match the 270 hit by the former Silver Slugger first baseman.

With just one more home run at home, Muncy would also tie Karros for the most career big flies hit by a player at Dodger Stadium, sitting only one back of the 130 homers Karros recorded at the ballpark during his 12 seasons with the team.

“It’s reachable,” Muncy said of the former mark earlier this season, in which he has continued to narrow both gaps with 17 home runs overall and nine at home. 

“EK has joked around with me a little bit.”

The joke, Karros told The California Post with a laugh this week, is that if Muncy catches him, the record likely won’t stand for long.

“He’s gonna have it for, what, two years?” Karros quipped, pointing out that one day, most likely, Shohei Ohtani’s name will top all home-run-related categories in the Dodgers’ record books. 

“Then you just say you’re the domestic home run leader.”

Still, for now, the significance of Muncy’s march toward history isn’t lost on either franchise stalwart.

“It’s crazy to me to think about,” Muncy said. “I know I’ve been here for a long time now. But you start thinking about things with this franchise, especially just how historical it is, the names that have come out of here, it’s kind of surreal to me. I’ve always viewed myself as a good player. But I don’t know if that’s a level I ever thought I could have achieved.”

Karros can relate.

Now a Dodgers broadcaster, Karros has developed a particular admiration of Muncy over the years, drawing parallels to their respective roles in similarly star-studded eras of the team.

“The thing with Muncy, I’ve been rooting for him,” Karros said. “Not to break a homer [record]. I don’t give a s–t, that’s whatever. But rooting for him because — he’s a much better player than I was — but he’s kind of in the same situation. As far as, it’s Mookie [Betts], it’s Freddie [Freeman], it’s Shohei. And when I played, it was [Mike] Piazza or [Gary] Sheffield or whatever. And this dude goes out and plays and is super important, but doesn’t get the love that he deserves.”

Indeed, Muncy doesn’t command the same spotlight as his bigger-name, MVP-winning teammates.

Even during the Dodgers’ rise to dynasty status, he has made just two All-Star Games (albeit, with a third selection likely coming this year). He has signed several below-market contract extensions to stay with the team (most recently, a one-year, $10 million extension for the 2027 season that includes a $10 million club option for 2028). No. 13 jerseys are still mostly a novelty item when traversing the concourses of Chavez Ravine.

What Muncy has meant to the club internally, however, has been immense.

He is one of just six players to have a hand in all three of the Dodgers’ recent World Series titles. He has emerged as a veteran leader in a clubhouse that has navigated the rigors of being an annual contender. And he has epitomized many of the traits that have underscored the team’s recent run of success, overcoming injuries and age to remain a daily-impact contributor.

“I think it’s just maturity and trust in the process,” manager Dave Roberts said of Muncy earlier this season. “He knows that we believe in him, and we’ve showed that many times over. I think that there’s some peace with that.”

That was evident even before the start of this season, when Muncy, who is now in his 11th year with the Dodgers, succeeded Clayton Kershaw as the club’s currently longest-tenured player.

“It’s definitely a blessing,” he said then. “It’s something I’m really grateful for.”

And even at this stage of his career, the 35-year-old has continued to get better, staging a renaissance 2026 campaign that includes a career-best .265 batting average, top-20-ranked .511 slugging percentage and an impressive plus-seven mark in defensive runs saved at third base (fourth highest among MLB players at the position this year).

“I feel so much healthier than ever,” said Muncy, who was dogged in recent years by lingering effects from a 2021 elbow surgery and repeated injuries to his oblique the last two seasons.

“I just think some of the changes I’ve made have really helped out,” he added, specifically citing a “hydrodissection” procedure he underwent on his side this past offseason that used an injection of saline solution to break up a “wall of scar tissue.”

“I just finally feel back to being myself, which is more of a complete hitter.”

As a result, Muncy is now in position to track down Karros’ Los Angeles-era franchise home run records, needing to maintain just a 16-homer pace over the next couple seasons.

“Definitely not a spot I ever thought I’d be in,” he said.

Karros, meanwhile, will be up in the broadcast booth rooting for him, happy to see his marks eclipsed by a player he noted couldn’t be more deserving.

“It’d be great if he breaks it,” Karros said. “I’m a big Muncy fan.”

“And then,” he added with another sly grin, “he’ll hold it until Shohei wants it.”

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