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Dodgers’ level-headed Will Smith keeps getting better

April 5, 2023

LOS ANGELES — They have become baseball’s unicorns – catchers who handle the difficult defensive responsibilities of that position while also contributing offensively.

Last year, catchers across MLB combined for a slash line of .228/.295/.368. Each of those parts – batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage – as well as the OPS of .663 were the lowest for any position on the field and it wasn’t even close. Only three catchers had an OPS over .800 last year – Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto, Baltimore’s precocious Rookie of the Year runner-up Adley Rutschman and the Dodgers’ Will Smith.

“I think he’s one of the top three catchers in all of baseball,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who began putting Smith in that ranking during the 2021 season. “I think him, you’ve got to put Realmuto and Rutschman in that conversation. … Given his ability to post and work both sides of the baseball, hit in the middle of the order – you don’t find guys like that.”

Not often these days.

On Opening Day this season, more catchers batted eighth or ninth in their teams’ lineups (13) than batted in the top five (12). Only four batted in the top three – Kansas City’s Salvador Perez, Rutschman and the Team USA tandem from the World Baseball Classic, Realmuto and Smith.

Now entering his fifth major-league season (and third full season), Smith has been a catcher who hits since he arrived in MLB. The Dodgers’ first-round pick from their ultra-productive 2016 draft (14 of their first 16 picks have made the big leagues) has a career OPS of .866. His bat has become so valuable to the Dodgers that Smith started 24 games as the DH last year.

And he only seems to be getting better. Smith started this season with a four-RBI game in the season opener, has driven in 10 runs in the first five games while going 8 for 19 (.478) with home runs in each of the past three games.

“It’s a sign that his swing is in a good place and he’s making good swing decisions,” Roberts said.

Smith has shown an ability to do that in the clutch throughout his career.

In at-bats deemed high-leverage, Smith is actually a better hitter – a .281 career average and .926 OPS with 44 of his 75 career home runs coming with the score tied or within one run. With runners in scoring position, he has hit .296 with a .921 OPS.

“He still looks like he’s 15 but he carries himself like a veteran,” Roberts said of the 28-year-old husband and father who still looks like he should be headed to study hall to cram for mid-terms. “He has since he got here.”

Roberts has repeatedly cited Smith’s “slow heartbeat” and calm demeanor at the plate as a key component of his success.

“That’s the big part of it,” the manager said. “When you’re in a position of failure in the sense of hitting, how do you combat knowing you’re going to fail more than you’re going to succeed? The way you do that is you’ve got to have some type of calm and be able to turn the page. He does that as well as anyone from pitch to pitch, at-bat to at-bat, game to game.”

It’s an innate part of his personality, Smith said, one that his parents cultivated.

“I think I’ve always kind of had that, probably from a young age,” he said. “I think my parents raised me a certain way – to be confident but don’t boast, if you fall, get back up. I think that was instilled in me from a young age.

“I’ve seen how that can translate into being a big-league baseball player. It doesn’t work for every guy but it works for me.”

The other component of handling the defensive responsibilities of a catcher and still contributing offensively is to keep the two separate, Smith said.

“I just compartmentalize the two,” he said. “Every day I can go out there and be super-prepared to call a game. It’s easier to control a lot more when I’m catching. I obviously can’t control where the pitcher is putting the ball. But I can control being prepared every day, catching the ball and all that.

“Hitting, sometimes you’re feeling good, sometimes you’re not. You know that going into the year. You just try to stay steady. Separate the two and treat it like two different jobs.”

Not letting momentary successes or failures at one job bleed over into the other is Smith’s strength, Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said.

“One thing that makes him great is he’s just so level-headed. He doesn’t ride the emotions,” Prior said. “Even when he’s going really well, you might get a smile out of him. And when things are maybe not going as well for him, you never see a ton of frustration. I just think his emotional maturity is ahead of what his age and experience is. I think that’s why he plays so well.”

Handling the defensive responsibilities at catcher has been a bigger challenge with Smith slowly smoothing the rough edges of his defensive game.

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“I think it was the beginning of ’21 you could see there were – not mistakes but some inexperience things,” Prior said. “I think we saw a huge step from the beginning of ’22 to the end of ’22 and he’s just continued that. It’s really just being in situations, understanding what the gameplan template is. And that’s literally just a template. Once we get into a game, we see what they’re doing, you see what your pitcher has and his ability to execute or not execute. And he’s been really good at adjusting on the fly. I think that’s where the growth is, not being too constricted or restrained by, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’”

Youthful as he might look five years into his big-league career, Smith is playing a position that tends to age players at a rapid rate with exposure to injury on every pitch and wear and tear that no other position creates. Maintaining himself physically is a matter of establishing “a good routine” with the idea of doing “as little but as much as possible” from day to day, Smith said.

“It’s listening to your body,” he said. “If I’m feeling worn out, I’m not going to go in the cage and hit a ton. I’ll save my bullets for the game. It’s having the confidence and knowing that you don’t need to take 200 swings before every game. Do 10 flips and be ready to go take an at-bat. Having the confidence to do that, over the long run, is good for your body.”

Orange County Register

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Dodgers’ level-headed Will Smith keeps getting better

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