Dom Smith Has Earned His Shot
Whether that opportunity is in Flushing is very much TBD...
Image credit: Chris Simon
Dominic Smith has paid his dues. Tenfold. If he’s ready for a change and willing to embrace a new chapter in his baseball career, it’s not too difficult to understand why.
A former first-rounder, the SoCal product battled slumps, bust labels, sleep apnea, being blocked at his natural position by another first baseman drafted three years after him, forcing him to learn left field at the major league level in order to stay in the playing-time mix — the gauntlet if there ever was one.
Remember in 2018 when Smith showed up late to a spring training meeting and then-Mets manager Mickey Callaway publicly chided and benched him? We do.
Smith lost 35 pounds heading into camp that year. He hit .330/.386/.519 over 114 games in Triple-A Las Vegas in 2017 and .302/.367/.457 with Double-A Binghamton in 2016. Smith got just two plate appearances that spring after suffering a quad injury.
Adrian Gonzalez, 36 and picked up off the trash heap from Atlanta with the Mets on the hook for the league minimum (the Red Sox were picking up the other $21 million), got the job at first base. He stuck around until June.
Makes us wonder if the Mets would have treated Brandon Nimmo (the team’s first-round pick in 2011) comparably under similar circumstances. In any case, Smith kept moving forward. So will we.
Over 332 plate appearances through 2017 and 2018, Smith hit just .210/.259/.407 (14 HR, 17 2B, 79 OPS+). That wouldn’t cut it, so the player honed and sharpened his craft to the point there could be no excuses. Like clockwork, the results followed soon thereafter.
Both Smith and Pete Alonso broke camp with the Mets in 2019 (Dom hit .321/.367/.464 that spring) and were expected to share time at first base. Hard work pays off, kids. Well, sort of.
Alonso teed off on the league to historical proportions, breaking rookie records and assuming the position full-time, of course. Couldn’t stop that tide if you tried.
But Smith whittled out his own role and shone, hitting .282/.355/.525 (11 HR, 10 2B, 132 OPS+) over 197 plate appearances spread out as Alonso’s backup, emergency depth in left field, and as a fairly clutch pinch-hitter (.286/.460/.571, 37 PA).
The COVID-shortened 2020 season came and Smith kept on hitting, but this time with the luxury of the designated hitter spot in the Mets lineup affording him extra ABs. That worked out well.
Smith enjoyed a mostly even split of turns at first (23 games, 91 PA) and in left (22 G, 84 PA), slashing a boisterous .316/.377/.616 with 10 homers, 21 doubles, and a fifth-best-in-MLB 166 wRC+ (tied with Jose Abreu, CHW).
Dom had arrived. Unfortunately, so did 2021. As initially reported by Pat Ragazzo of Fan Nation/SI.com, Smith played through most of last season with a torn labrum in his right shoulder. As a direct result, Smith’s production took a sharp downturn (.244/.304/.363, 84 OPS+).
Still, the 26-year-old persevered, playing in a total of 145 games and showing up to Port St. Lucie this spring in tip-top shape. Once again, the results have followed in kind.
Through 26 Grapefruit League plate appearances, Smith is 8-for-21 with a homer, two doubles, a triple, and four walks (.381/.500/.714). All well and good, right? Not quite.
Sandwiched between Friday’s diagnosis of the stress reaction in Jacob deGrom’s right scapula and the Saturday saga of Max Scherzer's tweaked hamstring, a midnight report via The Athletic had the Mets and Padres swapping names for a potential trade.
Centered around 26-year-old right-hander Chris Paddack with Eric Hosmer’s bloated contract ($25 million of his remaining $59 million covered by San Diego) and reliever Emilio Pagan attached, the only player going back to the Padres in the deal was Smith.
Wait, WHATTTT?!?!?
Finding the angle from the Mets’ perspective was a tough one. Sure, they could use an extra starter in the mix with Jake out indefinitely (we think they’ll be just fine, as is), but flipping an on-the-rise Dom for a project in Paddack and an albatross in Hosmer made absolutely no sense.
Then the other shoe dropped. Andy Martino of SNY reported later in the day on Saturday that Smith “feels that he has proven himself as an everyday player, and would welcome the change" if traded, per sources.
To us, that makes sense. Dominic Smith has done nearly all he can to make his mark here. Yet still, he’s destined for a depth role in 2022. Is this part of the job description? Absolutely. The spinning of the wheels can’t feel great, though.
And that’s not to say Smith won’t get regular playing time between first base, the DH spot, and left field. But if this is what Dom Smith — the person — truly wants, who is anyone to argue?
If the Mets can find a deal to satisfy their needs (a starter would work; just very glad it’s not Paddack) while providing Dom with a new opportunity, it’s a win-win.
Would it sting to see a fan favorite go just when things are taking off in Queens? Of course. But Dom Smith has earned that much. Let’s see how this shakes out.
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Only good things for Dom. Selfishly, I want him to stay. His character is evident and reflects well on my team. Realistically I want him playing 1b, every day, somewhere and wish him only good things.