“That’s just baseball.”
Both lacking in insight and hard to argue with, it is Will Smith’s go-to response to many of the questions that come up over the course of a long baseball season. It is his explanation for why the 2024 season was his least successful offensively. He set career-lows in batting average (.248), on-base percentage (.327), slugging percentage (.433) and OPS (.760).
“Obviously I just had one bad stretch,” Smith said. “Other than that, I was really good early. I was an All-Star. Had a bad stretch for a couple months. That’s starting to turn around now. That’s just baseball to me. You continue to work and try to help the team win.”
He was very good early – Smith was batting .336 with a .901 OPS in early May. But that “bad stretch” was a long one.
For 62 games from May 7 into early August, Smith was a .199 hitter with a .684 OPS.
“You’re always trying to make adjustments. You’re trying to make the right adjustments. Sometimes you don’t make the right adjustments,” Smith explained. “You never know what your body needs. Your body changes. Being a catcher, it’s constantly changing.
“Just trying to figure out which mold you need to go with, what’s going to actually work. It’s not being too reactionary, giving it a week or two to settle in then going back to the drawing board. Instead of being like, ‘Oh, that didn’t work. I went 0 for 3 tonight.’ Well, that might be the answer. I just didn’t get any hits. … (If you make too many changes) You’re just chasing your tail.”
Even as the Dodgers locked Smith up with a 10-year, $140 million contract extension this spring, Smith’s average has dropped to career-lows each of the past two seasons. His slugging percentage and OPS are in a four-year decline.
Smith is still a young player at 29 – but not so much for a catcher. He has started 440 games at catcher since the 2021 season. It’s the kind of work that takes a physical toll. Smith denies that any injury or just the wear and tear of catching was behind his “bad stretch” this season. But he acknowledges that trying to maintain a productive swing while taking foul balls off various body parts nightly and crouching for nine innings behind the plate is challenging.
“Yeah, you get beat up and all that,” he said. “I think it’s more you get out of alignment. You do everything you can in the trainer’s room, in the weight room to get back to neutral every day. But all of a sudden, your right hip is open and your left hip is closed instead of your left hip being open and your right hip closed. Whatever it is, I’m just throwing that out there. Or your left shoulder is tight which is causing your hip to be tight and your left ankle – whatever.
“So it’s just trying to figure out the whole piece, not just your swing. Sometimes you’re trying to make adjustments and your body just won’t move like that. That’s part of it. And that’s not just catchers. It’s shortstops, it’s outfielders, it’s pitchers trying to be consistent with their deliveries. It’s a long season.”
Whether it is the nicks and bruises of catching or the search for those “right adjustments,” Smith has particularly struggled with hitting the fastball this season. He developed a bad habit in his swing, dropping his hands, that left him vulnerable to the pitch. Pitchers have noticed.
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But there have been positive signs recently that Smith has turned it around. He hit .291 (16 for 55) with an .882 OPS over his final 16 games of the regular season. The Dodgers need him to continue that turnaround in the postseason where his importance in the lineup will be critical.
“It’s gonna be big,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Smith’s importance in the postseason lineup. “Will is swinging the bat as good as he’s swung the bat since the first half. Just solid contact. He’s not as in-between. And I like him where he’s at in the order, because it a lot of times calls for a two-out hit, guys on base and it could be situational. But yeah, he’s gonna play big for us.”
Smith has come up big in the postseason before. Over the past four years, he has driven in more runs (21) and hit more home runs (five) in their playoff games than any other Dodger.
“Obviously what I’m going to do behind the plate is huge, for the pitchers, keeping us in games, putting up zeroes. But, yeah, in the lineup as well – right in the middle of it, trying to drive in runs, get on base for the guys behind me,” Smith said. “Everyone’s gotta show up and play.”