DENVER —
Will Smith has hardly been a foul hitter for the Dodgers in the course of the previous two seasons.
However as his offensive manufacturing has declined on the plate, with the sixth-year catcher setting profession lows for OPS in back-to-back campaigns, there’s been one frequent denominator to what he’s been lacking.
From 2020 to 2022, Smith did a lot of his injury in opposition to four-seam fastballs, batting .292 in opposition to the pitch with a .588 slugging proportion, 21 house runs and solely an 18.6% whiff price.
In 2023 and 2024, nonetheless, these numbers have dipped throughout the board: Smith has solely hit four-seamers at a .214 clip. He has slugged simply .383 in opposition to them. And as pitchers have began throwing him extra heaters, his whiff price has climbed to 23.9%.
General, he’s nonetheless an above-league-average hitter, posting a .246 batting common this yr with 20 house runs, 74 RBIs and a .758 OPS.
However the statistical regression has illustrated his struggles to hone in on his greatest swing — one the Dodgers are hoping has began to reappear in latest weeks.
That is what made Smith’s house run within the Dodgers’ division-clinching win on Thursday such a notable sight. It wasn’t simply that he tied their sport in opposition to the rival San Diego Padres, serving to spark a go-ahead rally within the backside of the seventh. Or that he celebrated with a demonstrative two-hand bat flip, displaying as a lot emotion as supervisor Dave Roberts may bear in mind since his iconic lengthy ball within the 2020 Nationwide League Championship Sequence.
Quite, the most important factor is that it got here in opposition to a Joe Musgrove four-seamer, with Smith barreling up an elevated 3-and-1 heater — the sort he has so typically missed or fouled again or hit weakly for an out the final two seasons — and launching it to straightaway middle at an estimated distance of 426 toes.
“That was a big boy home run,” Roberts declared afterward.
“Got into a hitter’s count,” a booze-soaked however understated Smith added amid the postgame clubhouse celebration, “and put a good swing on it.”
Early in his profession, Smith had little hassle manufacturing such moments. In his rise as one of many majors’ most efficient offensive catchers — an ascent that culminated with a 10-year, $140-million contract extension with the Dodgers earlier than this season — his capacity to punish fastballs was amongst his defining strengths.
However ever since he suffered a damaged rib and indirect pressure in late April of final season, the 29-year-old slugger has been inconsistent together with his swing mechanics, in keeping with Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates.
“I would just say some bad habits crept in from the injuries,” Bates defined. “They were so small, but they bled over into the next year.”
At occasions, Smith has been capable of work round it. He earned his first All-Star choice final yr whereas taking part in by the illnesses. He was chosen to the Midsummer Basic once more this season after a torrid efficiency in March and April (.362 batting common, 13 extra-base hits, 23 RBIs) that Bates credited to his capacity to assault off-speed pitches.
“Obviously,” Bates mentioned, “he’s had some games this year where he’s been really good.”
Smith’s struggles in opposition to the fastball, nonetheless, shortly turned a weak spot for opposing pitchers to take advantage of. From Might to August, he didn’t hit higher than .212 in a single month. Throughout that stretch, his common in opposition to fastballs was a woeful .146.
“His hands were creeping down as he was striding [toward the ball],” Bates mentioned, figuring out one of many core habits Smith and the Dodgers have tried to get rid of from his swing. “Guys are different, but most hitters for the most part want to feel like they’re above the ball and can work from the top down. If you’re working from the waist up or are caught in-between, you’re just trying to guess. It can be a tough spot.”
Making an attempt to repair his swing this yr has pressured Smith to revisit the previous. His work within the batting cage has centered on “getting again to in all probability extra of the ‘21, ‘22 [version of] myself,” he said recently. “More that model, if you want to say, where I was really hitting the heater.”
“I got away from a little bit of stuff last year, just trying to figure out what works,” Smith added, when asked how the lingering effects of last year’s accidents have manifested on the plate. “Sometimes you make the wrong changes. But the beginning of the last two years has been really good. So, it’s just, ‘Is that mold right for me?’ ”
Smith has appeared to begin discovering a solution once more these days, simply in time for a Dodgers’ postseason run that may seemingly hinge on the consistency of their lineup.
Because the begin of September, he’s hitting .254 with a .460 slugging proportion. His manufacturing in opposition to fastballs has skyrocketed as nicely, batting 9 for 20 in opposition to the pitch this month.
“He’s coming to life [and taking] better at-bats,” Roberts mentioned final week. “I think mechanically he’s in a good spot … And I think that he got through that funk that he was in, that long funk. I like where he’s at.”
This might all have large ramifications on the Dodgers’ possibilities within the playoffs, after all, with Smith nonetheless occupying a essential position within the lineup. He’s not the workforce’s clean-up hitter, as he was early within the season. However he’s nonetheless had ample run-producing alternatives, averaging the second-most plate appearances with runners in scoring place on the workforce per sport (solely Teoscar Hernández comes up in such spots extra typically).
“He’s such a pro, and he’s such a great player,” Bates mentioned. “I think the way he’s performed [lately] is more in-tune with the player he is.”
If that wasn’t turning into clear already, Thursday’s lengthy ball introduced it auspiciously into focus.
“For Will to hit a big boy home run right there gave us a lot of life,” Roberts mentioned. “That was a lot of pressure and angst off his shoulders tonight.”
