Will Smith, the Dodgers’ #5 prospect, has been in the majors all of five days, and he’s already making headlines, hitting his first home run Saturday night to beat the Philadelphia Phillies.
When Los Angeles Dodgers star Cody Bellinger, the best player in baseball right now, dumps a Gatorade bucket full of ice water on you, you know that you’ve made it. Will Smith, no, not that Will Smith, hit his first major league home run Saturday night to walk it off in the ninth against the Phillies. The game was rocky for Smith, missing a pitch from Clayton Kershaw, as well as being intentionally walked in favor of an easier path to an out in Kershaw.
All of that was erased with one swing.
After Julio Urias gave up a two-run shot to Bryce Harper in the 8th inning tying the game at 3, Smith launched one to the left-field seats in the bottom of the ninth. His first homer in the bigs will prove to be one of his most clutch hits. He was welcomed home by his teammates after rounding the bases.
Smith will probably be sent back down to the minors after Austin Barnes, the team’s starting catcher, returns from the IL. Veteran catcher Russell Martin is on the bench, ready to jump in whenever needed. Smith will probably be sent back to OKC, but how married to that plan should the Dodgers actually be?
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Consider this my plea to keep Smith where he belongs, in the major leagues.
Smith was drafted in the first round of the 2016 draft out of Louisville. At 24, he has played 264 minor league games, batting.244 with 43 homers and 154 RBI’s. He’s not Pudge Rodriguez or Johnny Bench or Yogi Berra, but nobody is expecting him to be. The Dodgers want to win the World Series, and Will Smith could be the offensive boost that they need to get there.
The Dodgers have made it to the World Series twice in as many years. In 2017, the player they hoped would be their “X-Factor” fell short. They traded for Yu Darvish, and he helped them for a little bit post-deadline, but could not close the door on the Astros in game 7. Manny Machado was last year’s solution, but even his electric bat could not slow down Boston. The Dodgers want to get to the World Series this year, and they want to do what they could not do the past two years, but they need more than they have right now. They need more than the best player in the game in Cody Bellinger, they need more than the Cy-Young caliber pitching of Hyun-Jin Ryu. The Dodgers need an overflow of offensive production and a bullpen that shuts down batters.
I don’t know where the answers to the struggling bullpen lay (those answers are probably pitching for another team right now) but the offensive surge for the Dodgers could very well come from the inside.
Will Smith is new. He’s been in the majors for two series’, but with his loud homer Saturday, he proved that he can get big hits when they matter most. That’s where the Dodgers fell short in both World Series’, they couldn’t get the big hits when they needed them.
The Dodgers’ lineup is already extremely lethal. If a pitcher can manage to strike out Cody Bellinger and Justin Turner, they still have to face players like Max Muncy, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, Matt Beaty, and Alex Verdugo. The list goes on even further than that but, as we learn year after year in the postseason, there is no such thing as too much offense. If you score 20 runs and the other team scores 19, congrats, you just won your biggest game of the season.
The Dodgers need to find bullpen help, but that issue is not a pressing one, not right now. Their division lead is significant, they need not make rash decisions. The offense, however, can always get stronger and maybe this season they don’t need to trade away a top prospect or two for a player that may or may not get the clutch hits in October.
I, for one, am tired of wondering when the Dodgers are going to make a big move and who they are going to trade for. They have all this homegrown talent, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Corey Seager, Clayton Kershaw, and now Will Smith. I want to see a roster full of those guys in the World Series this October. I don’t want another rumor-filled trade, I don’t want a big risk, I want players who have proven themselves worthy of wearing Dodger blue in October. I want my team to win the World Series, I just don’t want them to sacrifice their future in the process.
Will Smith may not be there yet, but he made a statement on Saturday night. I think it’s best we keep listening to what he has to say.