MLB Players: Top 10 catchers entering the 2020 season
By Jake Hasan
MLB Players: Top 10 catchers entering 2020
8. Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
So the problem here obviously is that Will Smith has less than 200 plate appearances in his big league career. But in that short amount of time, he put up a .907 OPS and 15 homers.
Smith will be the opening day catcher this year so we’ll have a full season to properly evaluate him but the initial projections look good.
Smith made hard contact nearly 45% of the time while only hitting ground balls 29% of the time. The one concerning part of Smith’s time in the big leagues is his 9.2% walk rate and a 26.5% strikeout rate. However, his walk rate in the previous 62 games was 14.8% so that is some reason for optimism.
Perhaps the thing working most in Smith’s favor will be his protection in the Dodger lineup. In his 52 games with the Dodgers last year smith mostly hit in the middle of the lineup, so let’s assume he’ll hit anywhere from 2-5 again in 2020. That means either in front of or behind him Smith could have some combination of Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Justin Turner and oh yea a guy named Mookie Betts.
If Smith can perform to even 80% of his production from 2019, he’ll be yet another threat in the Dodger lineup.