Los Angeles Dodgers: Will Smith is baseball’s next top catcher

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith has only played 91 career regular-season games. He played 54 games in 2019 and 37 in 2020. This may seem like a small sample to say he’s already on the path to potentially becoming the top catcher in the MLB.

Yes, it may be a small sample size but Will Smith was simply awesome in 2019 and 2020 and there has been nothing to show he won’t be awesome going forward. If anything, diving into the numbers suggests he’s going to get even better.

Why Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith is on his way to stardom

In his 91 career regular-season games, Will Smith has posted:

• .268 BA
• .937 OPS
• .386 wOBA
• 144 wRC+
• 23 HR
• 11.4 BB%
• 22.2 K%
• 2.9 fWAR

His OPS, wOBA, and wRC+ all rank first among catchers between 2019-20. It is arguable that his bat is already as good as any other catcher.

These numbers are also not a fluke. His batted-ball profile suggests that he isn’t just one of the elite hitting catchers, but that he is one of the elite hitters in the game.

His Statcast profile shows that in 2020 he was at least in the 80th percentile in:

• Exit Velocity
• Hard Hit %
• xwOBA
• xBA
• xSLG
• Barrel %
• K %
• BB %
• Whiff %

This is about the definition of elite-level hitting. All of these stats show either how hard you hit the ball, your power or discipline as a hitter. Will Smith checks all these boxes easily.

Baseball Savant has a hitter similarity tool and the best match for Will Smith’s hitting profile is Mike Trout. Will Smith is obviously no Mike Trout, but this clearly shows that Smith is an absolute force swinging the bat.

Defense is where Will Smith still has room for improvement compared to the league’s best catchers. He is not a bad defender at all, but he is not quite on the level of the other top catchers like J.T. Realmuto and Yasmani Grandal.

While Smith is above average with a career 2 Defensive Runs Saved he has totaled a -4.5 Framing Runs over the past two years. This is just about the only spot in his game he has to work on. Considering he’s already a plus defensive player otherwise, I’d expect this number and his framing skills to improve as he plays more.

It is obviously a stretch to say that he will for sure be the best catcher in baseball in the future with the caliber of current players and prospects, but it is very safe to say he will be amongst the very best catchers in baseball for the foreseeable future.

While Will Smith does slide underneath much of the other star power of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he is definitely a budding star to watch in 2021 and beyond.