Will Smith: Dodgers New Captain Clutch

Saturday, June 1, 2019, Dodger Stadium. Dodgers playing the second game of a three-game set against the Phillies. Kershaw was facing Jose Alvarez of the Phillies. His catcher that day was rookie, Will Smith, who had been called up and made his debut just 3 days earlier on May 28th.

Kershaw was having a vintage Kershaw game. The Dodgers scored in the third on a single by Kike and Kersh gave up an unearned run When JT Realmuto drove in Harper after a Muncy error in the fourth. Alvarez lasted just two innings and was replaced by Nicasio, who got 1 out and was replaced by current Dodger, Cole Irvin.

David Freese hit his 5th homer of the year off of Irvin in the fifth. Beaty pinch hit for Kershaw and singled in the 7th, then was driven in by Max Muncy for a 3-1 Dodger lead. Julio Urias came in to pitch in the 8th. With 1 out, Urias hit Segura. He then gave up a game tying 2-run homer to Bryce Harper.

Hector Neris came in to pitch the 9th inning. He got Verdugo to make the first out, and the rookie, Will Smith stepped into the batter’s box. Smith hit a 2-2 pitch to deep left field for a walk off homer, the first of his major league career.

I was lucky enough to be in the stands that day with my sister and brother, Steve. Smith had gone 2-4 in his debut on the 28th of May. His homer was hit 4th hit in the majors. Later that season, Beaty, Verdugo, and Will, would hit walk-off homers in three straight games against the Rockies. Beaty on Friday, Verdugo in extra innings on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon, June 23rd, Smith hit a 3-run, walk off pinch hit homer off of Scott Oberg. It was his 3rd of the year. He would end up with 15. LA carried 3 catchers that year, Austin Barnes, Russell Martin, and Smith. He had more homers than Barnes and Martin combined.

The Dodgers did not know it at the time, but they had called up a gem. We have been lucky to watch him grow as a player. Smith was born on March 28th, 1995, in Louisville Kentucky. Kentucky was also the birthplace of Hall of Famer, Pee Wee Reese, who was born in Ekron and is buried in Louisville.

Smith attended Kentucky Country Day School in Louisville. As a senior in 2013, he hit .528 with 11 homers and 36 RBIs and had a 7-1 record as a pitcher. He went undrafted and then enrolled at the University of Louisville. He played three years for the Colonels, and in the summer, he played in collegiate leagues, first at Newport in the New England League in 14, and then at Brewster in the Cape Cod League in 15.

In his junior year at Louisville, he slashed .382/.480/.567 with 7 homers and 43 driven in, in 55 games. He was selected in the first round of the 2016 draft and signed with the Dodgers for a 1.775 million-dollar-bonus.

Smith would play at 3 levels in 2016. He started off with the Ogden Raptors, 7 games, 23 games at Great Lakes, and then 25 at Rancho. He hit a combined .246. He had 4 homers and drove in 24. He started the 2017 season at Rancho, and was named to the mid-season All-Star team, hitting .232 in 72 games with 43 driven in. He was promoted to AA Tulsa but got a fractured hand in his debut and spent the rest of the year on the IL.

He split 2018 between Tulsa and AAA, OKC, batting .233 with 20 homers and 59 driven in. Smith started the 2019 season at OKC. On May 28th, he was called up to the Dodgers to replace the struggling Austin Barnes who was sent down to the minors.

After about a month with the team, he was sent back to OKC. He performed well and was named to the AAA All-Star team. Overall, in 19, he hit .268/20/59 there in 62 games. He hit a homer and 2 doubles in his first game back and drove in 6 runs against the Nationals, the most by a Dodger rookie since Loney in 2006.

With 26 RBIs and 9 homers in his first 23 games, he passed Cody Bellinger for the most in Dodger history by a rookie in that number of games. In LA’s loss to the Nationals in the NLDS, he went just 1-13. During the pandemic shortened 2020 season, Will slashed .289/8/25 in 37 games.

In the playoffs, he went 0-6 against Milwaukee in the Wild Card series. Against the Padres in the NLDS, he was5-11 with 2 doubles and 3 driven in. All 5 of his hits came in game 3, the first Dodger ever to have 5 hits in a postseason game. In the Championship series against Atlanta, he hit just .179. But in game 5 in the top of the 6th inning, LA down 3 games to 1 and down 2-1 in the game, he hit a 3-run homer against Braves reliever, Will Smith, putting LA up 4-2 in a game they would win, 7-3. He drove in 7 runs in the series.

Will played in all 6 games in the series hitting a homer in game 2, a 6-4 loss. He went 4-24 in the series. Will played in 130 games in 21. He established himself as the Dodger #1 backstop. He hit 25 homers and drove in 76 runs as the Dodgers finished a game back of the Giants in the West. He hit 2 homers and drove in 3 in the LDS against SF. In the loss to the Braves in the LCS, he had 1 homer and 1 driven in.

If there was a weakness in his game, it was throwing out runners attempting to steal. In 21, his first full season, he caught just 25% of those runners. He led the NL in stolen bases allowed, 72, and runners caught, 24. That number was 17.9% in 22 and 20.9% in 23. So even though he was hitting well, his defense against runners needed improvement.

In 24, that number jumped to 33.2%. Will hit 20 homers and drove in 75. He signed a 10-year extension in March. He hit his 100th homer as a Dodger in May becoming just the fourth catcher in Dodger history to reach that mark, Campy, Piazza, and Yeager were the others.

On July 5th, he hit 3 homers against the Brewers, joining Grandal, Piazza and Campy. In his first AB the next day he homered, tying the MLB record for 4 homers in 4 at bats. The first Dodger to do so since Adrian Gonzalez in 2015. He started every game in the postseason for LA. He hit under .200 in all three series but also homered in each series which ended with a Championship for the Dodgers.

His homer in game four of the LDS helped LA win 8-0 over the Padres. He homered in the game six win over the Mets. His World Series homer came in game four’s 11-4 loss. In 2025, Smith was the best hitter in the NL for most of the first half of the season.

After 74 games his line was .325/12/46. His OPS was .966. He hit well over .300 in every month but June. August though proved to be his Kryptonite. He hit just .159 in August. On June 28th, he hit a walk-off pinch hit homer against the Padres. It was his third pinch-hit walk-off homer of his career, breaking a tie with Rick Monday. On August 31st, he hit a pinch-hit walk-off against the D-Backs, putting him in second place in MLB history behind Jason Giambi who had 6. He was hit in the hand by a pitch on September 3rd and would miss the rest of the season.

He hit .296/17/61 and made his 3rd consecutive All-Star team. Still recovering when the post-season started, he did not play in the wild card series. He went 2-13 against the Phillies in the LDS with just 2 runs driven in. He hit .400 against the Brewers in the sweep in the LCS, but had no RBIs, and no extra base hits.

Will would catch every inning of the World Series. In game 2, he homered of Kevin Gausman in the 7th inning, giving LA a lead it would not lose. He drove in 3 of the Dodgers 5 runs. His run scoring double in game six started the scoring in a game the Dodgers would win. And we all know about his game winning homer in game seven.

Smith may eventually have to move to another position, but for now, he is the Dodgers starting catcher. One of the best clutch hitters in the game. He will be here for a long time, and Dodger fans should enjoy watching a true Captain Clutch.