Putting Will Smith’s ridiculous rookie season into perspective

Former Louisville baseball player and current Los Angeles Dodger Will Smith is having one of the greatest starts ever to an MLB career.

It was early Thursday morning on the east coast, and I had just pulled up to my house when I got a notification that former Louisville cardinal Will Smith was up to bat for the LA Dodgers in the sixth inning.

As a habitual bandwagon follower of baseball, this notification on my phone would have been scrolled over, as there were more important things to attend to after a long day of work. However, if you’ve been following the story of the rookie Smith, you know that this was no ordinary notification. Because right now, Will Smith is must-see TV.

I quickly familiarized myself with the situation: In the bottom of the sixth inning, the bases were loaded for Smith with two outs and the Dodgers trailing the Padres 2-1. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Smith launched one deep to center. Dodger’s pitcher Trey Wingenter quickly raised his hand in the air, signaling an inning-ending pop fly. However, the crowd’s reaction was vastly different.

The ball carried 413 feet to center, and over the fence for a grand slam. Smith did it again. In only his fourteenth game.

How does one become must-see television in the span of a little over a month? Well, batting .349 certainly doesn’t hurt. And doing stuff like this doesn’t either:

It might be weird to say, but most following the situation are more amazed by Smith’s hot start than surprised at this point. The night before, July 31st, Smith hit a go-ahead 3-run homer to put his team up three runs in the top of the ninth at the Rockies. “On tradeline day, you can see why he was untouchable,” said a Dodger’s announcer. Smith is not only untouchable but at this point, he has star written all over him.

Bear in mind that the 24-year-old Louisville Kentucky Country Day graduate was not even part of the plan for the Dodgers in 2019. He has been called up from the minors twice amidst his insane rise to stardom. Most recently, he launched two walk-off home runs in the span of three days before being sent back to Triple-A Oklahoma City from June 25th to July 26th.

On July 27th, Smith hit a home run and drove in six RBIs. 32 days after his last major league game. Back like he never left.

The Dodgers had a plan for Smith, but there’s no way they could have envisioned this. Actually, there’s no way anyone could have envisioned this, besides maybe Smith himself.

“I don’t really surprise myself,” said Smith to reporters post-game. “You never know what you’re going to do when you get called up, but I think every guy down at Triple-A and the minor leagues believe in themselves that they can compete at this level. I did, and I’ve just shown it.”

Greatness put into perspective

To give some perspective to Smith’s intro to the majors, he has played in 14 career MLB games. Ever. In his final year at Louisville, a season that saw the Cards earn a national seed with Smith behind the plate, he hit 7 home runs in 157 at-bats. He already has 6 home runs and 19 RBIs in only 44 at-bats in the majors.

That puts Smith in some rare company:

Fourth-best start to an MLB career since 1920? Not too shabby.

But what makes Smith’s start even more magical is the way he has done it. He hit a walk-off dinger in only his fourth career game. He hit another walk-off in his sixth career game.

According to ESPN Stats and info, since his debut, Smith has driven in more go-ahead runs than any player in the major leagues with more than 30 total home runs on the season. That means that though Smith “only” has 19 RBIs and 6 home runs on the year, he has still notched more significant hits in fourteen games than some of the league’s best in a full season.

Smith traces his roots back to Louisville, Kentucky, where he began his career at Kentucky Country Day, a tiny private school near Prospect. At The University of Louisville, he was a blossoming prospect but was never considered “the” guy during any point in his college career.

Smith notched 9 total home runs during his career at Louisville, at first in a back-up role, then eventually as a relied-upon starter. He was voted 3rd team All-ACC in 2016 and parted ways with the Cardinals after being selected with the final pick in the first round of the MLB draft.

Since being drafted, like many players, it has been a grind for Smith. His first two full years were spent with the Dodger’s minor league affiliates. And when he finally was called up, Smith was sent back down, even after his late-game heroics on multiple occasions.

Now, he finds himself squarely in the middle of the conversation on the winningest team in all of the major leagues, and part of a roster that is once again built to go deep in the postseason. On Thursday, he caught for Clayton Kershaw as he passed Sany Koufax for the third-most strikeouts in Dodger’s history.

From a small school in Louisville, Kentucky to must-see TV, Will Smith’s transformation has been a slow grind. Whatever he does next, however, probably wouldn’t surprise anyone.