Dodgers: 2016 Draft – One Year Later
By Sully Engels
2nd Round — Will Smith — C
Will Smith, the Fresh Prince, has shown why the Dodgers selected him 32 overall in 2016. It’s rare to find a catcher who can take care of business behind the dish while being as athletic as Smith. Catchers are harder to evaluate at the minor league level at times because unless you know what the organization has in mind, the stats could be misconstrued.
So, for Smith, he has hit .250 with 11 home runs and a .761 OPS . over his first 95 minor league games. For a lot of minor leaguers, this just wouldn’t cut it, and if improvement didn’t come soon, they might be looking for a job soon, especially for a player coming out of college.
This is not the case here, not when the player was drafted within the first 50 picks and even more so because of how elite Smith can be on the defensive side. I got the chance to see him play again last weekend and seeing his arm in person is quite the spectacle. An elite pop time (time from when the ball hits the catcher’s mitt to when the infielder catches it at second) would be about 1.7 seconds, think Yadier Molina. Will Smith consistently records his pop times at 1.9 and below.
Smith has done just about what the Dodgers were expecting out of him: Manage a staff, including catching some of their most prized pitching prospects, play solid defense, and put the ball in play. Don’t be surprised if he is the starting catcher for the Dodgers in 2020 or before.