Dodgers reveal expected Will Smith fate as World Series defense takes hit

One of the things that has been holding the Los Angeles Dodgers back the most in 2025 has been their historically bad luck with injuries. While they have been slowly getting more and more healthy, it has been a two steps forward, one step back situation all year long especially with their pitching staff. It was only one Friday that Michael Kopech had to go on the IL again as he is dealing with "multiple issues". However, it is their lineup that just took a major hit with the latest word on Will Smith.

Smith originally got put on the shelf after taking a ball off of his throwing hand while he was behind the plate. There was initial optimism that Smith would not be out long, but there was an eerie period of quiet after that before manager Dave Roberts revealed that Smith's recovery had stalled at the end of the week and that Smith was in need of some more tests.

Unfortunately, that led to the expectation that Smith was dealing with a more serious injury and that proved to be correct as Roberts revealed before Saturday's game against the Giants that the Dodgers' starting catcher has a hairline fracture in his hand which raises questions about his availability for the postseason.

Will Smith ruled out for rest of the regular season after Dodgers reveal he has a broken hand

The one thing we know for sure is that Smith's injury will keep him out for the rest of the regular season. While guys can come back from hairline fractures quicker than you would think and catchers are built different, but there is so little time left in the regular season that there is no reason to push him to return before season's end and risk the injury lingering.

However, the Dodgers already had to jump through a bunch of hoops to deal with Smith's injury initially and now they are going to be without one of their better hitters for the foreseeable future. As for the playoffs, that will almost certainly come down to how much inflammation is in his hand, how the fracture heals, and Smith's pain tolerance. With several teams in the NL playoff field having a knack for stealing bases, LA likely won't want to have Smith behind the plate if he can't make the throws he will almost certainly need to.

Unfortunately, the timing for the Dodgers couldn't be much worse here. The Padres are still lurking a few games back in the NL West and that could make the division race more interesting than anyone wants. With Smith out, the already slim odds that LA could move up to the second seed in the NL playoffs may have evaporated. Once again, the Dodgers are going to be limping into the playoffs. One hopes that they can hold things together for another month or so.

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