Dominic Smith: Former Mets Outfielder / First Baseman / DH (2017 - 2022)

Dominic David Rene Smith was born June 15th 1995, in Los Angeles, California. His parents had seven children & raised Dom while separated. His mother works in childcare & his father is a dog trainer.

The six foot left hand hitting / throwing first baseman was the 2013 New York Mets number one draft pick, the 11th pick overall.

Smith grew up an Anaheim, Los Angeles Angels fan. He was signed right out of Junipero Serera High School in Gardena, California. 

Smith played in MLB's Inner City Youth Baseball program & is the one of the highest drafted players to come from the program. 

At the MLB draft he was greeted by former Met, Darryl Strawberry.

Once he signed with the Mets his mother decided he needed to get out of the South Central area of Los Angeles, have no distractions & focus on a baseball career.

With his signing money he purchased a home in Port St. Lucie, Florida where he could be near the Mets facilities & his A ball team. He lived there with his mother, two siblings & a nephew.

Smith spent 2013 between the Gulf Coast Mets & the Kingsport Mets in the Rookie League. In 2014 he was promoted to the A ball Savannah Sand Gnats batting .271.

In 2015 he was the St. Lucie Mets main first baseman, winning the Florida State League, Player of the Year Award. Smith improved to a .305 average, while leading the club as well as the Florida State League in RBIs (79) & doubles (33).

He was second on the team to Jeff McNeil in hits (139) runs scored (58) & games played (118). His lack of power was a concern for the team, but the Mets hoped his power skills would still develop.

2016 Spring Training: Smith was invited to the Mets 2016 Spring Training; he showed up with caramel colored hair in the mold of the NY Giants Football player Odell Beckam Jr. In his first game he got a base hit going 1-2.

Negatives: As a youngster he did throw up a couple of red flags, first showing up to camp overweight. He then got the start at first base, in the Mets third Spring game & did not run out a blast to right field. He started out into a HR trot but ended up with a long single. Manager Terry Collins glared at him & coach Tim Teufel had a talk with him in between innings.

Trivia: Among his many tattoos, he has one with Jesus teaching a youngster how to swing a bat.

Smith spent 2016 at AA Binghamton where he hit .302 improving his power & run production leading the team with 14 HRs 146 hits & 91 RBIs. He hit 29 doubles in his first full season at AA ball & a total of 66 the past two seasons. In July he had his career best day hitting two HRs while driving in five runs going 4-4. 

Along with Amed Rosario he represented the Mets in the 2016 Futures game at San Diego going 0-4 for the U.S. squad.

Quotes: Dominic Smith “Being in the Futures Game was so surreal. You’re in a big-league stadium, a big-league city, and you have 40,000 people in the stands. I just took a moment to look around and say, ‘Wow. This is why I worked so hard for this moment right here.’ I really enjoyed myself. I played on the field with some of the best minor leaguers in the world, and a bunch of those guys are taking the next step.”

He spent most of 2017 at  AAA Las Vegas as the 51s main first baseman. Smith was the second ranked prospect in the Mets organization, he batted .330 with 16 HRs & 76 RBIs, having certainly his best season. He was called up to the Mets late that summer.

MLB Mets Career: Smith made his MLB debut on August 11th 2017, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. After striking out in his first at bat, he collected his first career hit in his next at bat, a single off the Phillies Nick Pivetta. 

On August 15th he hit his first career HR & then hit another five games later. He would hit his third HR on August 23rd, in a 4-2 win over the Arizona D-backs. Although he hit a few HRs he was struggling badly, not getting to the .200 mark until September. 

He showed more signs of power in mid September, hitting HRs in three if four games & driving in eight  runs that week. 

But as the season went came to an end his batting average was below .200 finishing at .198 with 9 HRs 6 doubles & 26 RBIs in 49 games for the fourth place Mets who lost 92 games.

2018: In Spring Training 2018 he was still up a bit overweight, the Mets were not sold on him at first base & signed washed up veteran Adrian Gonzalez. Smith injured his quadriceps & missed most of the Spring. 

He began the year at AAA Las Vegas & would get called up twice during the year but get sent down two times as well.

He didn't impress in Vegas, batting .258 with 6 HRs 41 RBIs although he did hit 21 doubles in 85 games. With the Mets he played parts of two brief games in May, going 0-1. He returned in June but hit just .183 with one HR & was sent back down on July 20th, when Yoenis Cespedes was reactivated.

He was back in mid August & stayed on the team thru the end of the year. On September 26th, he had two hits, a HR & two RBIs leading the Mets Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom to a 3-0 win over Atlanta.

In 2018 Smith batted .224 with 5 HRs 11 doubles & 11 RBIs. In 56 games he had 143 at bats & struck out 47 times. With Wilmer Flores seeing the majority of time at first base, Smith was used at first base in 28 games. He was put in the outfield in 13 games, making one error in 14 chances.

2019: In Spring Training 2019, he treated his sleep apnea with a positive breathing machine, helping him be more alert. He was visibly more in shape as well. 

He made the trip North with the team, but with Pete Alonso at first base he wasn't going to see much time there. He did see action in 36 games there & another 33 in the outfield.

In the second game of the season, he was brought in at the 8th inning & singled in two runs, extending the Met lead over the Nationals. He got his first start on April 2nd & drove in a run in the Mets five run 1st inning in Miami, they went on to a 6-5 win. He had a pinch hit RBI the next day as well in a 6-4 win.

Smith would not hit his first HR until May 14th, his 32nd game, but he was hitting more for average batting .344 at that point. By the end of May he was 9-23 as a pinch hitter (.391). 

On May 29th he had a three hit game in Los Angles & had five multi hit games from May 26th to June 7th, raising his average to .386.

Starting on June 24th he hit HRs in three straight games at Philadelphia, sadly the Mets got swept in the four-game series. 

On July 17th he homered & drove in four runs in the Mets 14-4 win in Minnesota. Three days later, he drove in four more runs, with a three-hit day & another HR.

The Mets fortunes turned around, as they began to win more & put together some big win streaks. But on July 27th, Smith went down with an injury to his left foot, putting him on the 60-day IL. At that point the Mets were 48-55, 12 1/2 games out.

Smith did make a triumphant return for the last game of the season. Smith had been in the dugout, cheering his team on during the wild card race, but was not able to play. 

Although the Mets were out of the race, they did put in a 87 win season. 

On September 29th, he was put in the game as a pinch hitter in the 11th inning of a 6-6 game with the Atlanta Braves, at Citi Field. 

With two men on, Smith connected off Grant Dayton, with a walk off three run HR. The Mets won the game & completed a series sweep of Atlanta to close out the year. It was Smith's happiest Mets moment.

In 2019, he had his most successful year batting .282 with 11 HRs 10 doubles & 25 RBIs. He posted his career best .355 on base %, a good 100 points higher than the previous year. 

In the 2020 COVID19 shortened season, Smith got more playing time, since Yoenis Cespedes was no where to found. Smith excelled, as he had his best season up to that point, becoming one of the main batters in the Mets offense.

On Opening Day he made a 10th inning pinch hit appearance & hit an RBI sac fly, although the Mets fell short 5-3. The next day he hit a three run HR in the 7-4 win over Boston.

Beginning on August 12th he
homered in four straight games, driving in eight runs in that span. Thru the end of August he drove in 17 runs in an 18 game span. At mid August he went over the .300 mark & remained there the rest of the way.

On September 11th he hit a grand slam HR, in the Mets 18-1 bashing of the Jays in Toronto. In a 13 game span that month he drove in 15 runs & closed out his final seven games with a pair of HRs.

On the year, Dom led the Mets in RBIs (42) doubles (21) batted .316 with 10 HRs (both second
most on the club). He posted a .377 on base % with 27 runs scored & 56 hits, playing in 50 of the Mets 60 games. 

Trivia: Although it was a shortened season, it must be noted his .616 slugging % was an all time Mets single season best. The utility man played at first base, outfield & DH.

2021: In 2021 Dom was expected to be one of the big bats in a good offensive Mets team. On Opening Day, he was inserted in left field, batting in the fifth position. He hit his first HR of the year, in the Mets 8-4 win at Philadelphia. In April 13th he hit his second HR, coming off Chase Anderson in a 4-3 win over the Phillies at Citi Field.

On May 9th, he drove in a run in the Mets 4-2 win over Arizona, then the next night, with the Mets down 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, Dom singled off Cesar Valdez of the Orioles, to drive in Kevin Pillar to tie the game. 

The Mets went on to win it, on Patrick Mazeika's walk off fielders choice. The next night, he drove
in two runs, collecting three hits in the Mets 7-1 win over Baltimore.

On June 1st, Smith hit a two run HR off the d-backs Caleb Smith in Arizona, although the Mets took a heartbreaking 6-5 loss.  The next night he had another three hit game & drew a walk, in a 7-6 Mets win over the D-backs.

He would hit two HRs in the Mets Cubs series in mid-June. On June 21st, in the first of a twin bill, Smith would have a big night against the Braves at Citi Field. In the 5th he lined a bases loaded double off Sean Newcomb scoring all three runners in the Mets 4-2 win. 

On July 1st in Atlanta, he homered twice in a losing effort. In his next game two days later, Smith had three hits, with a double & two RBIs in the Mets 8-3 win during the subway series in the Bronx. In the July 4th double header, he homered off Gerrit Cole in the first game, as the Mets went on to a 10-5 win.

On July 21st in Cincinnati, Dom hit a grand slam HR off reliever Jeff Hoffman who had just gave up three straight singles. The Mets won the game 7-0. Smith would not hit another HR all season & only drive in 12 runs in the last two months of the season, as the Mets fell from first to third place.

Smith's season was considered a real disappointment after his good 2020 Covid shortened season. Sports Illustrated called him "the teams least valuable player" the media & the fans were not happy. He as well as Jeff McNeil were called prime underperformers. 

He ended the year batting just .244 with 11 HRs 20 doubles 58 RBIs & a .304 on base %. In the off season his name kept popping up in trade rumors as the Mets acquired players that definitely meant he was seeing less playing time. But no deal was made, Dom acted professional, accepted his new role & got the respect he deserved for the way he handled things.

2022: In January he began to see a therapist for issues off the playing field.

The new Mets manager Buck Showalter felt all players need to be in the line up at times to stay fresh, so Dom in a backup role did see some good playing time. 

Although he struggled & up until late May was batting just around .200, still looking for his first HR. Dom told the media he wanted to play every day as no MLB player is content with playing off the bench.

On May 25th, the Mets were down 2-0 in the top of the 9th at St. Louis. The Mets came back &
with two men on Dom had a great at bat, he slid safely into first base for an infield single scoring two runs giving the Mets the lead. Brandon Nimmo followed with a two run HR scoring Smith as the Mets won it 5-2.

On May 1st, Smith had a big night with four hits, a double & three RBIs helping the Mets & Max Scherzer in 1 10-6 win. Two days later he got another start in the second game of a double header with the Braves at Citi Field. His two run double off Kyle Wright in the 1st inning was all Carlos Carrasco & the Mets needed in the 3-0 win. 

On May 18th he drove in another run in the 11-4 win over the Cardinals. This was the same night Max Scherzer took himself out of the game & would miss at least six weeks of action with an oblique strain. 

Smith made a comment to the media that he wanted to play every day either with the Mets or somewhere else. He would soon get his wish, but it wasn't in New York. On May 31st was demoted to AAA Syracuse.

   

He returned to the Mets in late June but still was not hitting, in 19 games he drove in just three runs. On July 20th he went on the IL with a right ankle sprain. The next month he was optioned to AAA Syracuse, the Mets acquired Daniel Vogelbach & Darin Ruf to alternate in the DH spot, ending Smith's time in New York. finishing the season there batting .284.

For the Mets he batted .194 with ten doubles & 17 RBIs.

Mets Career Stats: Smith never grew into the player the organization thought he may have been. In six years, he batted .246 with 306 hits 78 doubles three triples 46 HRs & 179 RBIs with a .311 on base % & .733 OPS in 447 games.

Post Mets Career: At the end of the season, he was granted free agency & eventually signed on with the Washington Nationals. On April 29th he ended a HR drought that dated back to July 21st, 2021, grand slam, with a HR off the Pirates Yohan Ramirez. At the start of June, after his first 53 games as a National he was batting .269 with one HR five doubles & 14 RBIs.

Career Stats: In a seven-year career (up to 6/3/23) Dom has 359 career hits with 47 HRs 83 doubles 193 RBIs 3 triples 118 walks 367 strike outs a .314 on base % &.723 OPS. 

He has played 479 career games, 218 games at first base, 182 in left field, one in right field & 25 games as a DH.

Charity: Smith founded the nonprofit Baseball Generations organization, which supports player development for underprivileged players.