The White Sox have signed outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. to a minor league contract, reports Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. They’ll be the fourth Major League organization for Smith, who’s repped by Wasserman.
The son of former big league outfielder and 1995 World Series champion Dwight Smith, the younger Smith was the No. 53 overall draft choice by Toronto back in 2011. He ranked between 14th and 28th among Jays farmhands each season from 2012-16, per Baseball America, and Smith hit the ground running in his first few big league looks. In a small sample of 104 plate appearances from 2017-18, he batted .294/.365/.467 and earned his way into the team’s outfield mix. That showing helped prompt the Orioles to trade for Smith in a deal that sent international bonus allotments back to Toronto.
In 2019, Smith’s first season with the O’s, he saw a career-high 392 plate appearances over the course of 101 games. He got out to another hot start in Baltimore, beginning the year on an eight-game hitting streak and carrying a hearty .286/.333/.510 batting line with eight home runs, nine doubles and four stolen bases through his first 159 trips to the plate. Smith looked to be a pretty sound low-cost pickup at the time, but his bat wilted as the season wore on. From May 15 through season’s end, he hit just .210/.273/.343 through 233 plate appearances, and his .222/.306/.365 slash in 72 plate appearances in 2020 wasn’t much better.
Smith was designated for assignment by Baltimore in Aug. 2020 and went unclaimed on waivers. He was outrighted to the team’s alternate site in the pandemic-shortened season and became a minor league free agent at season’s end. Smith inked a minor league deal with Cincinnati last winter, but he scuffled with a .221/.327/.284 slash in 147 plate appearances with their Triple-A affiliate before being released.
Now 29 years old, Smith has had some big league success but has yet to find much in the way of consistency. He’s a lifetime .248/.310/.316 hitter in 568 big league plate appearances and a .266/.351/.392 hitter in 1006 Triple-A plate appearances. It’s unlikely that the Sox view him as a primary candidate to factor into their right field mix this coming season, but he’ll be a depth option who’ll join a corner-outfield mix already featuring Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn, Adam Engel, Gavin Sheets and out-of-options prospect Micker Adolfo. The South Siders are expected to pursue further corner options once the league lifts the current transaction freeze, which would push Smith further down the depth chart.
The son of a World Champion Atlanta Brave
AAA depth
His Dad sang the national Anthem as a player sometimes when he was with the Cubs. Pretty Cool!
Senior is a Lamar Johnson wannabe.
His dad got robbed of the NL ROY award.
Perhaps. Perceptions of how the game is played have changed so much since 1989 though. 1989 NL ROTY Jerome Walton played good defense in centerfield and stole over 20 bases while Smith was manning one of the corner spots and was not as good on defense. Smith was also protected a lot by not having to face LHP. In today’s game I think the vote would be a lot closer and you might be right that Smith would win because his offensive numbers are clearly superior, but I can understand why Walton beat him out in 1989.
I hear ya steve w pants
Was at the game he hit a grand slam with his dad In attendance. Have always rooted for him since
So, Dwight Jr will be added to Sox organization? I hit .247 in high school, 3years, I am still a free agent. since 1965. Am now 74, any chance of me signing, $700 k a year sounds good to me.
Is Micker Adolfo a legitimate corner outfield candidate for the Whitesox?
I know he was like the second highest rated rated international prospect the same year as Eloy, but he reminds me of a poor man’s Jorge Soler. They are literally the same build, similar approach at the plate, slow corner outfielders with cannon arms.
Do any sox fans have additional information to put this Braves fan in their place?
Not a sox fan, Adolfo is a Quad A guy, if lucky.
Agreed. I might put him just above AAAA right now. I could see him in RF on a non-contending team like Marlins or Pirates. In this scenario, I see the White Sox trading Micker as an extra piece that the receiving team can plug and play to see what happens or DH him since the power is very real.
Smith could end up serving a similar role to the one Brian Goodwin filled last year.
Given how many OF the Sox went through last year and how Colas and Cespedes are at least a year away, I’m good with them stockpiling a bunch of reserve options.
Dumpster Diving Rick