The Dodgers announced this evening that they’ve placed catcher Will Smith on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 10, due to a right hand contusion. Catcher Chuckie Robinson was recalled to replace Smith on the active roster.
Smith, 30, has enjoyed a career year with the Dodgers this season as he’s hit .296/404/.497 and landed his third consecutive All-Star appearance. Unfortunately, he was struck by a foul ball on his throwing hand on September 3. He sat out for nearly a week before he returned on September 9, but he hasn’t appeared in a game since. Manager Dave Roberts had previously described the issue as a matter of pain tolerance for Smith, as his ailing hand won’t heal before the end of the year at this point.
That seemed to suggest that Smith and the Dodgers were ready to have him play through the injury while talking days off when possible, but Roberts today told reporters (including Sonja Chen of MLB.com) that “not enough improvement” has occurred in Smith’s ability to play at this point to continue giving him a spot on the roster and playing without a true backup catcher. Dalton Rushing is already on the injured list due to a shin contusion, which meant that third-string catcher Ben Rortvedt was the only option on the roster who was available in recent days.
Now that Smith has been placed on the shelf, there was room to get Rortvedt some help in the form of Robinson. Robinson has just 51 games in the big leagues to his name, and in that time has hit just .132/.170/.194 with a career wRC+ of -3, meaning he’s 103% worse than a league average hitter. It’s hardly a robust offensive profile, but he’s a very well-regarded defender and his right-handed bat could pair with Rortvedt’s lefty bat to form something of a platoon behind the plate, though neither player is offering much with the bat from either side of the plate.
Solid as Robinson and Rortvedt are defensively, it goes without saying that another week without Smith is a major blow to the Dodgers. He’s arguably been second only to Shohei Ohtani as the team’s most important player this year, and without him impacting the club on both sides of the ball everyday it’s been difficult for the Dodgers to lock up the NL West this September even while the Padres have gone 6-12 over their last 18 games. Surely, L.A.’s lead would be much larger than 2.5 games at this point if they had Smith in the middle of the lineup alongside Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
That makes losing Smith for at least another week a tough pill to swallow, but at this point the Dodgers seem to view it as a necessary sacrifice in order to get Smith as healthy as possible in time for the start of the postseason. The Dodgers have just a 6.8% chance of clinching a bye through the Wild Card series according to Fangraphs, which means that Smith won’t get a substantial break between the regular season and the postseason to rest. The remaining regular season games are far less important than that three-game Wild Card set coming up in October, so it’s understandable that the Dodgers would be prioritizing getting Smith ready for that series at all costs at this point.
Given the nagging, day-to-day nature of Smith’s injury, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him activated after a minimum stay on the injured list. With that being said, it’s possible the Dodgers will want to give him as much time to heal up as possible over the final two weeks of the regular season, so perhaps they’ll take a more careful route with him and wait to bring him back until it’s time for him to tune up ahead of the postseason.
Yo, Holmes to Bel Air!
Will Smith has a lower pain tolerance than Chris Rock
yo, Holmes- smell ya later!
Call up Carolton !
Chuckie is back! And he may be in love!
Anyone know off the top of your head if Will Smith is better at the plate when he is also catching; or better as DH ?? Or pretty much the same batter regardless ??
Smith doesn’t get a chance to DH. LAD has this 0ther every day DH guy–what’s his name? Oh yeah. Ohtani.
But if it matters to you, Smith has been a great pinch hitter when called upon on his catching off days.
Rortvedt has been pretty good in his brief time. He seems to handle nuts and bolts catching better than Rushing and has contributed at the plate. Making a case for postseason roster.
Won’t matter. LA not feeling it this year.
Sadly, I have to agree. Baseline talent level is keeping them afloat, but they have been very sloppy the last couple of months. Surprising as it’s pretty much the same team that played so clean last season.
All teams have injuries, but LA has too many bad ABs and poor defense, not to mention awufl pen. Can’t see them getting out of the first round and certainly not good enough vs. Phillies.
Ahh I’m glad for you that you’re setting aside some words that you can eat later. Good planning.
You really think that pen can hold down slim leads in the playoffs?
So far all I’ve read are your uninformed opinions. A typical Dodger apologist. You’d fit right in with today’s GOP.
keeping tanner scott out of any kind of leverage situations would be a huge plus for their bullpen
how many seasons were they “feeling” it only to flame out in the postseason, seen too many
“LA not feeling it this year.”
Meaningless statement
Like saying that Aaron Judge isn’t feeling it and is going to get out.
Or you’re not feeling it so you probably won’t roll a six
Yeah. You’re probably right, but for the wrong damn reason.
A six is unlikely on any dice roll.
A batter not making an out is unlikely in any PA
A team winning the WS is unlikely in any season
Saying any of those things doesn’t show any specific insight
If you want to show some insight, tell us which teams you think do have a chance to win AND which don’t. Then, if you’re WRONG, we will KNOW you don’t know what you’re talking about and if you’re right, then maybe you know what you’re talking about. But maybe not.
The season just keeps getting worse….
…trust me… it could be a lot worse. You could be a Mets fan
“Won’t matter. LA not feeling it this year.”
That’s what the haters said last year too. Dodgers have more talent than most teams –certainly more than the Giants–even with the blown saves, the multiple injuries and the sometimes woeful offense. It hasn’t been pretty but they are still on their way to the postseason with a starting rotation of aces that all of you “experts” said wouldn’t be able to walk by October.
As long as the big 4 SPs are healthy the Dodgers have just as good of a chance of winning it all as the best teams. Just hoping the hitting is more consistent and timely, while the bullpen wears off some of the rust.
They’ll get good starts, but the Dodgers bullpen is a postseason killer. Could have been fixed in July.
If we didn’t have problems, the day would be over at twelve-thirty. –The Prisoner of Second Avenue by Neil Simon
If they put Yates and Scott in the bleachers behind home plate, their chances of success increase dramatically.
I haven’t seen two relief pitchers on the Dodgers who are guaranteed to make the situation worse in recent years.
Scott gives up another walk off.
Yates gives up a few runs with a nice lead.
I just can’t see them getting playoff roster spots if this is what they can give the team. Roberts is sacrificing games in an attempt to get these two right. Otherwise we might be in a better position going into postseason.
Just brutal.
In this case, it will be over in the 7th inning.
Deny the facts. Poor ABs, bad defense, bad pen. How many saves have they blown. Playoffs a different level of intensity and even less margin for “error.” If starters are healthy, how many innings before it goes to a woeful pen? LA good enough to win a mediocre division, but will be hapless vs. Cubs, Phils, etc.
You have stopped before you typed “mediocre division” because as it stands, there are 2 teams in the playoffs with a 3rd about to join the party and even a 4th that is looking to be the first team out.
I guess you can characterize a division’s strength different ways but putting teams in the playoffs is a pretty fair measure of strength.
You can’t argue with some guy who thinks his opinions are facts.
And would probably take a home run ball away from an 8 year old kid!
Yeah, blown saves, bad ABs, poor defense. Just opinions.
Yeah we’re all aware of the Dodger flaws but you just like to focus on the negatives. Poor ABs for example. Yeah, there are some players taking bad ABs but this is still the #3 best offensive team in MLB (runs scored, OPS, etc). You say poor defense, and yet the Dodgers are #3 in DRS and #14 in OAA. Bullpen has not been very good but the ebbs and flows make it worse than it is. I think Treinen gets back and getting someone like Sheehan into the pen will help. Scott has the stuff so you never know when it will turn around.
dodger apologists. “We will turn things around” On what basis other than your wish for them to do so. Negativity? ebbs and flows? They have had something like 23 blown saves this year what makes you think Tanner et al will turn it around because you say so?
You seem to be the expert in negativity. Do you actually support an MLB team or is your sole mission in life criticizing the Dodgers?
By the way…Do you know how many blown saves the Phillies have? 23.
The Mariners? 23.
The Mets? 24.
Rangers? 27.
Blue Jays? 23.
And there are several teams with fewer blown saves. Lots in fact. Many of them have losing records.
I guess it seems negative to a Dodger apologist.
Another fatuous, empty meaningless response.
Afraid to actually answer the question posed?
What a joke.
Yeah, bullpens having issues is a yearly thing. All bullpens go through that including last year’s pen. Ebbs and flows. Is the pen as good as last year? Probably not. It is talented though and why it would be foolish to give up on them. I’d trust Vesia, Treinen, Dryer, Sheehan, etc. and even Scott in postseason. Still time to get it right. But you do you and keep whining and stewing in negativity. I have no problems with calling things as they are which includes some negativity but clearly you’ve lost all sense of reality.
I don’t know how you separate negativity from reality, but having watched how Andy Freeman operates for years now, I have to conclude that he isn’t very good at Plan B. It was clear by midseason that his plan to nail down the back end of the bullpen with Yates and Scott wasn’t working out, and when Phillips was lost for the season and Graterol looking like he was too, this called for a new plan.
How many legit closers were traded in July? Four? I know I wasn’t alone in thinking the Dodgers would snag one of them. But instead, Friedman talked about how he already had the team that could win, and they only needed to play better. Sure. And how much is that going to buy us in the postseason?
BTW, if the season ended today the Dodgers would not only miss the first and second seed, they would play the wild card series without home field advantage.
I beg to differ regarding home field advantage in the wild card, if it’s Dodgers versus Mets. The higher seed gets home field. That would be the Dodgers.
Right you are. Winning the division gets them home field advantage in the wildcard series but not in the NLDS.
Look at their performance vs. Phils. Scoreboard clown.
The Dodgers are actually pretty healthy right now. We’ll see what happens. You just have to get in and get hot.
Austin Barnes?
Players signed after Sept 1 are not eligible for the postseason.
We just need a back-up catcher til Smith gets back….
Rortvedt is doing the job and Rushing comes back on Tuesday or Wednesday.
It isn’t such a great day when you’re anxiously anticipating the return of Dalton Rushing.
More worried that Smith can at least pinch hit in the postseason.
Dodgers have Ohtani, Betts, Freeman once again best 1-2-3 at top of lineup now that Betts is hitting.
Dodgers have Yamamoto, Snell, Glasnow, Ohtani, near top 1-2-3-4 starting pitching. Roberts is not taking the ball from Yamamoto before 115 pitches in the postseason. Vesia, Dreyer and Kershaw ready to replace Scott and Yates.
Brewers, Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs, Padres – I see almost equal odds for all five teams for any given series. These are all good teams.
We need to do a better job in the comments
Show us the way.
Low key Smith should finish top 5 in NL MVP and maybe top 3. And I wouldn’t argue too hard if you said he’s been more valuable to the Dodgers than anyone. Including Ohtani.
Will Dills Smith is a god among men.
I agreed a month ago, but now I would say Yamamoto has passed Smith.
I think Javier the bat boy should get some consideration.