Will Smith may already be part of rookie walk-off history, but the young Los Angeles Dodgers catching prospect is not the only Major Leaguer to share a name with the movie star.
MLB’s other Will Smith is the veteran closer for the rebuilding San Francisco Giants. That Smith is a prime candidate to be dealt before the July 31 trade deadline and, in an incredibly ironic twist of fate is a perfect fit for what the Dodgers seemingly lack in their bullpen.
Smith is a left-hander with years of back-end bullpen experience. The Dodgers, as great as they were in the first half of 2019, have nobody like him on their current roster. Late-innings stalwarts Kenley Jansen and Pedro Baez are right-handed, as is Joe Kelly.
The Dodgers’ best left-handed reliever, Julio Urias, has been used primarily in a long relief role as the team closely monitors the former phenom’s innings workload.
Scott Alexander, meanwhile, remains sidelined with a forearm injury and has struggled against left-handed hitters anyway. Caleb Ferguson has yet to replicate last year’s success
So could Dodgers deal for the veteran reliever who would be a perfect fit for them, and make some baseball trivia nerd’s pipe dream of a double Will Smith trade come true?
Although the Dodgers reportedly have interest in Smith and other top Giants relievers, they are considered unlikely to do a swap of the namesakes, per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi:
Would the Dodgers trade Will Smith … for Will Smith? Sources say no.
Whether the longstanding rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants hurts the chances of a trade remain to be seen. However, new Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has publicly stated he would be open to discussing a trade with his former boss and current Dodgers counterpart, Andrew Friedman.
Friedman reportedly feels the same way about working with his old general manager on a deal. However, it is not surprising that Friedman would want to hold onto the Dodgers’ Will Smith in a trade for the other Smith — or anyone else, for that matter.
Friedman heaped praise on the young catcher during Spring Training, saying at the time could already be Gold-Glove caliber defensively and just needed to work on his hitting.
Two very successful stints in the Major Leagues thus far, which include two walk-off home runs, indicate that Smith’s bat may be big league ready. Smith also represented the Oklahoma City Dodgers in Wednesday night’s Triple-A All-Star game.
