Mets 2017 Season in Review: Dominic Smith

Torrid in Las Vegas Tepid in New York 

As noted above, Smith had a tremendous season in Las Vegas. As with any player who plays in the high run scoring environment of Vegas, an eye brow could sometimes be raised when looking at their stats but Smith was tearing it up none the less even earning PCL player of the month prior to his callup and prospect experts believed that the PCL wasn’t the only factor for his offensive numbers and that real progress was being made. This performance had many beleiving the Mets had their future first baseman.

After his callup however, things did not go as planned. To put it simply, he was terrible at times in the final two months of the season. It is important to remember it was an incredibly small sample of 183 plate appearances but Smith only mustered a slash line of .198/.262/.395. Smith also put up a very high K% ( 26.8)and GB%(50.4), two areas which must be improved upon. Smith also struggled in the field putting up an abysmal -7 DRS. This was very surprising considering his reputation has a good fielder throughout his minor league career.

Power Potential?

One thing Smith did show during his stint with the big club was a bit more power than some may have thought he had. Smith clubbed 16 homers in Triple A and then slugging another 9 in August and September. Smith worked on getting the ball in the air in Triple A, much like the rest of MLB. It would be a very positive development for the club if Smith could continue that trend and add more power to his overall package.