Mets: Dominic Smith is becoming a legitimate MLB slugger

The New York Mets may have a legitimate major league slugger with Dominic Smith.

Hidden behind all of the madness of the 2020 MLB season is how well Dominic Smith has performed with the New York Mets. The man went into this year with no obvious way to get more at-bats. Yoenis Cespedes’ opt-out seemed to help as he’s now getting into games at first base, left field, and as the DH.

Fortunately for the Mets, he has carried over his hot bat from the 2019 season.

After 60 plate appearances, Smith has six doubles and six home runs. He’s slashing .300/.383/.780 overall and one of those numbers happens to lead all of Major League Baseball. It’s the slugging percentage.

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Ask anyone who hasn’t been watching which New Yorker leads all of MLB in slugging percentage and you would probably have votes split between Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso. Although Judge is second, Smith is still well ahead of him and everyone else.

Slugging percentage is measured by the number and type of hits a player has in relation to their at-bats. It’s pretty easy to calculate. All you do is divide the number of total bases by the at-bats.

In a year like this, I expected to see some surprise league leaders at many points. Although we have more than half of this abbreviated season left, enough time has gone by for all of us to wonder if Smith is now a legitimate slugger.

Smith’s minor league career suggested he would be less about power and more about batting average. His career-highs on the farm both came in 2017 when he mashed 16 home runs while batting .330 for Triple-A Las Vegas. This came across 500 plate appearances so we know the sample size was great enough.

Smith didn’t hit with tremendous power or put up good batting average numbers until 2019. His 11 home runs in 197 trips to the plate in 2019 was a promising sign. What he’s doing in 2020 is even greater.

I won’t discuss pace or blow a 16-game performance out of proportion too much. However, since 2019, Smith now has an average of 27 home runs per 162 games.

This isn’t going to win him a home run title but 27 dingers from his bat would be a pleasant surprise after seeing the home run portion of his resume.

Challenges do remain. On any given night, the Mets will have to continue sitting at least one capable starter in order to get everyone they want into the lineup. They can shuffle things around in a variety of ways and still see at least one useful bat waiting for them on the bench.

I don’t believe we’ll see Smith finish 2020 with a .780 slugging percentage or win a home run crown. With twice as many home runs as anyone else on the Mets though, it’s possible he does outslug the rest of his teammates.

Smith has done more than just swat the ball out of the park. After 22 team games, he leads the club in doubles and RBI as well.

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Wherever Smith plays, the future looks promising. His bat is alive and well and like it may only develop further.