Yankees sign former NY Mets first baseman, just not the one we were worried about

The New York Mets and New York Yankees went into this offseason with a shared need at first base. Pete Alonso and Anthony Rizzo each saw their contracts expire. Both coming off of disappointing years, Rizzo far more so, there was some thought the two clubs could battle it out for the rights to sign Alonso. The Yankees moved on from the idea rather quickly, inking Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year deal back in December as part of their contingency plan to fill out the roster with Juan Soto no longer around.

This didn’t prevent the Yankees from stealing a different former Mets first baseman. On Monday evening, they struck a minor league deal with the man whose .616 slugging percentage in 2020 ranks as the best in Mets history in a single season, Dominic Smith. Of course the offensive explosion came in a shortened year and he has gone back to his old ways ever since.

Former Mets first baseman Dominic Smith will be part of the Yankees’ Plan-D at first base

Smith hasn’t turned out to be one of those Mets players we regret losing. After a very good 2019 season in a part-time role and a 2020 season that saw him actually receive a 13th place spot in the MVP race, Smith crashed. He was given significant opportunities on the 2021 Mets roster playing first base and a whole lot of left field. The offense stalled with only one more home run than he hit the year prior, one less double, and a slash line that dropped to .244/.304/.363. Maybe he wasn’t going to blossom late after all.

The following season was even worse. Smith failed to hit a single home run in any of his 152 plate appearances. A .194/.276/.284 slash line to go with it, the 2022 Mets season was his last in New York.

Smith would go on to put together a productive year with the Washington Nationals in 2023 albeit not a very noteworthy one for a first baseman. Only a dozen home runs, 46 RBI, and a very mediocre .254/.326/.366 slash line in a career-high 586 trips to the plate hardly had Mets fans wishing for the days when he was around. Last year was worse. A combined .233/.313/.378 performance as a member of the Boston Red Sox with a handful of games as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, his greatest achievement last year might have happened on the mound. Smith pitched 3 innings in 3 games and somehow allowed only two hits and a walk. His 0.1 bWAR as a pitcher was worth more than the -0.1 he was worth as a hitter.

We’ve seen this act before of the Yankees picking up ex-Mets off the scrap heap. Even if the narrative is that the Mets do this with fallen Yankees, they seem to do it just as much. J.D. Davis, Phil Bickford, and Dennis Santana combined to be worth -0.9 bWAR last year. Smith should fit right in with this crew if he ever gets to visit the Bronx.