Will Smith makes the roster but not Michael Conforto for Dodgers’ wild-card series
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- Will Smith made the Dodgers’ wild-card roster despite missing three weeks with a fractured right hand.
- Michael Conforto was left off after struggling to a .199 batting average despite his $17-million contract this season.
- The roster announcement came ahead of Game 1 against Cincinnati on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in the best-of-three series.
Despite missing the last three weeks of the season with a fracture in his right hand, catcher Will Smith was included on the Dodgers’ roster for their best-of-three wild card series against the Cincinnati Reds this week, the team announced ahead of Game 1 on Tuesday.
Smith was not in the starting lineup for Game 1, with Ben Rortvedt behind the plate for the series opener. However, manager Dave Roberts didn’t close the door on Smith being able to start later in the series, and said that the two-time All-Star would be available Tuesday to pinch-hit.
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“The hitting, the throwing, he feels really good about,” Roberts said. “I think it’s a day-to-day thing. And so I’m not closing the door that he’s not going to start tomorrow. But I do feel that the floor of having him available to hit in any big spot, it was certainly worth having him on the roster.”
The Dodgers also put a third catcher, rookie Dalton Rushing, on the wild-card roster.
“It got to a good place where the bone had healed,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Smith’s hand, which was originally injured in early September when it was hit by a foul ball, but wasn’t diagnosed as a fracture until a couple weeks later.
“Now it’s about getting strength back,” Friedman added. “Once you do that, then it’s about throwing. We were able to keep his legs going, but he hasn’t had that throwing volume in a little while. So now we have to continue to kind of progressively layer that on. But as far as him in the batter’s box, if there’s a big spot, we all felt really good about betting on Will.”
Max Muncy and Tommy Edman, who both missed time last week with minor injuries, were also on the roster, as expected.
The other big development from Tuesday’s roster announcement was the absence of outfielder Michael Conforto, the $17-million offseason signing who struggled mightily for much of the regular season but had continued to get playing time through the end of the schedule.
Conforto hit only .199 this season, the lowest mark of any hitter with 450 plate appearances in the majors. He also managed just 12 home runs (a full-season career-low), 36 RBIs and struck out 121 times (albeit while drawing 56 walks and keeping his on-base-percentage above .300).
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Conforto did finish the season better, batting .228 with a .678 OPS after July 1 and going 15-for-61 (.246 average) in September. As a left-handed hitter, he also appeared to have potential value off the bench.
However, the Dodgers elected to roster trade deadline acquisition Alex Call and defensive specialist Justin Dean (who finished the season in the minors) on their wild-card roster. They also kept infielder Hyeseong Kim, who is a speed threat but has been equally inconsistent from the left side of the plate down the stretch.
Roberts said that, once the team decided to have Dean and Kim on the roster for their unique tools, the decision came to having Conforto or Smith round out the bench.
“It’s been really difficult for Michael,” Roberts said. “But he’s owed his performance, hasn’t run away from it. He showed up to work every single day, offensively, defensively. So he’s one of my favorites. He’ll be ready if called upon. And hopefully we have a long run and we’re gonna need him.”
There were few surprises among the Dodgers’ pitching staff, which included only 11 arms (not including two-way player Shohei Ohtani) for this abbreviated opening-round series.
Rookie phenom Roki Sasaki, who returned from a shoulder injury and impressed in two late-season relief appearances, was on the roster as Roberts had hinted the day before.
So too were right-handed veteran Blake Treinen and embattled left-handed closer Tanner Scott, who were major disappointments in late-inning roles this year but flashed some improvement in the final days of the regular season.
The rest of the Dodgers’ bullpen includes converted right-handed starters Tyler Glasnow (who will likely return to the rotation if the team advances to the division series) and Emmet Sheehan, hard-throwing rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, and three other left-handed options in addition to Scott: Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Justin Wrobleski.
Anthony Banda was the only snub from the team’s regular-season roster. Clayton Kershaw was also left off the roster as expected, but could have a role in future rounds if the Dodgers advance.
