On June 8th last year, during the “long-awaited time at Yankee Stadium,” he ran hard to beat a throw. He slid as he approached the second base, his left leg stretched out. Shortly after he hit the base, he bent over in pain and rolled his ankle awkwardly as it got stuck in his bag.
Although it was not publicly revealed, Smith suffered from bone bruises, causing ankle pain for the rest of the season, and continued to feel uncomfortable with spring training.
“It lasted all year round,” Smith said. “And it didn’t get better in the offseason.”
Chalk up last year as another thing for Dodgers catchers.
At the plate, he scored career lows with batting average (.248) and base plus slugging percentage (.760), and was particularly struggling to win a second All-Star selection, failing to maintain a ferocious opening month that helped to stumble many of the summer months.
Smith was nursing a persistent ankle injury. He finished with an OPS under 100% and under .800. In 2023 he suffered an early rib injury, which continued to plague the rest of the season.
Smith’s ankle injury wasn’t revealed until the start of camp. The manager announced that the 29-year-old backstop, who enters his second season, signed last March, will miss the start of Cactus League play to give him extra rest in his ankles.
“I don’t think it’s always going to go away anytime soon,” Roberts said. “It’s just what it is.”
Smith made his spring debut on Friday night, saying he felt 100% in his ankles as he went 0 for 3 minutes and spent five innings behind the plate. There’s no need to worry that he’s missed the start of the season less than three weeks after his season’s opening trip to Japan.
However, as Smith and the team try to figure out the reasons for the decline in production and create a game plan for the performance of the bounceback, the ankle is something he needs to keep in control.
“You can do all sorts of treatments and everything,” Smith said. “But the only thing that really soothes you is rest.”
It is precisely unclear why his ankles have plagued him for this long – “We’re looking for more why it’s not gone,” he said – but Roberts confirmed that surgery is never an option.
“It’s deep, obviously bone bruises,” Roberts said. “Four months didn’t help the pain go away.”
Neither Smith nor Roberts could say how much they affected their struggle at the plate last year.
“I might have a little,” Smith said. “But it really didn’t hurt the swing. Maybe I could have compensated. I don’t know. But running was the only thing that really affected me.”
Roberts offered a slightly different perspective, saying, “I believe that my feet are blocking my swing.”
“He’s never going to use that as an excuse,” Roberts said. “But I think it certainly played a role.”
Good news: Smith said his swing is in a better place than he was in the second half of last year. I can stay more in the ball, mainly to create a “room for my hands to work.”
“The mechanical stuff I did last year definitely needs to be cleaned,” Smith said. “So I did it all in the offseason. I feel good. I feel like the swing is in a good place.”
Roberts hopes his ankle is not a disability, and the banking duties of the club’s franchise catcher are considered one of the best batsmen in his position and hopes he can play at a high level again.
“That’s one of the things he just has to deal with,” Roberts said. “But I think he’s in a really good place right now.”
