3:00pm: The Sox have formally announced Smith’s DFA and the reinstatement of Casas from the 60-day IL. Boston also reinstated Cooper Criswell from the injured list and optioned righty Chase Shugart to Triple-A Worcester.
2:10pm: The Red Sox will designate first baseman Dominic Smith for assignment today, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Smith’s DFA will presumably clear the way for Triston Casas to be reinstated from the 60-day IL — as has been previously reported — and reclaim the everyday first base job in Boston.
Smith opted out of a minor league deal with the Rays back on May 1 when a big league spot with the Red Sox became available in the wake of Casas’ injury. He’s hardly replaced the offensive contributions that Casas can offer, but Smith hasn’t been too far off a league-average bat in Boston, slashing .237/.317/.390 with six homers and 20 doubles in 278 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, he’s only been about 5% worse than average at the dish.
Still, for an offensively inclined position like first base, that’s not much production — particularly since Smith also grades out as an average defender at best. Defensive Runs Saved had him as a positive last year but pegs him at -2 in 2024. Statcast’s Outs Above Average has had him slightly above-average in each of the past three seasons but below-average in his career overall. It’s fair to suggest Smith has improved his glovework over the years, but he’s still not a standout defensive player at his position.
Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Smith will be either outrighted or released. It’s unlikely he’ll be claimed by another club, but he could latch on elsewhere on a new deal once he clears waivers. The Red Sox would be responsible for the remainder of his contract, minus the prorated minimum for any time spent on his new club’s big league roster/injured list.
Smith hasn’t lived up to his former top prospect billing, but he did have an impressive 2019-20 run that saw him slash .299/.366/.571 with 21 homers in 396 plate appearances. His bat has cratered with a .242/.312/.361 output in the four seasons since that time — numbers that roughly align with his results during his 84-game stint with the Red Sox. Smith reached six years of big league service while with the Sox, so he’ll be a free agent again at season’s end regardless of who signs him for the season’s final few weeks.
Feel real sorry for Smith but it was inevitable, it was a matter of time.
Why feel sorry? This was his chance to shine and he really didn’t.
He did better than expected and gave the team stability at first in a horrible infield.
What were you expecting?
Better than expected? His stats have been pretty consistently average to below average the last three years. He’s done as expected and it’s not very great
Why compare the past three years? I’m referencing only his time in Boston and comparing him to Dalbec and Cooper. As a fill in, he was fine.
Because you said “he was better than expected.” Dom Smith’s stats were completely expected and very aligned to what his career stats were, which were average.
I’m glad he came immediately to fill in, but he was nothing but average. If that’s what you want, good, but I’m not praising him just for being an average body. At least we had someone, that’s where his credit is due
Dalber and Cooper are well below replacement level that’s a horrible bar to measure against might as well give Smith a participation trophy you know you want to
You gotta think of a really good rhyming insult name for Smith bro.
Smith did a good job, hopefully he returns.
Good job? He wasn’t even a 1 WAR player
Who cares about war? Look what the team had in Cooper and Dalbec? You don’t need stars at all positions.
Regardless of WAR or not, he was basically an auto out and has little OBP as well for a .250 hitter. He’s nothing short of average at best. We could have had better options, probably even in AAA. I’m sorry, not trying to be the pessimist in the room, but he’s just not that good.
He was worth the try but that’s all the credit I give him. Cooper would have been just as average if we kept him longer
Dalbec had to go long ago…
You don’t need all average players in every spot either. Ownership has to pony up somewhere if we want to win
Who was the other option? He was traded to LA and shockingly will get a shot shortly. His strikeout rate in AAA makes Dalbec look reasonable
Exactly.
You got owned by pocketbook just take the L and move on
Just barely a 0 WAR player in fact
So he was average, or better than half of the players at his position. Not bad at all.
WAR is such an overrated, garbage stat, it’s ridiculous.
No one knows how it’s even calculated.
If you don’t like WAR, look at average and OBP… neither are anything better than average and Dom met basically the same expectations as before he came to the Sox.
I don’t think it is calculated. It’s probably 6-8 statisticians making up garbage.
Give us the formula to calculate it math genius. Oh that’s right it’s completely different depending on the group determining it.
What is it good for??
@Jan6worsethan911 Well, not to be rude, but if you think January 6th was worse than 9/11, then you can’t do math either.
WAR is overrated, when it doesn’t fit your argument. I get it….
WAR isn’t great for pitchers, I use FIP then, but for batters, it’s a great Stat. And if you don’t like it, use Smith’s other average stats
Thanks for proving how moronic your made up math is. What in Dante Bichetes math stats make him a bad player ever? Please explain what in math makes him even slightly bad even excluding your RBIs? Common genius. Was it his career .835 OPS.
Absolutely Nothing….say it again
It’s from baseball reference. I’d trust the stats there than a guy on a forum.
Dom did his job covering the position but he added no value to the team and didn’t make us any better.
If you don’t like WAR, Dom’s average and OBP and OPS all tell a similar story. He’s just not that good, plain and simple
Everyone in these comments admitting they don’t understand how math works
When you go into a season with Dalbec as your primary corner infield backup, and your starting 1B goes down for the count, you end up with replacement level players. At least Smith delivered positive value rather than negative value. (Despite the name, “replacement level” isn’t easily achievable when sorting through replacement level players.)
.01 WAR is not much positive value. He had negative WAR throughout most of his stint until the end. He did not provide much, if at all, support that would drastically change this team.
Right, that’s the point. A 0.0 WAR is vastly better than what the Red Sox got at shortstop (prior to the return of Story) and second base last year, or for that matter at 2B this year.
If your starting player delivers a 0.0 WAR for the year, that’s a negative outcome. If you pick somebody up off the scrap heap and he delivers a 0.0 WAR, that’s a positive outcome.
Despite losing Casas for most of the year, 1B wasn’t their weakest position. Replace Smith with Dalbec and it would have been.
It’s all in your perspective. I don’t believe it is realistic to expect a replacement level player to drastically change a team.
It’s not a positive or negative outcome because it’s a zero. Basic math. But it doesn’t help us.
Everyone says it’s our pitching but our offense has been pretty bad earlier in the year and it cost us plenty of games with missed opportunities
Yup. The pitching kept us in things for the longest time, is just getting tired. Over management of the bullpen.
It’s not even over management. It’s the fact that they keep trading and taking in pitchers like a revolving door
You can’t deny the overmanagement! Look at the usage patterns, almost nobody in the pen is given sufficient time to recuperate since mid July.
The roster churn is a desperate attempt to get fresh arms up, because all the guys who are decent are badly overworked. And they are overworked because of the excessive use of short relief stints and mid-inning switches.
Look at what it has done to Garcia, a veteran reliever with a long history of success. But he is 37, and couldn’t handle it when Cora ramped up the frequency with which he pitched. Now he is total toast.
Yes, will help if ownership gives him a meaningful budget to work with, rather than insisting that he cut payroll year after year. Spending money doesn’t guarantee wins, but a failure to spend money leaves holes on the roster..
We knew they needed a 1b/3b backup from the start of the year. If Dalbec is the answer, the question must have been, “Who does a last place team turn to?”
I would like them to aim higher. They still MIGHT slip into the playoffs, but most of the other playoff teams are clearly stronger.
Shame, he was pretty good in July but hasn’t kept it going in August so far
Well, he knew the gig was temporary. but maybe he built enough value for another job. Good luck to him.
Maybe he’ll stick around Worcester and see if he’s needed again. Electing free agency is only going to lead to another minor league deal anyway
Sucks for Smith, always played with a smile, but there isn’t a role for him on the team with Casas and Yoshida on the roster. The right move, even if he gave us a solid run in July.
Very like-able guy.
Did about as well as you can hope for from a backup you claimed mid season. Some teams wouldn’t hate that production.
Shame about Yoshida’s contract
Why? Smith can’t DH
Yoshida can’t do anything
Yoshida can hit, he just doesn’t get big hits. What does this have to do with the topic?
Neither of them can do anything, BUT
Smith is a likeable guy
Yoshida makes $15 mil/year for no good reason, and despite his nickname being “Macho Man” (for whatever reason) the one thing he doesn’t do at the plate is hit home runs
Yoshida still hits a lot better than Smith does… Smith was a .1 WAR player. Class doesn’t matter when you can’t hit well.
In fact, Yoshida has more homeruns than Dom Smith has.
I agree Yoshida isn’t great, but he’s better than Smith
“Doesn’t get big hits”…Neither Dom Smith or Yoshida are very good, but at least Smith is league average cheap. I’m not sure how any GM ever saw Yoshida play defense and thought he’s worth $80M+. It may be a stretch to call Yoshida even league average.
“Better than Smith”…When you take into account the huge difference in salary, I’d MUCH rather have Dom Smith on my team over Yoshida. I agree neither is good, but Smith can at least play passable(if not excellent)defense at his primary position.
In your defense, I already proposed we trade Yoshida. I think Cora has actually ruined his production. We would have to eat the contract but he’s a waste of a roster spot…
I don’t want Dom Smith in his place though
Yoshida is a good hitter. He ain’t great, but he’s good. Lifetime OPS of .780, lifetime ba of .287. He’s more than fine as a hitter.
He’s just way overpaid, which last I checked was not his fault.
Trade Yoshida to who? I don’t think we have teams knocking down the door to take on that contract. Are you just going to eat the contract? Who is going to take his spot at DH, because if they eat his contract they are not going to go out and spend big bucks on someone else. Unfortunately it was not a good contract as he proved to be as bad defensively as many had predicted and his offense has not been as consistent as hoped.
He had some big hits versus the Yankees?
I think he did against the Dodgers?2 of the best teams right?
Instead of Smith we should have traded some prospects for Goldschmidt.He is a big name and proven veteran.He would have brought fans to the park.
I agree, Yoshida is a decent hitter but he’s paid too much just to DH, and you can get similar production from Abreu, who mans the bench because Yoshida takes his spot.
@Uncle Pedro
Devers would probably DH the most if Yoshida were gone. Then we would find a player for third, which wouldn’t be too hard, or Sogard would keep his position if Grissom finally does come back
Abreu has too much value defensively to replace Yoshida as a DH.
Yoshida when healthy can hit he’s proving that the problem is he’s an 18 million a year DH so he has to hit like Schwarber to justify that contract and he doesn’t. He’s a decent hitter but he was signed to play left and hit well. It’s become painfully clear he can’t play the outfield in anything short of an emergency he’s probably 10 million dollar overpay at this point. He will never play outfield for Boston again either so he will never be worth that contract.
If Breslow can trade Story and Yoshida this coming off-season, I’ll call him a genius and take back the bad things I have said regarding Paxton.
If things go well and Mayer, Anthony, and Teel all progress well they could make the major league roster during ST or soon thereafter. So Yoshida kind of loses a roster spot, they don’t need a DH only LHB. Eat the contract and get something back.
They should offer Story and Yoshida to San Diego for Xander.
They play the same amount of innings regardless of Devers “40 to 50 misplays”.so, yeah.
I was wrong but this is stupid. Smith was valuable and now if Casas has a set back, we bring up Dalbec?
Either that or you suffer with Romy Gonzalez as your first baseman. Good luck with that,
Gonzalez has a much higher OPS than Smith so not sure if “suffer” is the correct term.
Very good point. Gonzalez has better stats than Dom Smith
Let’s see Gonzoloez pick at first like Smith. If you use your eyes, you should realize defensively he’s head and shoulders abovevalk others on the Sox roster.
Romy is fine as a fill-in, but I can’t picture him playing 1st 5-6 times a week.
That is a good point. Dom is better defensively but still, you don’t win many games with either guy. That’s the issue
It’s not like Smith doing nothing but sitting on the bench was gonna provide much value in that scenario. Casas would have to have an immediate setback, otherwise Smith would get far too rusty to be of any use at all. He’s not playing ahead of Casas or Yoshida.
Hopefully Smith will be waiting in the minors to come back up if needed. He may not have been great, but better than many of the players we have gotten as short term solutions and seemed to be a solid clubhouse guy. Fingers crossed that Casas is going to be back to 100% soon and not have any setbacks.
We don’t need Smith back. He’s probably better than Dalbec but an AAAA hitter at best. He was here only to fill a position. Keep the utility guys instead for versatility.
Gasper can also play first base.
Man, I miss Carmine Ragusa or whoever it was… did he get banned yet? Where is he? Waiting for him to come and attack me about this.
Who? I don’t recall him anywhere but with Shirley and Laverne…
He was also on “Blansky’s Beauties” under a different character name.
It was a member here but yours could be sarcasm. Hard to pick up
This was to be expected. He’s had spurts where he had looked great…. but not the last few years. QUAD A player at worst, bench bat at best but reality is he needs to head over seas.
As I write this the score is 11-9 Sox. Can we please designate John Henry for assignment? I mean really, this pitching is not even AA level.
Smith wasn’t the player he was billed to be and we all know that. Considering everything he was a good stop gap who was a veteran presence on a young team . Yes some will say WAR or some other stat wasn’t great. Sometimes you got to look through the numbers and what he meant to a team. I wish him the best in his future endeavors
This team has more problems than keeping Dom Smith around. Ego Alex at the helm. The pitching came back down to earth . They have like 8 middle infielders with no clear choice of who it’s going to be . Basically 3 DH’s. No true 3rd baseman and nothing as backup at 3rd . No legit right handed power hitter. Unless you call ONeill that .