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Justin Smoak

NPB/KBO Notes: Smoak, Sparkman, Freitas

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Veteran first baseman Justin Smoak, who’d signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball over the winter, has returned to the United States to be with his family, the Japan Times recently reported. The 34-year-old switch-hitter was productive in his limited run for the second-place Giants, slashing .272/.336/.482 with seven homers and three doubles in 34 games, but Giants representative Atsuhiro Otsuka told the Times that Smoak’s “love of family outweighed everything else.” As the Times’ Jason Coskrey writes in a second column, the Giants attempted to find ways to reunite the family in Japan, but current travel restrictions there made that impossible.

Smoak’s wife, Kristin, shared a heartwarming video of him returning home to surprise his daughters (Twitter link), calling it a “terribly tough decision” and noting the “amazing” support and understanding the Giants provided throughout the situation. Kristin Smoak later tweeted that the family has been “blown away by the genuine kindness and understanding we have received” from NPB fans.

A few more notes out of Japan and South Korea…

  • The Orix Buffaloes announced this week that they’ve signed right-hander Glenn Sparkman to a contract for the remainder of the season (Yahoo Japan link). He’ll take the roster spot of righty Brandon Dickson, who recently returned to the U.S. to sign a minor league deal with the Cardinals. Sparkman was on a minor league deal with the Twins earlier this year but was released in mid-May. He’s spent parts of four straight seasons in the Majors (2017-20), including a 2019 campaign in which he racked up 136 1/3 innings for the Royals. Sparkman has just a 5.99 ERA in 180 1/3 MLB frames, but he carries a career 2.88 ERA in 378 2/3 minor league innings — including a 3.51 mark in parts of four Triple-A seasons.
  • The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they’ve placed designated hitter/catcher/first baseman David Freitas on waivers (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). They’re now in the mix for a new bat to add to the lineup. Freitas, 32, was the Heroes’ primary designated hitter but slashed a fairly tepid .259/.297/.374 with two homers and 10 doubles in 148 plate appearances. The former Braves, Mariners and Brewers catcher posted a ridiculous .381/.461/.561 line in 382 Triple-A plate appearances back in 2019 and has a generally strong track record at that level, but he’s yet to produce much in the game’s top leagues in North America or South Korea.

Justin Smoak To Sign With Yomiuri Giants

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JANUARY 6: The deal is now complete and will promise Smoak $6MM, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

DECEMBER 29: Free-agent first baseman Justin Smoak is nearing a contract with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. Smoak will earn a guaranteed $6MM to $7MM if the deal goes through.

The 34-year-old Smoak divided last season between the Brewers and Giants (San Francisco, not Yomiuri) and posted a brutal .162/.250/.361 line with five home runs in 132 plate appearances. Smoak’s strikeout rate (31.8) was the second-highest figure of his career and a 10-plus percent increase over the number he recorded in 2019 with the Blue Jays. Considering his weak production from 2020, Smoak would have been hard-pressed to approach his agreement with Yomiuri in value had he stayed in the majors in 2021, so it’s no surprise the switch hitter is on his way to Japan to collect a larger paycheck and perhaps rebuild his stock for big league teams.

If this is the last we’ve seen of Smoak in MLB, though, he’ll go down as someone who had an up-and-down tenure at the game’s highest level. The 11th overall pick of the Rangers in 2008 and once among Baseball America’s top 15 prospects, Smoak has seen major league action with five teams (the Mariners are the other). Smoak was at his best in Toronto from 2017-18, when he slashed .256/.353/.495 with 63 home runs and a 128 wRC+ across 1,231 trips to the plate. He hasn’t come close to matching that form since then, however.

Giants Release Justin Smoak

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Sept. 23: Smoak has been placed on unconditional release waivers, per Jessica Kleinschmidt of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link).

Sept. 21: The Giants have designated first baseman Justin Smoak for assignment, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group was among those to report. They reinstated outfielder Alex Dickerson from the paternity list in a corresponding move.

This is the second time this month a team has cut Smoak, whom the Brewers designated Sept. 3 and then released on the 8th. Milwaukee signed Smoak, a three-time 20-home run hitter, to a $5MM guarantee last offseason off a so-so campaign with the Blue Jays. However, the switch-hitting 33-year-old only slashed .186/.262/.381 with five homers in 126 plate appearances before the Brewers cut ties with him.

Smoak may have been worth a low-risk shot for San Francisco, but he also couldn’t get back on track with the Giants, albeit over a small sample size of plate appearances. He wound up taking six trips to the plate and going without a hit as a Giant.

Giants Place Pablo Sandoval On Release Waivers

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1:00pm: The Giants announced that Sandoval has been placed on release waivers.

12:32pm: The Giants are designating infielder Pablo Sandoval for assignment today, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports (Twitter links). The move will create space for fellow veteran Justin Smoak, who signed with the Giants yesterday.

Sandoval, 34, lasted just two and a half seasons in Boston under an ill-fated five-year deal but surprised many with a resurgent showing upon returning to the Giants after being cut loose. From 2018-19, Sandoval tallied 548 plate appearances over 200 games with his original club, hitting .259/.311/.466 with 23 homers, 33 doubles and a triple. The pendulum swung in the opposite direction in 2020, however, as Sandoval has logged a miserable .220/.278/.268 slash through 90 trips to the plate.

The 33-year-old Smoak hasn’t exactly fared well in 2020 himself, hitting just .186/.262/.381 in 126 plate appearances with the Brewers before being released. Even amid those struggles, however, Smoak has shown much more power at the dish and a better walk rate. He’s been more prone to strikeouts than Sandoval but gives the Giants a better defensive option at first base and more pop on days he serves as designated hitter or a late-game pinch-hitter.

With Sandoval hitting well in 2018-19 and Hunter Pence returning after a resurgent year with his hometown Rangers, Giants fans might’ve had visions of one last productive run from the fan-favorite duo that fueled so much of their “Even Year” dynasty from 2010-14. Both Pence and the Panda struggled mightily in what now looks to have been their San Francisco farewell tours, however, leaving their futures within the game somewhat up in the air.

Had the Giants been languishing in the NL West cellar, perhaps they’d have kept Sandoval around to close out the season. San Francisco, though, has rattled off five straight wins to surge back to current possession of the No. 7 playoff seed in this year’s expanded postseason format. It’s in some ways reminiscent of last year’s July hot streak. Last year’s club wasn’t able to sustain the pace and convert that hot streak into a playoff berth, but the 2020 Giants will look to parlay their current 8-2 stretch into the organization’s first playoff berth since 2016.

Giants Sign Justin Smoak

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1:35PM: The Giants have announced the signing, noting that Smoak signed a minor league deal and has been added to the 60-man player pool.

1:01PM: The Giants have agreed to sign free agent first baseman Justin Smoak, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  Smoak was released by the Brewers yesterday.

Smoak came to Milwaukee on a one-year contract worth $5MM in guaranteed money ($4MM in salary, and $1MM on a buyout of a $5.5MM club option for 2021).  Over 126 plate appearances this season, Smoak simply never got on track, hitting .186/.262/.381 with five home runs and eventually becoming an expendable piece.  The Brewers will eat the remainder of the salary owed to Smoak this season, minus the prorated minimum salary that will be paid by the Giants for however much time Smoak sees in the big leagues over the final two-plus weeks.

The 22-21 Giants are currently in possession of a wild card berth, in part due to major contributions from such unheralded acquisitions as Mike Yastrzemski, Donovan Solano, and Alex Dickerson.  2020 numbers aside, Smoak has more of a proven track record, and was an All-Star as recently as the 2017 season.  His numbers have been on the decline since that breakout year, though his pedestrian 2019 statistics were underlined by some very impressive Statcast numbers that have generally not carried over to this season.

A change of scenery could perhaps be what Smoak needs to spark his bat, and on paper, a revived Smoak would help the Giants replace the production they expected from Hunter Pence — another veteran who had a tough 2020 season and was recently released.  Smoak could occasionally spell Brandon Belt at first base and also see some time at DH.  Since Mauricio Dubon has now essentially become San Francisco’s full-time center fielder, it creates a bit more room for Smoak to join Pablo Sandoval as the team’s primary backup infielders, with Belt, Solano, Brandon Crawford, and Evan Longoria starting around the diamond and Wilmer Flores also seeing a good chunk of time at first base, second base, and DH.

Brewers Release Justin Smoak

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The Milwaukee Brewers thought they might have a bargain when they signed first baseman Justin Smoak to a one-year deal with a team option this winter. A $5MM guarantee would be a bargain deal for a productive first baseman, and Smoak had been exactly that in the past. The 33-year-old was a 10-year big-leaguer worth 3.0 rWAR in 2017 and 2.0 rWAR in 2018. He struggled in 2019 to a triple slash of .208/.342/.406 with 22 home runs across 500 plate appearances – but the numbers weren’t so far off the previous two years, and there was cause for optimism.

Solid peripherals likely kept Smoak employed, as if you looked at his career 11.6 BB%, 23.6 K%, and .190 ISO, there ’s potential for a potent bat there. Even during a down 2019 season, he logged a 15.8 BB%, 21.2 K%, and .198 ISO. Add in a below-average .223 BABIP and it’s easy to see why the Brewers gambled on him. The BABIP didn’t bounce back, however, and the walk and strikeout rates both went the wrong way.

Maybe the thinking wasn’t misguided, but the results simply didn’t pan out as hoped. The Brewers released Smoak today after he passed through waivers, per MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (via Twitter). He was DFA’ed on September 3rd when the Brewers put in a claim for Daniel Vogelbach.

Vogelbach’s struggles were at least equal to Smoak’s this season, but whether the Brewers see something in Vogelbach or have simply seen enough of Smoak, Smoak’s tenure in Milwaukee is now over. In 126 plate appearances, Smoak hit just .186/.262/.381 with a handful of home runs. Smoak’s major-league career may not yet be over, but he’ll likely need to accept a minor-league contract to keep going.

The 11th overall draft choice of the 2008 draft, Smoak played for the Rangers, Mariners, Blue Jays, and Brewers across 11 seasons. For his career, he owns a triple slash of .229/.322/.419 with 196 home runs.

Brewers Designate Justin Smoak, Claim Daniel Vogelbach

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6:02pm: Milwaukee has announced the moves. The Brewers acquired Vogelbach via waivers.

3:23pm: The Brewers have designated first baseman Justin Smoak for assignment and acquired 1B/DH Daniel Vogelbach from the Blue Jays, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.

The switch-hitting Smoak had a couple very good years with the Blue Jays from 2017-18, but his production went downward in ’19 during his final campaign in Toronto. The Brewers, hoping for a bounce-back effort, signed the 33-year-old Smoak to a $5MM guarantee last offseason, but the deal didn’t pay dividends for the club. Smoak logged an ugly .186/.262/.381 line with five home runs in 126 plate appearances this year before the Brewers designated him. Thanks in large part to Smoak, first base has been a black hole for Milwaukee, though Jedd Gyorko (who has totaled the second-most starts there for the club) has posted terrific production over a small sample.

Vogelbach could now wind up in the mix at first for the Brewers, but he hasn’t lined up there at all this year between Seattle and Toronto, instead playing all of his games as a DH. While Vogelbach was a Mariners All-Star a year ago, his numbers plummeted in the second half then, and he certainly hasn’t offered a DH-caliber bat this season. Between the M’s and Jays, he hit an abysmal .088/.246/.211 with two home runs in 69 plate appearances. Toronto designated Vogelbach after four at-bats as a member of the team.

Rebound Candidate: Justin Smoak

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The Brewers entered the free-agent period with a void at first base. They let go of their top option from last year, Eric Thames, declining his $7.5MM club option for 2020 in favor of a $1MM buyout. Months before that, the Brewers traded right-handed complement Jesus Aguilar to the Rays. The Brewers are now set to rely on former Mariner, Ranger and Blue Jay Justin Smoak, whom they signed to a $5MM guarantee in December. Smoak’s contract also includes a $5.5MM option for 2021. Both prices are eminently fair, and there’s reason to believe that Smoak will justify Milwaukee’s investment.

To start off, it’s worth noting how Smoak got to this point. He’s a former standout prospect who has seldom matched the hype. The switch-hitting 33-year-old owns a mediocre .231/.324/.420 line with a 104 wRC+ (the league-average mark is 100) and 6.2 fWAR across 4,618 plate appearances. However, Smoak did somewhat begin to realize his potential in recent years. He put up in the best years of his career from 2017-18, a 1,231-PA stretch in which he batted .256/.353/.495 (128 wRC+) with 63 of his 191 home runs and posted almost all of his lifetime fWAR (5.3).

On the heels of his two consecutive strong seasons, there wasn’t reason to think Smoak would fall off in 2019. Unfortunately for him and the Blue Jays, it happened. He took 500 trips to the plate and could only muster a line of .208/.342/.406 (101 wRC+). Smoak did amass another 22 homers, but his overall production (0.2 fWAR) rendered him a replacement player. So, if you’re a Brewers fan who isn’t expecting much from Smoak in 2020, that’s understandable. However, it does appear that he deserved better a season ago, which could bode well for this year.

Despite his so-so output in his last campaign in Toronto, Smoak did manage much better strikeout and walk numbers than the typical hitter. He drew a free pass 15.8 percent of the time, almost doubling the MLB mean of 8.5 percent, and struck out in 21.2 percent of plate appearances (the league average was 23 percent). Additionally, he upped his hard-hit rate by almost 9 percent from 2018, according to FanGraphs. Smoak also swung and missed in just 8.9 percent of PA (the normal hitter checked in at 11.1) and rated as one of Statcast’s favorite under-the-radar offensive players from last season. He ranked in the league’s 72nd percentile in average exit velocity (90.3 mph), its 76th percentile in expected slugging percentage (.495, crushing his actual mark of .406) and its 86th percentile in expected weighted on-base average (.366, far outdoing his real wOBA of .323).

None of the above guarantees Smoak will rebound in 2020. That said, when you combine his bottom-line production from 2018-19 with his under-the-hood numbers from last year, he looks like a logical bounce-back candidate for this season. From the low-budget Brewers’ perspective, it was worthwhile to take a chance on Smoak.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

The Brewers’ Infield Picture

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Those following the Brewers at a distance may not have paid much attention to their tempered approach to the offseason. It’s easy to look at their winter and see a modest collection of stopgaps to stanch the roster bleed of departing vets like Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas. Look a littler closer, however, and you’ll find President of Baseball Ops and GM David Stearns created a two-year window of flexible and affordable contracts to keep Craig Counsell’s squad in contention, writes Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

With Christian Yelich and Josh Hader, the Brew Crew have some of the best high-end talent in the game, but they’ve done a nice job filling out the infield with one-and-one contracts for Brock Holt, Eric Sogard, Justin Smoak, and Jedd Gyorko. Along with trade acquisition Luis Urias, the Brewers found a grab bag of roster pieces to power their infield engine in a wide-open NL Central. Holdovers Keston Hiura and Orlando Arcia join the extensive group of infielders vying for playing time.

Though Arcia is still just 25-years-old and has notched some big performances for the Brewers in recent seasons, his grip on everyday at-bats is loosening. Urias’ injury has provided Arcia with a last-ditch opportunity to prove his mettle. He certainly brings attitude and flair to the diamond, but two seasons of a .228/.277/.333 line dims the outlook on Arcia’s offensive potential for sure. Still, of the newcomers in the clubhouse, only Urias really threatens Arcia’s everyday status at short.

Of all rostered Brewers not named Yelich, Hiura has the highest ceiling. Thus, the onus lies largely (if unfairly) on his shoulders to make up the offensive production left behind by Grandal and Moustakas (who put up a combined 7 oWAR last season per baseball-reference). He put up a robust .303/.368/.570 line in just 84 games as a 22-year-old after being called up last season (139 wRC+). His power numbers have fluctuated throughout his professional career, but the hit tool has consistently played, and the Brewers are counting on Hiura to do some damage from the middle of their order.

The final piece of the infield puzzle for Counsell is long-time face-of-the-franchise Ryan Braun. Braun could see a majority of his time at first base with Avisail Garcia and Ben Gamel lining up with Yelich and Lorenzo Cain in the outfield. The exact formula for the rest of the lineup has no shortage of variables, but Counsell has proven himself an adept engineer. Importantly for Milwaukee, if any of the newly-acquired pieces fail to meld, they’ve maintained the flexibility, financially and structurally, to pivot.

Latest On The Nationals’ First Base Situation

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The Nationals had interest in switch-hitter Justin Smoak before Smoak signed with the Brewers last week, The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reports.  With Smoak off the board, the Nats will continue to explore left-handed hitting options for both first base and their lineup as a whole, given their overall right-handed tilt.  As Dougherty notes, it’s quite possible that the Nationals bring back Matt Adams as that lefty bat, and Adams will again team with Howie Kendrick and (the still-to-be-signed) Ryan Zimmerman in a timeshare at first base.

Kendrick is already back in the fold, rejoining the World Series champions on a one-year deal worth $6.25MM in guaranteed money ($4MM in 2020 salary, and either a $2.25MM buyout of a mutual option for 2021, or $6.5MM in 2021 if both sides exercise that option).  The versatile Kendrick spent the majority of his time as a first baseman in 2019, though he also saw action at both second base and third base. Those other two infield positions are now in a state of flux, what with Anthony Rendon gone to the Angels and Brian Dozier and Asdrubal Cabrera currently free agents, so Washington could prefer to deploy Kendrick around the infield rather than commit him to a larger portion of the first base playing time.

Zimmerman, of course, is a free agent himself, though the longtime District stalwart has indicated that he will either return to the Nationals on a year-to-year basis or potentially retire.  “Both he and the Nationals remain willing to negotiate a cheap, one-year contract,” Dougherty writes, and “about $4MM has been floated as a price the sides could agree on.”

It seems to be more or less just a matter of time before Zimmerman officially returns to the fold for his 16th season in a Nats jersey, and his presence likely indicates that D.C. will stick with a platoon situation at first base.  The club “ultimately decided that the price was too high” for Smoak, whose one-year deal with Milwaukee is worth $5MM in guaranteed money.  It wasn’t a hefty figure, though perhaps too much for a Nationals team that is looking for a platoon partner rather than more of a full-time option like Smoak.

Eric Thames, Mitch Moreland, Greg Bird, Logan Morrison, Brad Miller, and Neil Walker are a few of the left-handed or switch-hitting first base options on the open market, though Adams represents a known quantity for the Nats.  Over 610 plate appearances since joining the Nationals in August 2018, Adams has hit 38 homers with a .240/.302/.485 slash line.  Long a force against right-handed pitching, Adams’ numbers against righties dipped in everything but the slugging department last season, though Dougherty said that Adams was bothered with some shoulder problems.  Washington declined its end of Adams’ $4MM mutual option for 2020, making the 31-year-old into a free agent.

If the Nationals can find a power bat at another position, Dougherty writes that the team could simply just go with Zimmerman and Kendrick as the all right-handed first base platoon, given Kendrick’s solid numbers against same-sided pitching.  The Nats continue to be one of the favorites to land Josh Donaldson as their new everyday third baseman, and, should Donaldson sign elsewhere, there have also been whispers that D.C. could try to acquire Kris Bryant from the Cubs.  Both Donaldson and Bryant are also right-handed bats, though with either of them playing third base, the Nationals could then explore adding a multi-positional left-handed bench bat, or one that could share time at second base with rookie Carter Kieboom or the switch-hitting Wilmer Difo.

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