Eric Stephen is the managing editor of True Blue LA, where he's covered the Dodgers since 2009, and the co-host of the Three-Inning Save podcast. He's on Bluesky at @ericstephen.bsky.social.
Will Smith is back in the lineup batting cleanup against the White Sox, one of two split-squad games for the Dodgers on Sunday afternoon. It's the second game for the catcher, who made his Cactus League debut on Friday night against the Angels.
Smith on Saturday talked about the bone bruise in his left ankle that slowed him early in camp. It's lingered since an awkward slide into second last June 8 at Yankee Stadium. Smith and manager Dave Roberts said surgery was not considered.
From Sonja Chen at MLB.com:
"You can do all sorts of treatment and everything," Smith said, "but the only thing that really heals it is rest. ... We're looking more into why maybe it's not going away. Sometimes it just takes a while."
Smith through June 8 was hitting .292/.361/.498 with a 136 wRC+ in 55 games. Afterward he hit .213/.301/.382 with a 91 wRC+ in his final 73 games. His strikeout rate similarly rose from 15.5 percent before the ankle injury to 22.2 percent after.
On Saturday, Smith was hesitant to say the ankle affected his swing, that it mostly affected him while running.
From Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register:
"It didn't hurt really the swing - maybe I could've compensated. I don't know," Smith said.
Roberts thinks the ankle injury definitely affected Smith's swing.
"I think last year there was a lot of pitches that he was missing," Roberts said. "I do believe the foot was kind of impeding the swing."
Smith last year started a career-high 117 games behind the plate. With Shohei Ohtani starting 159 games, designated hitter was rarely an option for an occasional pseudo off day to remain in the lineup.