TORONTO – The target is Sunday for Justin Smoak, a return to the lineup for one last game this season and, as things currently stand, one last time as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. His left quad, the one that landed him on the injured list back in June and that has bothered him all season long, is barking once again, which is why he’s sat for four straight games. He’d hoped for a better final week than this. All the pending free agent may have left is Sunday.
“That’s the plan,” Smoak says in the Blue Jays dugout Friday, after a round of on-field batting practice. “We’ll see what happens. I definitely want to play the last week I’m here. I feel like that’s why I’ve taken the last few days off, try to play the last weekend and try to finish off as strong as you can, to finish out the year.”
This is certainly not the ending Smoak envisioned to the season, one in which he’s played a critical role in helping guide the brood of youngsters handed the keys to the Blue Jays’ clubhouse. The 32-year-old’s stat line is full of contradictions, currently at a slash line of .204/.339/.400 with 22 homers, 14 doubles and 79 walks in 492 plate appearances.
Smoak’s 16.1 per cent walk rate is in the third percentile among big-league hitters. As strikeouts in the game continue to soar, he cut his K rate from 26.3 to 21.1. His expected weighted On Base Average is in the 86th percentile. His average exit velocity is in the 70th percentile.
The difference of .042 points between his expected Weighted On Base Average and actual weighted On Base Average suggests that among batters with more than 201 plate appearances, he’s been the unluckiest hitter in baseball. That his expected slugging percentage rose 38 points from last year while his actual slugging percentage dropped 57 further supports that.
Try unpacking that odd mix.
“I went there literally for a month and a half, two months where I felt like I hit balls hard and was doing things right and it just wasn’t happening for me,” says Smoak. “I felt (unlucky) at that time but you turn the page on that and keep working. That’s all you can do.”
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Smoak has done that, and the stats are only one of the reasons why he describes this season as “a grind.” His quad has been a major factor, something he played through for the first two months of the year before he took a 12-day breather.
At one point, things were so bad, “I was having trouble just getting to the bag at first base on groundballs to the infielders,” he says.
He was on the injured list with a strain June 15-27, and once the Blue Jays activated him, “it felt better but it never actually went away,” says Smoak.
“So it felt good for a few weeks and the whole time since it’s been off-and-on. Some days it felt like crap, some days it felt fine. I didn’t get on base enough to make it really, really bad, but definitely, at times it played a part. Hopefully, I can figure that out this off-season and get it right.”
The rest of the grind came from losing as often as the Blue Jays have in this reset year.
As a rookie in 2010, he was traded from the Texas Rangers to a Seattle Mariners team headed toward a 103-loss campaign. The Mariners lost 95 games the next year and again in 2013, and this is the first time since he’s played through this much losing.
“It’s a mentality thing, man,” Smoak says of enduring the daily knocks.
“You try every day to show up and do whatever you can to help the team win and that’s always your goal because you’re a professional, that’s what you’re supposed to do. More than anything, when you go through those long droughts of losing six, seven, eight in a row, you say, ‘What do we have to do better?’ You start second-guessing stuff. So it’s more of a mental grind getting through it.”
Through the tough times, Smoak has not only taken care of himself, but also of his young teammates. Once Freddy Galvis was waived last month, he became the last grownup standing in the clubhouse, the only 30-year-old on the roster to go essentially go wire-to-wire.
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The way he handled it all is why manager Charlie Montoyo describes him as “one of my favourites of all-time.”
“I told him that the other day. What a pro,” said Montoyo.
“Not having the greatest year, same guy. Pulling for all the guys in there. All the kids love him. He’s been great.”
Whether he’s been great enough for the Blue Jays to bring him back is uncertain.
The sides have kept in touch over the course of the year, but haven’t had substantive talks on an extension. At this point, the Blue Jays seem intent on keeping their options.
Asked about the possibility of a reunion next year, Montoyo replies: “We’ve got to see what we do in the off-season. But there’s always a chance.”
And so, there’s the knowledge that end is nigh hanging in the air, with Montoyo hoping to start Smoak on Sunday, and perhaps pull him off the field during the game, allowing fans to acknowledge his many contributions to the club, to say goodbye.
Smoak is trying to take it all with his trademark stoicism – “I’m not really that much of an emotional guy,” he says, but you can be certain the emotions are there.
“My wife is more emotional than I am,” he says. “The hardest part is that you make friendships, and not just with people here as coaches, people here as players, and that’s tougher on you than what’s going on.
“It’s definitely been a long season, been a grind, but hopefully finish somewhat strong and look forward to being a free agent.”
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