TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays handed out Justin Smoak bobbleheads Saturday — 20,000 grey-jerseyed figurines, dotted with light brown stubble and oddly-tinted green eyes. It didn’t look particularly like the man himself. But they never do.
“It’s got a really good beard on it — I’ve never had that. So, I’ve got to enjoy that part,” the Blue Jays first baseman said. “It is what it is. It’s a toy that bobbles. But, at the same time, it’s pretty cool to have one.
“It’s not really something they just give to you. It’s something that I feel like is earned. And I guess the organization felt I earned it this year.”
There was no Justin Smoak bobblehead day in 2017. Of course there wasn’t. Smoak came into that season as a 30-year-old part-time player with a career .223/.308/.392 line over more than 800 games. Guys like that don’t get bobbleheads.
Plus, Blue Jays fans weren’t particularly supportive of Smoak at the time. When he signed a two-year, $8.5-million extension with a club option in July 2016, the reaction of a large section of the fan base boiled down to a simple and pessimistic question: Why?
But that was before he went out and put together the season of his life, batting .270/.355/.529 with 38 home runs in 2017. He became an everyday player for the first time since reaching the majors in 2010. Fans voted him into his first MLB All-Star Game, and he either led or finished second to Josh Donaldson among all Blue Jays in every offensive category that matters.
He was one of the few offensive bright spots on a team that finished dead last in the American League in runs scored. That got him his bobblehead. But it didn’t necessarily get him much more faith. The question for most fans now: Can he do it again?
Days like Saturday could help answer it. Smoak went 3-for-4, driving in a pair, as the Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees, 5-3, to win their first game of the season. Yangervis Solarte had the big swing with the game tied in the eighth, turning around a 97-mph fastball from Yankees reliever Dellin Betances and depositing it over the right-centre field wall. Later in the inning, Kevin Pillar stole home with a daring bit of base running to extend the lead.
Solarte won the game. And Pillar gave Blue Jays fans something riveting to cheer about for the first time this season. But Smoak’s contributions got them there. And his manager, John Gibbons, thinks it’s only the beginning of a strong follow-up to his breakout 2017.
“I had no doubts that he was going to pick up because I thought that he turned into a pretty good hitter last year,” Gibbons said. “Totally different guy than he’d been in the past. You start doing that, you’re probably going to maintain that.”
It’s early days, of course. You can’t draw any conclusions when it comes to anyone’s season when it isn’t even April yet. But if Smoak can repeat his 2017, it will go a long way to determining whether this iteration of the Blue Jays can contend for the playoffs or not. That’s why so many will be watching Smoak’s results so closely this year. And a good place to begin that observation is with his plate discipline.
Smoak cut his strikeout rate by more than 12 per cent from 2016 to 2017, as a refined approach and increased patience paid dividends. While he swung at the same amount of pitches inside the strike zone, he swung at four per cent fewer outside of it, and two per cent fewer in general. That reluctance to chase allowed Smoak to work the count and wait for better pitches to hit, which led to better contact, which led to better results.
| Swing % | O-Swing % | Z-Swing % | Contact % | O-Contact % | Z-Contact % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 45.3% | 29.6% | 66.7% | 72% | 54.9% | 66.7% |
| 2017 | 43% | 25.8% | 66.9% | 79.2% | 62.9% | 66.9% |
That’s not easy to do. Particularly when the opposition has seven years worth of video and scouting on you at the major-league level. But Smoak committed to his adjustments, and stuck with them through thick and thin. He talked about trying to stay back on pitches as long as possible and not trying to swing for the fences. He wanted a more smooth, compact swing that allowed him to get the barrel to the ball, on time and on plane. It couldn’t have worked much better.
“For me in the past, usually if I felt good in my first at-bat, if I got a knock, I was like, ‘Alright, now I’m going to try to power up on him.’ And that got me nowhere. Next thing you know, I’m 1-for-4 with three punch outs,” Smoak said. “So, now, I just try to have good at-bats, have a good approach, and when I get to two strikes, maybe flare one out there to right field.
“That’s my goal, honestly. When I get to two strikes — just battle. Power’s out the window then. It’s just trying to put the bat on the ball and, you know, not swing at balls.”
It showed in his results. In two-strike counts, Smoak made significant improvements across the board over his numbers in prior seasons:
| AVG | OBP | SLG | K% | BB% | HR | ISO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | .127 | .220 | .253 | 51.2% | 9.5% | 4 | .127 |
| 2016 | .155 | .222 | .282 | 59.3% | 7.9% | 5 | .126 |
| 2017 | .192 | .273 | .370 | 38.8% | 9.7% | 13 | .178 |
Sometimes last season, when Smoak wasn’t feeling his best at the plate, he’d take a two-strike approach from the beginning of his plate appearance. He felt it helped him avoid slumps and rediscover his rhythm quicker when he’d lose it.
“Then, all of a sudden, it clicks — and now I’m ready to go. Instead of trying to search for it for two weeks,” he said. “It’s just about being in ready-to-hit mode. When you’re ready to hit, you’re able to lay off tougher pitches.”
The problem was the finish. Smoak slowed down significantly over the season’s final two months, as nagging lower-half injuries hindered his ability at the plate. He hit .213/.311/.406 from the beginning of August through the end of the year, as his increased playing time caught up with him physically.
“Last year was something that I feel like I needed to prepare better for,” Smoak said. “And this year I was able to do that. I’m trying to prepare for a six-month season. And, honestly, I feel better now than I felt at the beginning of last year.”
Saturday, it looked like it. In the first inning, Smoak jumped on a first-pitch cutter from Yankees starter CC Sabathia and lined it into left to plate his team’s first run. He drove in another in the third, sending an inner-half fastball skipping along the third base line and into the left field corner, deep enough to score a runner from first. In the fifth, he demonstrated that two-strike approach, flaring a 1-2 Sabathia change-up into right.
It was a nice way for a guy to spend his bobblehead day. But Smoak’s favourite moment came well before all that, when his mother, Debbie, took the field for the ceremonial first pitch. Smoak’s daughter, three-and-a-half-year-old Sutton, blue bow in her blonde hair, looked on as Debbie threw a strike.
“I was a little shocked by that. I haven’t seen her throw a ball in a long time,” Smoak said. “I thought she was going to be nervous as s—.”
It runs in the family. Enjoy your special day, Justin! pic.twitter.com/pGcgaZn0hi
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) March 31, 2018
[relatedlinks]
