The first question for Josh Smith on Monday was the obvious one: Now, given the chance to play one position regularly for the Rangers, what must he do to hold second base?
Which is not the way Josh Smith sees it at all. That would assume he’s already won the position. And that’s not an assumption Smith is willing to make.
“I don’t think it’s mine to hold yet,” Smith said at a Dallas Kroger as the Rangers’ Winter Warm Up week of pop-up photo ops kicked off. “I’ve still got to earn it. There is going to be competition. There are going to be good players competing. And all I can do is control what I can.”
Yes, there will be competition. Ezequiel Duran is still around. Cody Freeman impressed everyone in the organization with his drive. Michael Helman was a nice surprise. Sam Haggerty can play second base.
But, look, Smith already has been an everyday player. Done it each of the last two years. Averaged over 575 plate appearances. His 1,155 plate appearances for the Rangers over the last two years are the most among anyone on the current roster.
He just hasn’t done it at one position. Now, with Marcus Semien gone to the New York Mets, the opportunity to anchor himself at a single position, second base, is there. The fact of the matter is he’d have to be unmoored.
The answer to that likely won’t come until midseason or later. The only thing that’s preventing him from being as secure at a spot as Wyatt Langford or Corey Seager are his second-half swoons.
In each of the last two years, Smith has gone to the All-Star break with credentials at least worthy of some All-Star chatter. Then he’s returned with performances that suggest he’s either physically or mentally gassed, perhaps both.
In the first half, Smith has slashed .285/.372/.442/.814. In the second: Oh, boy. Put it this way: His .578 OPS ranks 125th of 126 players with at least 400 second-half plate appearances over the last two seasons. Semien had an 80-point edge.
The easy theory for this is that Smith, listed at 5-9, 172, wears down as a smaller guy. If he loses weight over the course of a season, it weakens him. At least that’s the theory.
And there are some numbers that would seem to further back that up. Against fastballs, particularly high velocity fastballs, when speed and strength are necessary, there is a stark difference between the first half and second half.
He’s hitting .278 with just a 13.5% whiff rate against fastballs 95 mph or higher in the first half; the batting average drops to .167 and the whiff rate rises to 20.4% in the second half.
To all of this, Smith chuckles. Politely.
At least when it comes to the aspect of physical fatigue.
“That’s the place I have a bone to pick with you,” he said with a laugh. “Why would a little guy get more tired than a big guy? I’ve felt fine physically. Completely fine.”
The mental aspect, though? Maybe there is a little something to that. Maybe Smith has focused on trying to maintain his first-half numbers more than simply employing his first-half approach at the plate.
That’s led to a downward spiral. It starts with diminishing results. Then comes a bit of panic as he tries to prop the results up, which only leads to more chasing and acceleration into the abyss of a prolonged slump.
“I think maybe just taking it one day at a time, and if I do have a bad day, just kind of forgetting about it,” Smith said. “I feel like that’s probably the hardest thing for me sometimes. If I’m struggling a little bit, I think about it probably too much.
“I think it’s just kind of a breakdown of your swing and chasing different things and not really knowing what you’re doing with your swing, why it’s working. It’s what I struggle with sometimes.
My swing will be really good and I have no clue why, and then I lose it, and I’m like, ‘What the heck happened? How do I get it back? How do I get it back?’ That’s one thing I’ve been trying to focus on this offseason.
Just kind of being more mechanically sound and just trying to get mentally stronger.”
And whatever the question about Smith’s status, that’s a worthwhile approach.
