Will Smith, Dodgers finalizing 10-year extension
The Los Angeles Dodgers and catcher Will Smith are finalizing a 10-year, $140 million extension, ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan was the first to report Wednesday.
At the time of this publishing, the team has not made the transaction official.
This extension will officially be the third-largest given to a catcher in MLB history while also being the longest extension rewarded to a catcher. It will buy out his final two seasons of arbitration (2023, ’24) and will run through 2033.
Smith will also have $50 million deferred from 2034-2043 ($5 million annually). The Dodgers deferred $680 million of Shohei Ohtani‘s $700 million contract and other deferred payments to Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez for the rest of their respective contracts. Smith’s adjusted salary will be approximately $11.6 million in 2024, $11 million annually from 2025-27, $7.5 million from 2028-2032 and $8 million in 2023, per Spotrac.
Smith, who turns 29-years-old on Thursday, sported a .261/.359/.438 slash line last year, equating to a .797 OPS and a 114 OPS+ across 126 games. He crushed 19 home runs with 76 RBIs, 21 doubles, two triples and 63 walks to 89 strikeouts. In five seasons (484 games) entering 2024, he sported .261/.357/.483 with 91 home runs and 306 RBIs with a 126 OPS+.
Giving a 10-year extension to a catcher is risky because of the wear-and-tear catchers accumulate relative to other positions, but a longer deal does shorten the average annual value for potential competitive balance tax issues down the line. It might not matter how much money is committed to Ohtani, Freeman and Yamamoto alone, but Smith is a reliable backstop who’s one of the best offensively. So it will likely be worth it.
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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
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