2025 World Series: Will Smith — the unsung hero of Dodgers pitching
by Megan Garcia
The back of Will Smith’s baseball card will have his slash lines, at-bats and home runs neatly lined up for his 2025 season. The story it tells is he was one of the best offensive catchers in the Major Leagues.
But his impact with pitchers, a vital part of Smith’s game, won’t be on there.
That’s just how baseball cards are.
But as Dodger starters have authored historic performances on the mound this postseason — including Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s consecutive complete games — Smith has been a vital member of the success.
Game 2 of the World Series was a perfect example of how he can shine with the bat. He drove in the Dodgers’ first runs in Saturday’s 5–1 win in Toronto. His RBI single in the first inning started the scoring. Then, he crushed a solo homer to break a 1–1 tie in the seventh.
But it was also Smith behind the plate working in tandem with Yamamoto through nine innings.
Before the World Series began, Dodger starting pitching was a considerable reason for the team’s postseason success.
The starting rotation had a 1.40 ERA (10 earned runs in 64 1/3 innings pitched) in 10 games. The emergence of Roki Sasaki out of the bullpen has also been a factor in the Dodgers’ success.
Smith has been the steady force behind the plate for all of it since the first game of the NL Division Series.
His impact with the pitching even earned the praise from the Brewers throughout the National League Championship Series.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy tipped his cap to the 30-year-old catcher after Blake Snell’s eight-inning, one-hit scoreless start in Game 1 of the NLCS.
“Will Smith, the way he called the game, it was unusual the way he did it. He didn’t go back and forth, back and forth,” Murphy said. “He went change-up, change-up, change-up. The ball was moving so much. It was such a great pitch. He recognized it, stayed with it. I credit Smith, too.”
Outside of Yamamoto’s 30 starts, Smith was the Dodgers’ most consistent piece in the starting rotation. He was behind the plate for 101 games as 40 pitchers took the mound in a Dodger uniform.
Dodger starters were last in baseball with 439 1/3 innings pitched in the first half of the season. Their 4.20 ERA was the sixth highest in the NL before the All-Star break.
By the end of the second half, the rotation’s 3.03 ERA led MLB through 344 innings.
Juggling pitch arsenals and different pitchers and other challenges is something he is used to at this point in his career. He saw it in bunches last postseason with bullpen games and shorter starts. Now he is mostly helping four starters and the bullpen in this postseason.
“Last year was definitely different than this year, piecing (games) together, the bullpen guys and stuff. This year we have the luxury of really good starters,” Smith said. “We have basically four number ones and some guys in the pen (with) starters coming in, (like) Emmet (Sheehan).
“So, it’s just different. Going one pitch at a time, one inning at a time and trying to win a ball game that day.”
The two-time All-Star missed 21 of the Dodgers’ last 23 regular-season games due to a fractured right hand. Ben Rortvedt took over the catching duties through the NL Wild Card Series to rave reviews from the Dodger pitching staff.
Smith returned to the lineup in Game 1 of the NLDS.
Since Game 1 of the NLDS, Smith is hitting .314 (11-for-35). Dodger starters have allowed 14 earned runs in 64 2/3 innings in that span with a 1.95 ERA.
2025 World Series: Will Smith — the unsung hero of Dodgers pitching was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.