Los Angeles Dodgers Reward Catcher Will Smith With 10-Year Contract Extension
Will Smith has been one of the best catchers in baseball ever since his MLB debut in 2019, and now the All-Star will stay with the Los Angeles Dodgers through 2035.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and All-Star catcher Will Smith have agreed to a 10-year, $140 million contract, ESPN's Jeff Passan and MLB.com's Mark Feinsand reported Wednesday.
Per Feinsand, Smith's contract will contain "some deferred money," as was the case with the deals the Dodgers gave to Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández. On the surface, meanwhile, Smith has earned the third-largest contract by any catcher in MLB history.
Thursday is Smith's 29th birthday, so the nine-figure payday is a early present of sorts.
Smith had one year of arbitration remaining, meaning he would have hit free agency after 2025 prior to signing this new contract. Now, he's set to stick with the Dodgers through the end of 2035, at which point he would be 40 years old.
The most decorated catchers of the 2010s – Joe Mauer and Buster Posey – only played until they were 34 and 35 years old, respectively, but Yadier Molina made it to 40 before retiring in 2022. Hall of Fame catchers Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez played their final MLB games when they were 39.
Smith made his first All-Star Game in 2023, but he's been one of baseball's most productive catchers ever since he debuted in 2019.
As a rookie, Smith boasted a .907 OPS and 1.7 WAR in just 54 appearances. He was even better during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, putting up a .980 OPS and 1.4 WAR in 37 games before winning the World Series that fall.
Smith averaged 23 home runs, 80 RBI and a 3.9 WAR when he finally got to take over as the Dodgers' full-time catcher from 2021 to 2023. He is a lifetime .263 hitter with an .842 career OPS and 14.9 WAR, not to mention his 26 defensive runs saved behind the dish.
The Dodgers already opened their 2024 regular season in Korea last week, and Smith went 5-for-10 with a double and two RBI during the two-game Seoul Series.
Considering how much money they're committing to him moving forward, it's safe to say Los Angeles is counting on Smith to keep up that kind of dominance for the better part of a decade.
Between Smith, Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers have their core set in stone for the foreseeable future.
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