Blue Jays' Gold Glove Award Winner Heaps Praise on Dodgers' Will Smith

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) reacts after tagging out Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Davis Schneider (36) during the tenth inning in game three of the 2025 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium on Monday. | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Isiah Kiner-Falefa's defensive profile is special, if not unique, within the game of baseball. Few come closer to the true definition of "utility player" than the 2020 Gold Glove Award winner.

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Kiner-Falefa, 30, has exclusively spent the 2025 postseason at second base for the Blue Jays. Prior to this month, however, he's appeared at eight on the nine positions on the diamond — everything but first base — as well as designated hitter.

From 2018-19, his first two seasons in the majors, Kiner-Falefa got the plurality of his starts as a catcher with the Texas Rangers. He knows what it takes to squat behind home plate for nine innings.

As much as anyone in the opposing dugout, Kiner-Falefa could appreciate what it took for Dodgers catcher Will Smith to backstop all 18 innings of Game 3 of the World Series on Monday.

"When I caught, I felt it after the seventh inning," Kiner-Falefa said, "so for Will to be back there all 18, I mean, that was very impressive. That's why he's one of the top catchers in the league. He proves it day in and day out.

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"It was an impressive game from the backstops, to be able to catch that long."

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was concerned enough about the toll of such a long game on his catcher that he texted Smith prior to Game 4.

"I texted him this morning and said, How do you feel? He said he felt great, which I would expect that," Roberts said of Smith. "I was trying to hold as long as I could because I felt -- again, certainly when we got to the end over there with their 'pen, there were just left-handed pitchers, and they were going to run (Eric) Lauer, so to have him in there, potentially, we still needed to find a way to score.

"But if there was a situation where I needed to run for him, I had a couple guys ready, and Ben (Rortvedt, the backup catcher) was ready, but I was trying to hold on (Smith) as long as I could."

Rortvedt caught both of the Dodgers' Wild Card games against the Cincinnati Reds, and 11 innings of the best-of-five Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, while Smith recovered from a hand fracture that forced him onto the injured list in September.

Smith broke the third metacarpal in his throwing hand when it was struck by a foul tip in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Initially diagnosed as a contusion, follow-up scans revealed the fracture after the injury was slow to heal.

But that injury is no longer an issue for Smith, Roberts said — even during Monday's 18-inning marathon.

"I haven't heard anything about his hand in a couple weeks," Roberts said. "I'm sure it's not 100 percent. But, yeah, yesterday's 18 innings was certainly incredible. So that's something I'm probably going to keep more of an eye on than the hand."

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