Pittsburgh Pirates: 3 Potential Left-Handed Relief Targets

Will Smith

Will Smith isn’t like the rest of this list for a couple of reasons.  The first, he’s not just a rental, Smith will be in his last year of arbitration in 2019.  But more importantly, because he’s on a team that is still competing for the wild card spot, and given his age, years of control, and past history Smith would cost more than the others.  As hot as a name as Zach Britton is on the trade rumors, Will Smith should be seeing his name on there as well.

The Giants entered Tuesday 5.0 games back for the second wild, though there are three other teams between them and the Phillies.  They’re also only 5.5 back of the Dodgers in the NL West despite being in fourth place.  They might not be incentivized to sell, though their playoff odds of 11.3 percent is 11th of the 15 teams in the National League.  If they do sell, Smith should get some calls.

After being the big relief pitcher on the move in 2016 going from Milwaukee to San Francisco, Smith missed all of 2017 with Tommy John.  Since returning this year, Smith has struck out over a third of the batters he’s faced while walking below the league average.  It’s a dynamic arm that has back of the bullpen experience, serving as the setup man in both Milwaukee and San Francisco.

Left-handed batters have a .180 wOBA and right-handed batters a .209 wOBA this year against Smith.  Over the last three seasons, Smith has pitched, lefties .288 wOBA to righties having a .247.  He gets both sides out and would lengthen the backend of Edgar Santana, Kyle Crick, and Felipe Vazquez with Tyler Glasnow and Richard Rodriguez in the middle innings.  Will Smith would be a splashy bullpen move for 2018 and 2019 compared to the little additions to make the team better above.