Where there’s Smoak, there’s fire
BREAKTHROUGH YEAR: Jays slugger finally finds the spark to ignite long-awaited ascent
If only peace at the plate came as easily to Justin Smoak as it had in other life pursuits, his ascent to baseball stardom might have come earlier.
That he is in the majors, however, is testament to the big Blue Jays first baseman’s raw talent and perseverance. Years of expectations with swing-and-miss struggles were pushed to the rear view as Smoak arrived at Marlins Park for his first trip to the Midsummer Classic.
Simplifying his approach to both life and baseball has helped Smoak deal with big-league demands and pressures. In fact, it’s almost like a throwback to the days when he was seen as a can’t-miss star. Back then, before he became a major-leaguer, the key to his success was simple.
“As long as he can hunt and fish a little bit, he’s good,” says Ray Tanner, the current athletic director at the University of South Carolina and Smoak’s coach with the Gamecocks from 2006-08. “Don’t assume that he won’t sneak out and wet a hook during the all-star break if he gets the chance, either. If he had a chance to go fishing or hunting, I knew it would be a good day.”
This week offers a different break for the 30-year-old native of Goose Creek, S.C., who welcomed the time to assess what had been holding him back from joining the best in the game. And yes, Smoak says, a quick fishing trip back home in the lowlands of South Carolina will be on the menu Wednesday, despite protestations from his wife Kristin to soak up the sun and sights of Miami for an extra day.
While Smoak is thrilled about taking the fans’ vote as the American League’s starting first baseman — a tale of redemption for a player always loaded with promise — he’s a southern boy to the core.
Kristin tells a story about his passion early on in Toronto.
“I got yelled at when we first came (to Toronto) and there was no hunting channel on our cable package,” she says with a smile. “Fishing and hunting — that’s just his passion. He literally researches it every day. It’s what gets his mind off of baseball.”
As much as shortening his swing, laying off the out-of-the-zone curveball and getting a chance to be in the lineup every day has led to a season that made him a clear all-star choice, there’s much more to this year’s version of the Smoak show.
His soon-to-be three-year-old girl Sutton, the couple’s first child, changed him.
“Ever since we had our daughter, I have seen a whole other side to him,” Kristin says.
“She melts his heart, a daddy’s girl all the way. It’s actually quite annoying. He’ll leave on the road for 10 days and come home and there’s mom, who has been feeding her for 10 days, and here comes dad, the hero,” Kristin laughs. “That’s OK, I want it that way.”
As soft-spoken as the switch-hitting first baseman is, Smoak admits Sutton helps him see life through a different lens. He readily acknowledges he has under-achieved during his career, one that seemed destined for stardom after the Texas Rangers selected him in the first round of the 2008 MLB amateur draft.
But Sutton knows nothing of slugging percentage and swings and misses. When Smoak walks through the door of the young family’s condo steps from the Rogers Centre, baseball is quickly forgotten.
“I think it’s helped,” Smoak said of having a daughter who believes the world revolves around his broad shoulders. “I always carry a lot of weight with me from the game … I would take it home a lot of the time. I think having (Sutton) here kind of separated it.”
That weight bogged down Smoak in different ways. There was the constant pressure to live up to the serious expectations from himself and others, a burden that intensified when the at-bats diminished proportionate to Edwin Encarnacion’s success over the previous two seasons.
From the time he was in high school, greatness was expected by those close to him, including his late father Keith, who died in 2011 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer.
As Smoak pointed out earlier this year, he’s been booed at every place he’s played, including a regular chorus from Jays fans who thought their team was doomed with him as its everyday first baseman.
“For me and my family, it’s taken a while to get to this point,” Smoak said. “Personally, I thought it was going to happen earlier in my career. I felt like I was good enough to be that kind of player. I just got into bad habits and couldn’t get out of them.”
For his teammates, his family, his Gamecock fraternity and Smoak himself, this season of redemption has been, in the words of Jays manager John Gibbons, “one of those feel-good stories.”
Start with Smoak’s breakthrough campaign, which has put the moaning about the departure of Encarnacion on mute. With a career-high 23 home runs and a team-best .294 batting average, Smoak has never played with such confidence.
“It was a battle for him last year,” Gibbons said. “He got rewarded with a nice contract extension and maybe that helped him. I think his swing’s better and shorter. His confidence is good. He doesn’t get too high or too low. He’s from the deep south and I guarantee you that’s part of it.”
Don’t mistake that laid-back side of Smoak as indifference, however. Kristin says he is sharply in tune with the arc of his career.
The serious business of it began at nine, when his father taught him to be a switch hitter, an athletic gift that helped him shine at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, then with the Gamecocks in Columbia, S.C.
Before leaving high school, however, he was selected in the 16th round of the 2005 MLB draft by the Oakland Athletics. As the story goes, he was offered a US$900,000 signing bonus by then A’s general manager Billy Beane. But after growing up in a part of the U.S. where SEC football is religion every Sunday, the prospect of being a Gamecock was enticing.
“It worked out for the best,” said Kristin, who first started dating Smoak when they were teens. “I was going to South Carolina, so we got to be together, but I believe it was the best for Justin as well.”
Growing up 150 kilometres from campus, there was a definite pull. With the encouragement of his family and heavy recruiting from Tanner, Smoak stayed put to play at an institution that is revered in the state.
“We’re the instate school,” Tanner said. “It’s the pride of Goose Creek and the pride of the South Carolina low country. Justin grew up a Gamecock fan. Coming to school here was a big deal and he was very deserving.”
From a baseball perspective, there were definite benefits from holding off on the pros. In his three years of NCAA ball, Smoak was a star. By the end of the 2008 season, Smoak was an even hotter prospect than he was in high school, prompting the Rangers to draft him 11th overall and deliver a $3.5-million bonus upon signing.
The road since then, however, has been uncertain and uneven. After playing just 70 games with the Rangers in 2010, he was dealt to the Seattle Mariners, where lofty expectations once again went unrealized. After batting just .202 through 80 games in 2014, he was put on waivers and claimed by Toronto.
Though not yet a consistent star, the Jays brass saw enough in him last summer to sign him to a two-year, US$8.25-million extension. It’s possible Smoak is a late bloomer, but there’s likely more to it than that. It took time to recognize his weaknesses and develop patience to fix them.
“I feel like at times I chased the numbers,” Smoak said of his struggles. “I wanted to be the power guy. I wanted to hit 30 homers a year and drive in 100 (runs.) I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t a baseball player any more. I was searching, trying to be somebody I wasn’t.”
In fact, “chasing the numbers” was probably the worst thing Smoak could have done. With his 6-foot4, 220-pound frame, there is ample natural power that just getting bat to meet ball is often good enough.
“His swing is compact and smooth now,” Jays catcher Russell Martin said earlier in the season. “Instead of trying to hit the ball 600 feet, he’s hitting it 420 feet, which is all you need. He’s a big boy. He’s swinging at his pitch instead of swinging at the pitcher’s pitch.”
The other notable factor is playing time. With Encarnacion gone, this spring the first base bag was Smoak’s for the taking. Every day. With that has come comfort and consistency that held him back in Texas and Seattle.
“He wasn’t an every day player — I always go back to that,” said Tanner, who has played close attention to Smoak’s career since he left campus. “There are guys in the big leagues who can survive playing part time and I tip my hat to them. But it’s a tremendous challenge. You have to realize that being in the big leagues is very, very difficult. Not playing every day can even be more difficult. For me the key in baseball is good players who get good pitches don’t miss it. Don’t foul it back. Do something with it. That’s what he’s been doing.”
Not just for power either. The fact Smoak is hitting near .300 is incongruous with the rest of his big-league career, where his average was .223 over his previous seven seasons. Only now is he starting to display the consistency his college coach always saw.
“At draft time, scouts would come around and I kept telling them, ‘I know he’s gonna hit.’ I’m delighted he’s a .300 hitter now,” Tanner said. “I always cringe when I hear ‘can’t miss,’ but as a young player, he was definitely a can’t-miss guy.”
It’s also apparent that a tweak or two is only part of the Smoak renaissance. He’s dialed back on his mental approach and played the game with a love similar to the one he reserves for his daughter and his time in the great outdoors.
“I truthfully don’t think it has anything to do with any sort of mechanics as it does with him being in a different head space, a different mindset,” Kristin said. “It’s not letting past failures affect future performance. Even though he might not always verbalize it, it’s just he’s decided that what he’s done in the past is not who he is or wants to be. I know he expects so much of himself and I think this is just the start. He’s not happy with this. He’s wanting more. That’s what makes him so competitive.”