Will Smith is likely dealing with a concussion. The Los Angeles Dodgers announced that their star catcher reported concussion-like symptoms during the team’s off-day on Thursday. Smith passed the concussion test but was still dealing with the symptoms. The Dodgers placed Smith on the seven-day concussion injured list on Sunday after he sat out the last two games.
“Symptomatically, he just doesn’t feel well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters, per the Los Angeles Times. “He felt uneasy and foggy, so coming into Friday we took him through the testing. In the ensuing days, he felt a little bit better, but we just want to be prudent and not run him out there.”
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This move comes as the Dodgers are off to an up-and-down start to the season (8-8 overall record as of Monday). Smith started the 2023 MLB season as the team’s leading hitter, recording a .333 batting average with 12 RBIs and three home runs in 11 games. His injury likely happened when he took two hard foul balls off his face mask in last week’s series against the San Francisco Giants, per ESPN.
“It’s a big loss,” Roberts said. “We’re putting a lot of workload on Austin Barnes right now, which he’s accepting. But to not have Will in the lineup, it’s a big blow.” Smith, 28, has been with the Dodgers since the start of his MLB career in 2019. He helped the Dodgers win the World Series in 2020 and was selected to the All-MLB Second Team last year after hitting .260 with 24 home runs, 87 RBIs and an OPS of .808.
In November 2020, Smith spoke to Access SportsNet to talk about the World Series experience. “It’s really been a dream come true,” Smith said, per Dodgers Nation. “It’s been awesome. Yeah, I mean celebrating (with) the guys after the NLCS come down from 3-1 coming back from that and winning the World Series in six. You know it was joyful, it was a relief almost that we did it and it was over but you know it was just an awesome experience. …You know I get to come back home to Kentucky and see my family. They were there but I couldn’t actually see them ’cause the bubble but, got to see them, hug ’em, and yeah it’s been a fun week.”
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