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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged what the numbers have been showing for a while now — Will Smith is in a real funk at the plate. Per staff reporting at DodgerBlue, Roberts said Smith has been missing pitches he normally drives, and that the struggles have only gotten worse in recent days. This isn’t a manager dodging the question or offering vague platitudes. Roberts is seeing it clearly, and he’s saying so publicly.

Smith has been one of the more productive catchers in baseball since establishing himself as the Dodgers’ everyday guy behind the plate. The former first-round pick out of Louisville has consistently posted above-average offensive numbers for a catcher, combining solid contact rates with real power — a combination that’s genuinely rare at the position. Over the past few seasons, Smith has been a fixture in the middle of our lineup, someone you could pencil in for 20-plus home runs and an OPS north of .800 without thinking twice about it. That’s what makes this 30-game slide so unusual. Smith isn’t typically a guy who goes through prolonged cold stretches. When he’s right, he’s squaring up fastballs in the zone and punishing mistakes. Right now, he’s fouling those pitches off or missing them entirely.

The timing matters here. We’re past the point where you can write this off as early-season noise or a bad week. Thirty games is a substantial sample. When your manager starts publicly identifying the problem — that you’re whiffing on pitches that are normally in your wheelhouse — it suggests the coaching staff has been working on it behind the scenes and hasn’t found the fix yet. That’s not panic territory, but it’s not nothing either.

What I’m watching for is whether this is mechanical or if something else is going on. Catchers carry an enormous physical load, and sometimes the legs go before the bat speed does. Smith has always generated his power from the lower half, and if there’s any fatigue or minor issue there, it would show up exactly like this — bat dragging through the zone, just enough late to miss pitches he’d normally barrel. Roberts didn’t hint at anything physical, but it’s something to keep in the back of your mind.

For the Dodgers, this is a lineup that’s still trying to find its rhythm offensively. Losing Smith’s production from the catching spot makes a real difference. He’s not a guy you can easily replace with a platoon or a quick call-up — there aren’t many catchers in the organization (or in baseball, frankly) who can replicate what Smith does when he’s locked in. The good news is that slumps end, and Smith has the track record to suggest this one will too. But until he starts catching up to those pitches again, our lineup has a hole in it that opposing pitchers are going to keep exploiting.

Source(s): Staff (DodgerBlue) | First reported: May 21, 2026 8:30 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers