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Will Smith is officially back to baseball activities, manager Dave Roberts confirmed before Monday’s series opener against the Mariners, per Dodger Blue staff. Smith has been out of the Dodgers’ lineup for nearly two months with an inflamed disc in his neck, and what Roberts described as a “perplexing process” now appears to be trending in the right direction.

Smith, 31, has been one of the most productive catchers in baseball since becoming the Dodgers’ everyday backstop in 2020. A left-handed hitter with genuine pop and excellent plate discipline, he’s been a fixture in the middle of the lineup when healthy. His absence this season has been felt acutely — not just behind the plate, but in a batting order that loses a switch-point and a high-OBP bat without him. The neck issue has been particularly tricky because disc injuries don’t follow clean timelines, and Roberts’ use of the word “perplexing” earlier in the process hinted at some internal frustration with how the rehab was going. The fact that Smith is now doing baseball activities — not just general conditioning or light movement work — is a real step forward.

The timing here matters enormously. We’re days away from the trade deadline, and the Dodgers have been widely linked to catching upgrades. If the front office believes Smith can return in a reasonable window, that changes the calculus entirely. You don’t need to go acquire a starting-caliber catcher if your own starter is weeks away rather than months away. That doesn’t mean Andrew Friedman won’t still add a depth piece, but it could take the urgency out of a catching pursuit and redirect resources toward pitching or other needs.

I’d still want to see how Smith responds to swinging a bat and taking live reps before getting too comfortable. Neck injuries are unpredictable, and “starting baseball activity” is still a few steps removed from catching live pitching in games. But this is the most encouraging Smith news we’ve gotten in a while, and it’s coming at exactly the right time for a front office trying to figure out where to spend its trade capital. The Dodgers have operated with an “opportunistic mindset” heading into the deadline — Smith’s progress gives them the luxury of being selective rather than desperate at catcher.

Source(s): Staff (Dodger Blue) | First reported: July 29, 2026 2:23 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers