The growth of catcher Will Smith since being called up to the big leagues has been impressive to see. He has turned himself into arguably the best catcher in baseball, but it wasn’t without hard work and dedication.
Smith wasn’t ready for full-time catching duties when he was called up and split the time with Austin Barnes. But it was the games that he wasn’t in that made him into who he is today. During the team’s 2020 title run, Smith only caught three of the final eight playoff games and he didn’t like that.
He used that as motivation to get better by working on the smallest parts of his game.