WASHINGTON – For the past three years, Dominic Smith has waited for the phone to ring, for a guaranteed job to emerge, for an assurance that his baseball life will continue unfettered.
Then the winter will grow colder, the employment offers no less certain, and Smith will steel himself for the weeks ahead: A spring training invite, a job to win, perhaps an opt-out to find greener pastures, or a humbling trip to the minor leagues that would seem beneath a valued veteran first baseman.
And then Smith, now 30, returns to his mantras of faith and self-confidence to realize another team will recognize his skills, but perhaps most important his humanity that can galvanize a clubhouse over however long a team will have him around for the 162-game grind.
Through it all, Smith’s belief will not waver.
“It’s never stressful,” Smith, now the primary designated hitter for the Atlanta Braves, tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s a blessing to play this game – whether it’s overseas, if it’s in Triple-A. This is a game. Life is way more important outside of the game to put that much stress on yourself.
“I just believe in God and believe God is always going to make things work. And look where I’m at.
“That’s why I have this mindset.”
This spring, it has guided him not just through professional uncertainty but also personal tragedy.
Smith did not sign with the Braves until Feb. 19, a week after spring training camp opened. It was then that his mother, Yvette LaFleur, nearly perished after she was diagnosed with cancer in September. It left Smith in a near-impossible position: Aiming to make the team while balancing his mother’s diminishing time left.
He left camp for one week to be at Yvette’s side in Los Angeles, then returned to Florida to win a job. She died while he was away.
What’s transpired since says even more about Smith.
In his first start for the Braves on March 28, Smith became the first player in major league history to hit a walk-off grand slam in his debut with a club. Smith admittedly “got choked up a bunch of times” thinking about his mother amid the celebration.
And as this young season unfolds, Smith has only become more integral to the Braves’ stunning 16-7 start.
He flipped another game with a three-run double in the bottom of the eighth to beat Miami April 15. The hitter with a career .252 average and .316 on-base percentage is slashing .345/.362/.600 with four home runs and likely has a lock on the DH job – at least against right-handed pitchers – even when Sean Murphy returns from injury.
Perhaps more significant is his impact on Atlanta in just a few weeks.
“Everybody loves Dom. He’s a tremendous human being,” says first-year Braves manager Walt Weiss. “He’s been through a lot, right? He’s had to deal with DFAs, he’s had to deal with the garbage stuff that the players, if you stick around long enough, have to deal with.
“There’s a lot of experience, a lot of wisdom there. There’s also a lot of perspective, a lot of humility through it all. Just a wonderful, wonderful guy and I’m glad we have him.”
It is a common sentiment wherever Smith goes.
'He kept us alive'
He’s lived a few baseball lives since the New York Mets selected him 11th overall in the 2013 draft. Smith debuted in 2017 but by 2019, Pete Alonso arrived with a 53-homer season. Smith batted .299 with a .936 OPS across the 2019 and COVID-shortened 2020 seasons, but tumbled to below league-average production the following two seasons.
By 2022, the Mets optioned him to Class AAA for 54 games, and non-tendered him after the season. The Washington Nationals gave him his last guaranteed deal – one year, $2 million – and he spent the year a sage for a 91-loss team.
Since then? Spring invites to the Cubs and Yankees, minor league trips to Durham and Scranton, brief stints with the Red Sox and Reds in 2024 before hooking on with the San Francisco Giants last June.
It was there that he fully emerged as a glue guy, on a club that would eventually fire manager Bob Melvin and significantly alter the franchise by trading for Rafael Devers two weeks after Smith’s arrival.
The Giants went 81-81 and at times that felt like a miracle.
“He was crucial to the success we had last year. He kept us alive for a lot of it,” says Giants third baseman Matt Chapman. “He knew how to take a good at-bat, how to do what the situation calls for. You see what he’s doing right now – he has the ability to really, really swing the bat and play well.
“He’s never too high, never too low and has a knack for getting the big hit, which is why you saw him come up clutch so much.”
And for a guy who’s never hit more than 12 home runs in a season and only twice played more than 100 games, Smith has found a way to communicate what he can bring to a team.
It is challenging, within the context of making a team out of spring training, or convincing another one to carve out a major league roster spot to leapfrog organizations. Yet that is where that Dom Smith energy comes into play.
“It’s not easy to do when your back’s against the wall,” says Chapman. “A lot of people could be pissed off about not getting an opportunity or feel like they’ve been slighted. He didn’t have that energy. He always had good energy, showed up and did what he was asked to do.
“That’s very respectable and why me and him are going to be close for a long time.”
Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams says he and Smith remain close, and talk often on the phone. He learned from Smith the art of self care, the importance of diet and the concept of availability as the best ability.
“When the opportunity presents itself, he comes and gets the job done,” says Abrams. “As you can see right now, he’s doing his thing.”
'Understanding who you are'
As Smith adds stamps to his baseball passport, he sees the value of his accrued experiences – the compact pressure of playing in Boston, the glare of New York, and, with San Francisco and Atlanta, getting tutelage from franchise legends Barry Bonds and Chipper Jones.
All the while, knowing thyself.
“Understanding who you are,” Smith puts it. “For me, the biggest thing was being available and be able to compete at a high level. Not necessarily put up All-Star numbers, but compete. I think that’s what teams value.
“Guys that they don’t have to worry about. Guys who put together good at-bats. I’ve been around for a while now. So, I understand the value to a team so they don’t lose a beat, regardless of what happens internally.”
Sometimes, those internal developments can roil a squad. This spring, the Braves lost left fielder Jurickson Profar to a PED suspension for the second consecutive year, the multiple offenses costing Profar all 162 games of 2026.
Given they were down an entire rotation due to injury, it looked like another dark cloud that would produce the Braves’ second consecutive sub-.500 season after winning seven consecutive division titles.
Instead, the Braves are tied with the Dodgers for most wins in baseball, the clubhouse and its first-year manager seemingly in lockstep, and GM Alex Anthopoulos holding steady even as pitching injuries threatened to sink the season.
“Alex preaches having a positive attitude to the ballclub,” says Smith, who also lauds Anthopoulos for "understanding guys and understanding what being a good human means."
“That’s the biggest thing – coming in here open-minded and just help them win. It’s a great ballclub and we have World Series aspirations. We want to play meaningful games, playoff games, World Series games. It was a dream come true how it all unfolded.”
Then again, Smith has a knack for making his own breaks, even when nothing’s guaranteed, even when personal turmoil could have sidetracked him.
“To have that uncertainty held over you,” says Chapman, “and now the story’s out but he was battling things off the field with his mom. For him to be able to get to the field and do what he did just shows how special he is.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Braves' Dominic Smith overcame tragedy, uncertainty to thrive in Atlanta
