HOUSTON — When Cam Smith made his MLB debut on opening day for the Houston Astros, it was the third-fastest that someone had gone from the draft to the majors.
Selected 14th overall by the Cubs in last year’s draft, Smith played just 32 minor league games, including five at Double-A, before moving to the big leagues.
Behind the rookie’s meteoric ascent was years of work, preparation and planning coupled with a team working behind the scenes to help him reach the majors in near record time.
His mother muses about him being “too serious.” His hitting coach Aaron Capista says that he’s “built different.” Jason Romano, his longtime adviser and current agent at Excel Sports Management, says that he’s unlike anyone he’s ever known. Teammate Mauricio Dubon proclaims: “He’s gonna be a big star in the big leagues.”
Smith routinely arrives at the ballpark more than six hours before night games, has never had a sip of alcohol and says he hasn’t even tried anything with caffeine.
“Everybody’s really good at this level,” he explained. “So, I’ve got to do something different to get an edge.”
He knows it’s a rarity for someone his age to not drink alcohol or caffeine, but it was part of his longtime plan to live a life free from distractions.
“I don’t want to have to rely on anything,” he said. “I want to keep life as simple as I can.”
His mother, Stephanie Hocza, encouraged him to let loose in high school and maybe go to a party or two.
“I would tell him he was too serious and he needed to just have a little fun and not just be about baseball,” she said. “But he really did not take my advice.”
Smith, who was part of the trade that sent Kyle Tucker to Chicago, has heated up after a slow start and hit .307 in May to bring his season average entering Tuesday to .255 with three homers, eight doubles and 17 RBIs in 46 games. A performance made more impressive considering the 22-year-old was still playing for Florida State at this time last year.
Many in the Astros organization rave about Smith’s maturity. That could be traced back to a childhood where he had to grow up fast being raised by a single mother who often worked long hours to keep the family afloat.
In middle school, Smith would come home from school and do homework before walking to a grocery store where he’d often buy a sub sandwich for dinner while Hocza worked until 10 p.m. most nights as a cook at a Lake Worth, Florida, bingo hall.
“He had to mature because he had to be responsible for his things,” Hocza said. “I couldn’t be there every night like most parents.”
Though it was difficult at the time, Hocza now sees those early days with her son as a blessing.
“The best thing to do for your kids is make them figure it out,” she said. “It was kind of forced upon him, but he definitely made the most of it and it turned him into who he is.”
Baseball wasn’t a first love for Smith, but it stuck eventually
Smith’s grandmother, Pattie Thomas, a lifelong Cubs fan, signed him up for T-ball when he was just 5 years old. The pair often attended spring training and minor league games in Jupiter, Florida. The young Smith was way more into the arcade on the concourse than watching the games.
“It’s always funny to talk about how I wasn’t too interested and now I do it for a living,” he said.
By high school, he’d grown to love the game but still wasn’t sure he could make it a career until scouts started coming to his games.
“Then I realized that I can play this for a long time,” he said.
His first offer was from Florida Atlantic, and when the longtime Florida State fan got his second offer from the Seminoles, he immediately committed to them.
After his freshman season at Florida State, his advisers recognized that he needed help to stop chasing pitches, correct some swing-and-miss issues and adjust his high groundball rate before playing in the Cape Cod League.
They knew it was his chance to make an impression with scouts and raise his draft status.
To chart his progress, Smith, Capista and Romano met on weekly FaceTime calls where they’d review his at-bats and emphasize the importance of trusting his judgment at the plate. Smith stopped chasing sliders and swinging at weak-contact pitches, and it led to an increase in walks and decrease in strikeouts.
He became the top hitter in the league, batting .347 with 14 doubles, four triples, six home runs and 26 RBIs.
That propelled him to a great sophomore season where he earned second-team All-America honors and led the Seminoles to the College World Series to help his draft stock rise.
A rapid rise through pro ball
After being drafted by the Cubs, Smith played 27 games of A ball. It was there that he really heated up, hitting a home run in six consecutive games for Myrtle Beach.
That was another boost to his confidence.
“Yeah, 100% because I didn’t know I could ever do that,” he said.
Capista wasn’t surprised at the success Smith was having because of the kind of person he is.
“When you get the response and the feedback of someone like Cam, you quickly learn that he’s built different, he’s wired different,” Capista said. “It’s so cliche to say you want to be great ... but when you hear it and you get to know someone like Cam, you quickly learn that he means it, and he does the work, he does the stuff in the background that no one sees.”
Before spring training Smith visited the Maven Baseball Lab, where they helped him refine his swing path so he could take another step forward.
“I could see a video that my bat was getting pretty flat early before I would go to swing and I’m just glad I had somebody like them to explain it to me,” he said. “Break it down like: ‘Hey, you’re dumping the water out of the cup too early. Let’s keep that upright a little longer.’”
After the trade to Houston, Smith quickly impressed. He hit .342 with four homers and 11 RBIs this spring while navigating the move from third base to right field to make the opening day roster.
“He was not overwhelmed by the spots we put him in,” manager Joe Espada said. “He’s mentally tough. He can deal with the obstacles and ups and downs of a season.”
Now that Smith’s made it to the majors, he’s hoping to inspire others like him to do it. Smith, whose mother is white and father is Black, hopes to get more Black kids involved in the game.
“I didn’t really have somebody to look up to or who was able to talk to me about being African American and playing baseball,” he said. “So, I wanted to be that influence on other young players to inspire them to know that it’s possible and to know that they can do it.”
He doesn’t have a relationship with his father, but he has connected with his paternal grandmother, an aunt and other relatives on that side of the family in recent years. His mother said not knowing a lot about them as a child spurred him to learn more about his culture and who he was.
“It’s more of just wanting a piece of that and wanting to just cherish that side of him,” she said. “Even though he didn’t have that in his life, that’s still part of who he is.”
