LOS ANGELES — Dominic Smith’s underwhelming month might be a product of wear-and-tear more than a mechanical or mental glitch.
The Mets outfielder entered Friday night’s game at Dodger Stadium with a .222/.224/.254 slash line for August and hadn’t homered since July 21. From hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum’s perspective, injuries not severe enough to remove Smith from the lineup, but significant nonetheless, have been a culprit.
“Some of them have added up and some of them are in key areas for a hitter, whether it’s the wrist or a groin, but he’s never asked out,” Quattlebaum told The Post. “He’s posting up every day, he is grinding through it. He still gives us a better chance than a lot of people in the lineup, so he is grinding it out.”
Smith’s right wrist discomfort recently flared up enough that he could barely take swings in the batting cage, according to Quattlebaum, but he felt better by the end of the day. Quattlebaum didn’t offer specifics, but manager Luis Rojas said the flare-up occurred on the last homestand and Smith was cleared by the performance staff to play.
Smith entered Friday in a 3-for-28 slide that had largely coincided with the Mets losing six of seven games against the Dodgers and Giants. He went 0-for-4 on Thursday, dropping his season slash line to .247/.307/.369 with 11 homers and 52 RBIs.
“I’m not here to make excuses,” he said, when asked about his health. “I’m here to play every day. I have been playing through stuff all season, so this is not something I’m trying to bring light to. I don’t want it to even be a thing.”
Smith was asked if the wrist discomfort stemmed from anything in particular.
“Swings,” he said. “You can take a swing and kind of mess it up, roll it, sprains, ligaments, but it’s something I want to play through and I feel fine.”
Smith also downplayed any talk about his groin.
“I’m here to play baseball,” he said. “I’ll play through stuff. I’m a professional athlete, and that is what we do. I’m not here to shed light on that and make excuses on why my performance hasn’t been great, but that is not going to bother me. I’m going to keep playing and keep getting better. That is all I can do.”
If Smith is frustrated, it hasn’t been evident to the hitting coach.
“He doesn’t show that,” Quattlebaum said. “I know he feels like it has been a real tough year. He’s very aware. Last year you couldn’t get him out and he knows how good a hitter he is. He’s been like that since high school. It’s definitely wearing on him a little bit.”
Smith is playing the outfield extensively for the first time in his career. Though his metrics don’t show it (Smith ranks in the first percentile for left fielders with minus-eight outs, above average for a left fielder, according to Baseball Savant), the Mets have largely been pleased with his play at the position. He has kept glaring miscues to a minimum. Smith’s career high for games played in the outfield before this year was 33 in 2019. This season, he has played 104 games in the outfield.
Smith’s encouraging numbers include a .327/.382/.436 slash line against left-handed pitching this season.
“It just seems like he has faced a lot of them and he’s done pretty well there,” Quattlebaum said. “His ground-ball rate is a little bit higher against righties than typical in the past, in the bottom of the zone and that can be affecting a lot of things. He could be compensating by using less legs because he feels something down there [in the groin].
“He is giving everything he’s got. He seems like one of those guys that hit the refresh button and he’ll be right back to normal, but he’s going to have to grind it through right now.”