Catcher Will Smith agreed to a ten-year, $140 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He will be under contract with the Dodgers until the 2033 Major League Baseball season. Smith would have gone under his second year of arbitration, which could have earned him $8.5 million.
Instead, he agreed to a deal that would pay him $14 million annually. His contract extension includes a $30 million signing bonus. He will receive the first half of that amount in November 2024, while the other $15 million is due in January 2025.
Likewise, Smith will defer $5 million of his annual salary, which he will receive annually after this contract ends. This contract made him the fourth Dodgers player after Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to be under contract with the Dodgers until 2032.
The best catcher in baseball is here to stay.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 27, 2024
The Los Angeles Dodgers and catcher Will Smith agree to a 10-year contract extension through the 2033 season. Congratulations, Will! pic.twitter.com/tMB5kCwqJp
The Dodgers are the only team he has played for in MLB (so far). They drafted him in the first round of the 2016 June Amateur Draft, and he made his MLB debut three years later.
However, it wasn’t until 2021 that he became an essential part of the Dodgers’ rotation. That year, he hit .258/.365/.495 with 76 RBIs and 25 home runs in 130 games. Smith earned his first All-Star nod in 2023 after batting .261 with 19 home runs and 76 RBIs.
In 2022, he had a .260 batting average with a career-high 87 RBIs, 24 home runs, and 132 hits in 508 at-bats.
Smith had one run, five hits, and two RBIs during the Dodgers’ Seoul Series against the San Diego Padres to open the 2024 season.
-Lance Fernandez