New York Mets Sign Former A's Reliever to Minor League Deal

The right-hander has good movement on his pitches, but his next step will be about commanding his offerings

Last off-season, the Oakland A's traded former second round pick pick Jeff Criswell to the Colorado Rockies for right-hander Chad Smith. After limited action with the team at the big league level, Smith is on the move again after reportedly signing a minor-league deal with the New York Mets. Smith had elected free agency last month. 

Smith totaled 13 2/3 innings with the A's last season across ten appearances and held a 6.59 ERA with a 1.61 WHIP. He had a good Spring Training, posting a 3.12 ERA, but just missed the Opening Day roster. He still made to Oakland before long, making his team debut on April 12th and making it into eight games in the month. He held a 6.30 ERA in ten April innings, walking five batters while striking out six. 

He made one more appearance with the club in June and his last one in July. 

What hurt him in 2023 was his 11.7% walk rate with just a 15% strikeout rate in Oakland. When Smith arrived on the scene, the team was looking for strike throwers and had little patience for free passes or ineffectiveness because they weren't getting innings out of their starters during the first month. Mets fans may remember the A's pitchers walking 17 batters on April 14th while New York was in town. Smith pitched in that game, and didn't allow a walk in 2 2/3 innings.  

Down in Triple-A Smith's walk rate was actually worse at 17.3% on the year, while his strikeout rate also ticked up to 24.3%. He had a 7.53 ERA in Las Vegas. 

Smith had also tossed 18 innings with the Rockies back in 2022, and with Colorado he relied heavily on his sinker (66%) and allowed his slider (32%) to generate a whiff rate of 56%, which had some A's fans excited to begin the year. With Oakland, that sinker usage went down to 55.6% while his slider usage made up the difference to 41.5%. In the process, those whiffs also went down to 33.3%. Smith's changeup was used between two and three percent of the time in both seasons. 

His whiff rate overall was also down between the two campaigns, while contact in the zone went up to nearly 85% and his chase rate went down to 17.8%. 

The Mets have an interesting pitcher on their hands heading into 2024, and with some luck he can piece everything together and become the reliever the A's were hoping for when they traded for him. 

Early on in the season we talked about pitching, and the thought process behind each pitch selection, which you can read here.