Smith had a successful minor league career as a reliever, moving from the A+ High Desert Mavericks of the California League in 2012 to the Tacoma Raniers of the PCL in 2014. There he had a sparkling 3.46 K to W ratio. He stuck with Seattle in 2015, where his slash was a fine 2-5/2.31/1.104 in 70 appearances.
The Sox bullpen is definitely unsettled. Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa have departed, Tyler Thornburg is not ready yet and Heath Hembree, Craig Kimbrel and Robbie Ross sported high spring training ERA’s. Despite some pretty strong performances in two games against the Pirates, closer Kimbrel continues to make me a bit nervous. As we saw on Wednesday night, Big Papi is not around to smack a late-inning homer- this makes the efforts of the bullpen even more important, especially in April’s chilly nights at Fenway.
When he does return, Smith can go a long way in steadying Dave Dombrowski’s corps of relievers.
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