Hot Stove Report: Josh Smoker

Pitchers spend years honing their skills in the pursuit of achieving their dream of maybe one day joining the ranks of Andy Pettitte, Randy Johnson, and Tom Glavine. If they’re  lucky, the road to the major leagues will have only a few twists and turns.

Some players who possess the talent, youth, and physical health walk onto that mound with minimal roadblocks.  Others experience a seemingly interminable journey in making their dream a reality.

Josh Smoker can relate to that latter description.  His path to the majors has been anything but smooth, yet that has not deterred him from the fight to make his dream come true.

The  lefthander was once the 31st overall pick in the 2007 draft out of a Georgia high school, three slots ahead of All Star and Home Run Derby Champion Todd Frazier, and six slots ahead of current teammate Travis d’ Arnaud. Injuries, however, undermined Smoker’s career in the Washington Nationals system. With his fastball mph sagging to the mid-80s losing life in the zone, Smoker was released after reaching high A with Washington in 2012.

With no Major League club willing to give Smoker a chance, he pitched in relief for Rockford in the independent Frontier League for the 2015 season and figured he would give independent ball one more shot this season before calling it a career. Luck finally found Smoker when a freelance scout located him and alerted the Mets.  A healthy Smoker was throwing with a velocity back in the mid-90s.  The scout alerted the Mets to the southpaw’s revival, which coincided with the end of spring training.

Smoker, 26, has breezed from Savannah to St. Lucie and now to Binghamton this season. Through 10 relief appearances with the Double-A B-Mets, he has a 1.64 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 11 innings. He is sitting at 95-96 mph with his fastball and touching 97-98.

“There was a point a couple of years ago when I pretty much thought I was done,” Smoker said. “I was planning on going back to independent ball this year just to kind of play one more year and have fun with it. I really wasn’t expecting much to come from it. Luckily, it did. Sometimes things happen when you least expect it.”

“I think the biggest difference is I’m finally healthy.” Smoker stated. “Before, every time I picked up the ball, it seemed like my arm was going to fall off. It’s good to finally be healthy. I had a few shoulder surgeries. It was my labrum and cuff. It was from a bone spur that was rubbing everything. I just ended up tearing it all up. So I got that all cleaned up and taken care of and now everything feels good.”

Just how close did Smoker come to leaving baseball?  “I was in independent ball a little bit last year, and I was trying to get with some teams.  Nobody was really giving me any looks,” related Smoker.   “The guy that usually catches my bullpens in the offseason couldn’t do it so he hooked me up with another guy.” Luckily for Smoker he just happened to be bird dog scout Paul Fletcher, the pitching coach for the York Revolution.  “He said he catches their guys sometimes when they’re low on catching.” Smoker said.

I guess you could say he saw something in Smoker that resulted in a call to the Mets.  His dream is coming true.  Making the twenty-five man roster on a major league ball club is almost as hard as hitting the lottery, but when you are pursuing a dream, you pull out all the stops and hope for the best.  He did just that.  Injuries, negativity from coaches, and thoughts of not even playing indy ball did not destroy his dream.

I’m not sure how many possible major leagues pitchers would have endured the worst to achieve the best.  What would Josh’s advice be to players facing the same obstacles?

From his example, I have a feeling it would be don’t ever give up, never give in, and always believe in your dream. We are all rooting for you Josh!   Speaking as a fellow lefthanded pitcher,  you live out your dream.