Chad Smith (smithch12)

Rodney Chad Smith

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 200 lb.
• School Wallace State Community College, University of Mississippi
• High School McAdory High School
• Debut May 29, 2022

• Born June 8, 1995 in McCalla, AL USA

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Biographical Information

Pitcher Chad Smith is the grandson of Norm Zauchin; a number of other relatives played college baseball. He went to McAdory High School, whose most famous alumnus is Bo Jackson. He was originally drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 23rd round of the 2015 amateur draft, out of Wallace State Community College, but declined their offer in order to transfer to the University of Mississippi. After one year there, he was drafted again, in the 11th round of the 2016 amateur draft by the Miami Marlins and began a professional career.

On August 14, 2020, he was traded by the Marlins to the Colorado Rockies in return for P Jesus Tinoco.

He made his major league debut with Colorado on May 29, 2022, pitching one scoreless inning in relief in a 6-5 loss to the Washington Nationals. He pitched 15 times for the Rockies, all in relief, going 0-1, 7.50, allowing 15 runs in 18 innings, with 15 walks and 23 strikeouts. On December 6th, he was traded to the Oakland Athletics for minor leaguer Jeff Criswell. After starting the 2023 season in the minors, he earned his first major league win in his first big league outing of the season, on April 12th against the Baltimore Orioles. He was given the win under the rarely evoked rule 9.17 (c), as it should normally have gone to Jeurys Familia, who had come into the game in the 7th with Oakland leading 4-2, but proceeded to cough up the lead in his two-thirds of an inning. However, the A's scored three times in the top of the 8th to take a lead they would never relinquish, while Smith pitched two scoreless innings to complete the game, which ended 8-4 in Oakland's favor. The rule in question allows the official scorer to award the win to another pitcher in a case when the pitcher of record "is ineffective in a brief appearance, when at least one succeeding relief pitcher pitches effectively in helping his team maintain its lead". Furthermore, an ineffective appearance is later described as follows: "if such relief pitcher pitches less than one inning and allows two or more earned runs to score (even if such runs are charged to a previous pitcher)." Which was exactly the case in this game.

Further Reading

• Joe Frisaro: "Smith hails from tradition-rich baseball family: In 1955, grandfather notched 10 RBIs in one game", mlb.com, June 11, 2016. [1]
• Noah Trister (Associated Press): "Oakland reliever earns 1st career win via obscure rule", Yahoo! News, April 12, 2023. [2]

Related Sites

• Chad Smith on mlb.com