Filip Smola

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 198 lb.

• School University of Charleston, Saddleback College
• High School IMG Academy

• Born October 4, 1997 in Prague Czech Republic

BR register page

Biographical Information

Filip Smola has played in the Extraliga and for the Czech national team.

He debuted in the Extraliga at age 15, hitting .259/.412/.370 in limited action for Kotlarka Praha. He was 2 for 12 with a walk, double, run and a RBI in the 2013 U-18 Baseball World Cup, fielding .882, mostly at short. \He was 2 for 7 with a run in the 2014 European Cup; his father Filip Smola Sr. was the team's skipper. He attended the MLB European Academy that year. In the 2014 U-21 European Championship, he was 1 for 9 but with 4 walks, 2 times plunked, a steal and five runs; his lone hit was a double. During the 2014 U-21 Baseball World Cup, he fared even worse - 0 for 25, 3 BB, HBP, 2 R, while fielding .810. He led the event with 8 errors though he was third with 24 assists. No one else was close in hitless at-bats; the next worst .000 was 0 for 7.

Smola batted .278/.394/.304 in the 2014 regular season and was 0 for 4 in the playoffs. The next year, he hit .315/.406/.382. In the 2015 European Junior Championship, he was 0 for 17 with 3 walks, a hit-by-pitch, two runs and two RBI; he had the lowest oh-fer of the event, two at-bats worse than Johnny Fretheim's 0-for-15. He eked out a .157/.267/.196 line for Kotlarka Praha in 2016 but bounced back in the playoffs, going 10-for-21 with two doubles, two walks, three runs and a RBI. In the 2016 U-23 Baseball World Cup, he was 5 for 14 with 4 walks, a hit-by-pitch and five runs, fielding .952.

The Prague native produced at a .400/.519/.550 clip with five runs and eight RBI in six games in the 2017 U-23 European Championship, fielding .857. He rebounded to .261/.356/.375 in the Extraliga season (tying for 9th with 7 doubles), then had another strong postseason at .333/.444/.533. In '18, he was 5 for 23 with two walks and a homer; as he attended a US junior college, he missed much of the year. He hit .303/.410/.333 in the postseason. He hit .267/.450/.267 in the 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup. He did not play in the 2019 Extraliga. In the 2019 European Championship U23, he put on a show at .529/.600/.941 with seven RBI in five games, though he fielded .833. He led the event in average (.029 ahead of Martin Mužík, Jonathan Duforest and Matteo Sollecito), was 5th in slugging (between Mužík and Andrija Tomić), led in OBP (.012 ahead of Duforest), led in hits (9, one ahead of Mužík), tied for second in RBI (two behind Pascal Amon), led with four doubles (one ahead of Mužík and Fred Walter), tied Mužík for second in total bases (16, one behind Amon) and tied for the most errors (3, even with Tommy van de Sanden, Zion De Brauwer, Léo Jiminian and Juan Diaz).

Transferring to Charleston, he hit .186/.300/.326 in the COVID-19-shortened 2020. Returning home, he batted .297/.418/.466 in the regular season and .261/.354/.420 in the postseason. He was 1 for 8 with a walk for Charleston in 2021 and did not play in the Extraliga (perhaps he was injured?) In the 2021 U-23 Baseball World Cup, he was 1 for 23 with a run, two RBI and a walk, fielding .947 while playing mainly second base. He had the lowest average of anyone who had a hit, but Sheadion Jamanika was 0 for 14 among worse hitters.

Blossoming in 2022, he hit .342/.416/.579 for the Tempo Titans Praha then was at .279/.403/.557 in the postseason with 15 runs in 18 games. He tied Marek Minařík for 4th with five homers (his five in the playoffs tied for second, 3 behind Martin Červenka), was 9th in slugging, had the 10th-best OPS and was 8th in total bases. After years of representing the Czechs in age-based international competition, he made the senior national team for the 2022 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. In their opener, he pinch-hit for Jakub Kubica in the 5th and singled off Fernando Baez. He stayed in at third base and remained their starter the other games. He was 0 for 10 with 3 walks and a run the rest of the way. The Czechs won a spot in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, their first World Baseball Classic.