Seth Smith

Garry Seth Smith

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 3", Weight 215 lb.
• School University of Mississippi
• High School Hillcrest Christian High School (Jackson)
• Debut September 16, 2007
• Final Game September 30, 2017
• Born September 30, 1982 in Jackson, MS USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Seth Smith was signed by the Colorado Rockies and scout Damon Iannelli as a 2nd round pick in the 2004 amateur draft. He had been on the US team in the 2003 Pan American Games, scoring the winning run in the 14th inning of the semifinals against Mexico. The US won the Silver.

Smith was traded to the San Diego Padres before the 2014 season and started his career with his new team in spectacular fashion, hitting a game-tying pinch homer against Brian Wilson of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 8th inning of his first game for his new team on March 30th. Thanks to his game-turning hit, the Padres went on to win the game, 3-1. On July 2nd, Smith signed a two-year extension with the Padres for $13 million; interestingly, the signing occured while the Padres had no General Manager, having fired Josh Byrnes a few days earlier. Smith had a good season for San Diego, hitting .266 with 12 homers and 48 RBI, good for an OPS+ of 135 on a team starved for offense. However, the team's new GM, A.J. Preller completely shuffled the deck after the season, and soon found himself with too many outfielders. Smith was thus dealt to the Seattle Mariners on December 30th in return for P Brandon Maurer.

Seth played a couple of seasons with the Mariners. in 2015, in 136 games, he hit .248, with 31 doubles, 12 homers and 42 RBIs, while in 2016, he hit .249 with 15 doubles and 16 homers to go along with 63 RBIs. His numbers may have looked unspectacular at first glance, but given the tough hitting environment at Safeco Field, his OPS+ was well over 100 both years. Although often considered a DH, he played regularly in the outfield both years, being primarily a left fielder in 2015, and moving to right the second year. On January 6, 2017, he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in return for P Yovani Gallardo. On May 4th, he recorded his first stolen base since 2014 under unusual circumstances: he was credited with a steal of home on a double steal initiated when Manny Machado broke for second base with two outs in the 3rd; neither C Christian Vazquez nor SS Xander Bogaerts paid Seth any heed, and he simply waltzed home when Bogaerts became distracted trying to field Vasquez's slightly off-target throw.

In college, Smith was the backup quarterback to Eli Manning. ML teammate Todd Helton had been a backup in college to Eli's brother Peyton Manning.

Related Sites

• Seth Smith on mlb.com