Tyler Smith (Extraliga)

Tyler John Smith

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 170 lb.

• School Grand View University

• Born November 4, 1997 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa

BR register page

Biographical Information

Tyler Smith has played in the Extraliga and for the South African national team. His father Darryn Smith and brother Brandon Smith have also played for South Africa.

He hit .393/.485/.429 and fielded .932 as South Africa's starting shortstop in the 2015 U-18 Baseball World Cup. He tied for the event lead with 28 assists and led South Africa in hits (11, four ahead of Tyrone Milne) and average and was second in OPS (15 behind Milne). He had the same role in the 2016 U-23 Baseball World Cup, hitting .259/.394/.370 and fielding .889. He tied for 5th in errors (4). Only Rowan Ebersohn had more hits for South Africa and he tied for the team lead in runs. He came to the US for college, hitting .266/.380/.324 with 30 walks in 51 games for Grand View as a freshman. As a sophomore, he showed more pop at .269/.361/.404.

Back in a South African uniform for the 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup, he batted .433/.452/.600 and fielded .862 as a SS/3B. He tied for second in errors (4, 2 behind Junior Martina) and tied for 2nd in hits (13, 3 behind Ji-won Ye). He easily led his country in offense. His junior year at Grand View, he produced at a .298/.476/.442 clip with 25 runs in 35 games. He was at .452/.575/.528 when the 2020 season was ended by the COVID-19 pandemic. He also missed out on a chance to play for South Africa in the canceled 2020 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers.

Signing with the Arrows Ostrava for 2021, he dazzled in the 2021 European Champions Cup. He hit .357/.474/.784 with six runs, four walks and five steals (in five tries) in four games, fielding .950. He homered off the Amsterdam Pirates' Naut Kragt. He tied for 9th in walks, tied Wilson Lee for the most triples (1), led in steals (two ahead of Gary Owens) and tied for 4th with three double plays turned. In the 2021 Extraliga, he hit .457/.594/.771 with 37 runs and 24 RBI in 20 regular-season games, then batted .354/.455/.646 with 20 runs and 18 RBI in 19 postseason games as Ostrava won their third title. Between the two rounds, he was among the leaders in homers (8, tied for 4th), RBI (5th, between Jakub Malík and Brett Holtz), hits (55, tied Radim Novotný for 7th), average (2nd, .042 behind Michal Ondráček), OBP (1st, .032 ahead of Ondráček), slugging (3rd, behind Matěj Menšík and Pabel Manzanero), OPS (7 behind Menšík), triples (5, 1st, one ahead of Kellen Croce), extra-base hits (20, 5th), runs (1st, two ahead of Novotný and Kubica), total bases (96, 4th) and walks (32, 2nd, 4 behind Kubica).

Moving to Hrosi Brno in '22, he hit .270/.405/.333 with 8 steals in 9 tries in the regular season for a big drop-off then .351/.422/.505 in the postseason. Overall, he still made six leaderboards: homers (4, tied for 9th), hits (51, 8th), triples (2, tied for 2nd), steals (11, tied for 6th), runs (30, 8th) and walks (24, tied for 10th). He and his brother then represented South Africa in the 2023 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, making it a three-Smith team by joining Benjamin Smith. He manned the shortstop spot that had belonged to Gift Ngoepe (the first African major leaguer) in WBC events dating to 2009 and hit second in the opener against Spain. He struck out his first time up against Ronald Medrano but in the 9th doubled off former major leaguer Rhiner Cruz to bring in two runs; he represented the potential tying run but was stranded. He was 2-for-9 for the event.