A Conversation With Miami Marlins Southpaw Caleb Smith

Caleb Smith has been a pleasant surprise for the Miami Marlins since being acquired from the New York Yankees prior to the 2018 season. That’s not to say the NL East club didn’t recognize his potential upon making the deal, but at the same time, he wasn’t exactly prominent on prospect lists. A 14th-round pick in 2013 out of Sam Houston State University, Smith was — and still is — a southpaw with underwhelming velocity and solid but nothing-special secondary pitches.

His path from New York to Miami included brief stops in Milwaukee and Chicago. The Brewers took Smith in the December 2016 Rule-5 draft and promptly flipped him to the Cubs. The following spring he was returned to the organization he was no longer all that enamored with playing for. Following a stellar Triple-A season that included a big-league cameo, he was off to his new baseball home.

In two seasons with the Marlins, the 28-year-old hurler has made 44 starts and logged a 4.52 ERA over 230.2 inning. Featuring a high spin rate fastball that gets good arm-side run — a pitch he augments with a slider and a changeup (with a curveball soon to join the mix) — Smith has fanned 10 batters per nine innings since coming to Miami.

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David Laurila: You were drafted in 2013. What did scouts like about you at the time?

Caleb Smith: “They liked how I used my fastball and my changeup. I didn’t really have a breaking pitch — I didn’t have a curveball or a slider — but they liked the life on my fastball. I think that’s it. They didn’t really say anything else to me.”

Laurila: Were you asked to make any specific adjustments upon reaching pro ball?

Smith: “What the Yankees wanted was for me to pitch down in the zone. That was their focus, and it was always a problem for me, because I have a hard time doing that. My ball just naturally stays at the top of the zone. Eventually I got better at it — I was able to work down in the zone a little bit more — but not as effectively as they wanted me to. I knew I could get outs at the top of the zone, but they just weren’t into that at the time.”

Laurila: What hinders your ability to work down in the zone?

Smith: “As much as anything, I’m not a very flexible person. I have a hard time touching my toes; the sit-and-reach thing you’d do in school is something I’ve never really been able to do. I’ve always had pretty good hip-shoulder separation in my delivery, but I’m not flexible at all. I’m wound pretty tight. This offseason I focused on improving that, but the work I put in hasn’t really shown up. I gained a little bit of flexibility, but not a whole lot more. It’s just the way I’m built.”

Laurila: Have you had issues keeping your secondary pitches down?

Smith: “No, not really. Just my fastball, and I guess I don’t really know why.”

Laurila: Changing direction, you were taken in a Rule 5 draft and immediately flipped to another team. What do you remember about that experience?

Smith: “I had no clue it was going to happen. The day before, I’d asked my agent if there was any possibility of me getting Rule 5’d, and he said, ‘I wouldn’t count on it.’ But then I woke up at whatever time it was — 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock — and got a phone call from a friend. He’s the one who told me. About two minutes later, I got a call from the Cubs. They said, ‘Hey, we just picked you up from the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft.’ It was pretty shocking for me. It was also huge, in that it kind of opened the door.”

Laurila: What was the following spring like?

Smith: “It was my first big-league spring training, and it was awesome. I think everybody remembers their first big-league spring training. The Cubs made it a lot of fun. They were definitely loose. I don’t know if it was coming off the World Series win, or what, but it was laid back and chill. I definitely enjoyed it.”

Laurila: Did you get much of a chance to talk pitching with the veteran guys on the staff?

Smith: “Not really. I’m not a very talkative person in general. You can ask my dad; he says talking to me is like pulling teeth. Every now and then I’ll open up, but it’s not too often. I talked to [then pitching coach Chris] Bosio a little bit about pitching, but I kind of kept to myself for the most part.”

Laurila: Were you surprised when you were told you weren’t going to stick, or did you pretty much expect that to happen?

Smith: “I had confidence in myself — I thought I could make the team — but at the same time I knew it would be hard for them to keep a Rule-5 guy coming off winning the World Series. They called me in the office and said, ‘Hey, we think you’re big-league ready, but we want somebody with experience right now.’ That was kind of a punch in the gut for me. At the same time, it gave me more drive to prove that sending me back to the Yankees was a mistake.”

Laurila: Was going back to the Yankees a fairly smooth transition?

Smith: “It was in some respects, although I was kind of upset. I was beat up that I didn’t make the cut [with the Cubs], and on top of that the Yankees were sending me back to Double-A for the third straight year. I was upset about that. I ended up pitching just a couple of innings in relief, then they needed a spot start in Scranton, in Triple-A. I went there and did well, so they kept me as a starter. From there I kind of took off.”

Laurila: It sounds like maybe you didn’t mind get traded…

Smith: “I definitely didn’t mind getting traded. I knew that the Yankees didn’t value me a whole lot. Plus, with the veteran guys in their starting rotation, I was going to be up and down between the big leagues and Triple-A. And if I did get called up, I was probably going to be in the bullpen. I’m not ready to be in the bullpen yet, so going to the Marlins was awesome for me. I was really blessed for that.”

Laurila: Have the subsequent trade-deadline rumors been stressful?

Smith: “Kind of, but I’ve tried to not pay too much attention to that. But I did have a couple of teammates say, ‘Hey, man. You’re probably going to get traded.’ I kind of just shook it off and kept going about my business, because at the end of the day, if I get traded I get traded. It’s out of my control, so why worry about it?”

Laurila: How did you go from a relatively-unheralded prospect to an established big-league starter?

Smith: “This will sound cliched, but it was hard work and confidence. You have to believe in yourself and see it in your mind. Your mind is a powerful thing. You have to believe in both your mind and your heart that you’re going to be the best. That’s what I strive to be. I don’t want to just stick in the big leagues as an average pitcher. My goal is to do things like be an All-Star, win a Cy Young, and go to the Hall of Fame. I also want to win a World Series. Those are the type of things that drive me.”