{"id":68920,"date":"2024-03-22T17:54:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T21:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=68920"},"modified":"2024-03-22T17:55:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T21:55:35","slug":"dominic-smith-opt-out-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/22\/dominic-smith-opt-out-cubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Utilityman to Opt Out of Deal with Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Veteran utility player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithdo02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominic Smith<\/a> announced his intention to opt out of the minor league deal he signed with the Cubs. The deal was agreed upon on February 19. Jesse Rogers of ESPN broke the news of the opt-out. Smith signed with Chicago on the same day that veteran outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/peralda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Peralta<\/a> received a similar minor-league deal. The former Washington National and New York Met is coming off a season where he played in 153 games. Smith slashed .254\/.326\/.366 while clubbing 12 homers and driving in 46 runs for Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Will see some opt outs this weekend around MLB, including Dom Smith of the Cubs, according to a source. Was brought in before they re-signed Bellinger (or signed Garrett Cooper). Had a good spring, going 9 for 26 with 2 doubles and a HR.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JesseRogersESPN\/status\/1771247747045204033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Dominic Smith to Opt Out of Cubs Deal<\/h2>\n<h3><b>A Lot of Cooks in the Kitchen\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was known that Smith would have to do a lot to make the roster out of spring training. He competed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wisdopa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Wisdom<\/a>,\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=coopega03,cooper007gar&amp;search=Garrett+Cooper&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.baseball-reference.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Garrett Cooper<\/a>, and Peralta for a spot on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/counscr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Counsell<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/09\/cubs-position-battles-spring-training\/\" target=\"_self\">bench<\/a> to open up the season. One of the few differences that could have helped his efforts was the left-handed bat Smith would provide <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/29\/garrett-cooper-impact-cubs-roster\/\" target=\"_self\">for Chicago&#8217;s depth.<\/a> His ability to play first base and the outfield could have been a factor as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, Smith did not do quite enough in his nine games of spring training action in the eyes of the Cubs\u2019 coaching staff. The 29-year-old collected 26 at-bats in those nine games, possessing a slash line of .346\/.370\/.538. Out of Smith\u2019s nine knocks, he had two doubles and a homer, while driving in three runs. The former first-round pick did not draw a walk and struck out six times. Despite an impressive showing at the dish, Smith is an odd man out in the roster decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dom Smith kisses this baseball goodbye! \u270c\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uHQMH7GSU9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/uHQMH7GSU9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cubs\/status\/1766219956138455528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>What\u2019s Next for Smith?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smith\u2019s strong showing in a rather small sample size in Cubs\u2019 camps should attract the attention of other franchises. With the season getting into full swing on Thursday, Smith won\u2019t make an Opening Day roster. However, another minor league offer in a new location is certainly on the table for Smith. He\u2019s an experienced bat who can play multiple positions. Over 500 at-bats in 2023 is a decent track record to show other teams that there won\u2019t be rust for Smith if he signs elsewhere. His decision to opt out could come from the hope of gaining a better opportunity to play in the show this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran utility player Dominic Smith announced his intention to opt out of the minor league deal he signed with the Cubs. The deal was agreed upon on February 19. Jesse Rogers of ESPN broke the news of the opt-out. Smith signed with Chicago on the same day that veteran outfielder David Peralta received a similar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5007,"featured_media":68962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071,35],"tags":[68,2238,604,2891,1527,69,645,5189],"class_list":["post-68920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-baseball","tag-craig-counsell","tag-david-peralta","tag-dom-smith","tag-garrett-cooper","tag-mlb","tag-nl-central","tag-patrick-wisdom"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}