Justin

Smoak

Smoak had put a decent .820 OPS with seven home runs and 19 RBI through 41 games this season in Nippon Professional Baseball, but he had trouble getting his family to join him in Japan amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has now officially been put on release waivers. “His love of family outweighed everything else,” said Atsuhiro Otsuka, the Yomiuri Giants’ assistant representative to NPB. The 34-year-old could potentially find a minor league deal stateside if he wants continue his playing career.

Passan says the deal will guarantee Smoak “somewhere in the $6-7 million” range, which is a whole lot more than what he would have received from any MLB club this winter after struggling to a .176/.250/.361 batting line in 132 plate appearances between the Brewers and Giants in 2020. He turned 34 years old earlier this month.

Smoak signed on with the Giants earlier this month after getting released by the Brewers, but the 33-year-old went 0-for-6 with two strikeouts during his short stay with San Francisco and is now batting .176/.250/.361 in 132 total plate appearances this season. Alex Dickerson has been activated from paternity leave in a corresponding move.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network was first to report the news of the agreement, and now the Giants have made it official. Smoak has been added to the team’s 60-man player pool and could join the active roster within the next couple of days. He was released by the Brewers on Tuesday after batting just .186 with a .642 OPS through his first 126 plate appearances this season, but he has some power and can be a useful switch-hitting option at DH or off the bench down the stretch for San Francisco. There’s no major fantasy relevance here.

San Francisco isn’t necessarily the most logical landing spot on paper, as first baseman Brandon Belt has enjoyed a terrific 2020 campaign, but Smoak can work into the DH mix and serve as a switch-hitting bench bat as the Giants try to claim a postseason berth. The 33-year-old Smoak was released by the Brewers on Tuesday after batting just .186/.262/.381 through his first 126 plate appearances this summer.

Smoak was designated for assignment last week and has now been cut loose after passing through waivers unclaimed. The 33-year-old batted just .186/.262/.381 in 126 plate appearances with Milwaukee after signing in December for one year, $4 million with a $5.5 million club option for 2021.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Brewers are adding Dan Vogelbach to replace Smoak on the roster. Smoak was in his first year with the Brewers, and it was not going well. The switch-hitting first baseman had a slash of .186/.262/.381 with five homers over 33 games with an ugly 40/10 K/BB ratio. Smoak could be of interest to a team looking for a bench bat down the stretch, but is unlikely to have much fantasy appeal in that role -- at least in redraft leagues.

The single was his first in 10 days, though he did have three doubles and two homers (plus the one he hit later tonight) since then. Ample power with a low average is what one expects from Smoak, but walks are also supposed to be part of the package. Unfortunately, he has a 32/5 K/BB ratio in 100 plate appearances this season. Last year, he finished at 106/79 in 500 PA for Toronto. His current .270 OBP pales in comparison to his .350 mark from 2017-19.

Smoak got the Brewers on the board with an RBI double in the fourth inning. He then gave them the lead with a two-run blast off of Geoff Hartleib in the sixth inning. He finished the afternoon 2-for-4 and is now hitting .205/.260/.420 with four homers and 12 RBI on the season.

It was his third of the year. The Brewers bailed on Eric Thames and Travis Shaw to go with Smoak as their first baseman this year. It hasn’t worked out yet, and we’re not so sure the team wouldn’t have been better off keeping fallback Logan Morrison over Smoak when they DFA’d Morrison last week. Smoak is hitting just .203, and he has a horrid 29/3 K/BB ratio in 85 plate appearances.