2026 Atlanta Braves Player Review: Dominic Smith

For two months there, things seemed to be unraveling for the Atlanta Braves, when Dominick Smith seemed to be putting together one of his best seasons since the pandemic. Not only did this happen, but Smith still found himself right in the thick of it when it came to Atlanta and the Postseason.

So let’s see how things went for Dominic Smith here in Atlanta in the 2026 season. How did he go from being one of the hottest hitters on the team to essentially being planted on the bench to suddenly be in line for a re-run or a home run? Let’s go into it.

How acquired

The Braves and Dominick Smith initially agreed to a minor league deal later in February of 2026. After it became clear that Smith had performed well enough in Spring Training to make the ballclub open on roster date, the Braves signed both him and Kyle Farmer to split contracts for the 2026 season. Smith’s split version paid him $1.25 million in the majors, and the majors were where he spent all his time.

What were the expectations?

As a non-roast invite to spring training, expectations were pretty low. Even when he made the roster, it was clear that he was here as a bench option that could do some work as a DH, potentially for a while in the outfield as a “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” option to play first base if Matt Olson was either injured or replaced by a clone who believed the time of day was gone.

That being said, there was some hope that Smith could produce something off the bench. He finished with a .325 wOBA and 111 wRC+ over 225 plate appearances and 63 games with the San Francisco Giants in 2025, so it wasn’t like his bat just completely retired. Atlanta was hoping he could tap into that vein of form while wearing a Braves uniform.

However, even his decent batting performance was hampered by a much worse xwOBA (.306), as well as the fact that Smith didn’t hit at all with the short 2020 season. He actually had a .300 wOBA, .316 xwOBA, and -0.6 fWAR in over 1,760 PAs from 2021-2025. He’s projected to be barely above replacement level in 2026, which has caused the kind of concern that the Braves would hold for the 2026 season with Smith on the roster. Those concerns were put to rest immediately, and then they were put to rest in a long arc.

2026 results

At the end of the day, this ended up being a bit of a rush for Dominic Smith. He played in 108 games (most since 2023) and reached 300 plate appearances for the first time since 2024. He finished with a slash line of .253/.311/.383 with a .304 wOBA (which was close to his .301 xwOBA), .130 singles power, 9 home runs and a 91 wRC+.

Smith got plenty of reps as a DH throughout the season, but he struggled once September rolled around. He (famously) only made 13 plate appearances in September before not only making the NL Wild Card Series roster, but also starting in the deciding game. Despite the gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes, Walt Weiss decided to give Smith the start in the decisive Game 3 of the series (despite ending Game 2, leaving the bat on his shoulders), Smith ended up delivering two hits in the series clincher to validate the decision on the basis that-the end was done.

Outside of that performance in the Wild Card Series and early in the season (which we’ll get into), this hasn’t been a spectacular season for Dominic Smith. It sure was fun at times, but there’s no reason why the underwater fWAR season ended at -0.5.

He didn’t strike out a ton, and he didn’t touch a ton when he hit the ball, a decent touch away from a given career worst xwOBACON. Unfortunately, big hits from Dominic’s bat have been hard to find over the course of the season and the big moments that we all wanted to see (and got a little used to) in the first half of the season were few and far between.

Probably the biggest indictment of his season from a big-picture perspective is that after he started to sleep, the Braves had no choice but to keep him playing, which is how they committed to substituting a man significantly below him for half the time.

What went right?

Hoo boy, those first two months from Dominic Smith have been fantastic and chockfull of vintage Big Dominic Smith Moments on the plate. Through May 31, Smith is hitting .325/.356/.496 with a wOBA of .367, xwOBA of .369, 133 wRC+, five homers and 25 RBI. A 133 wRC+ for Smith’s entire season made it one of the top six DHs in all of baseball according to that particular metric, and it made it a career year for Smith. Things were even crazier in April, with a wOBA and xwOBA near .400 in his first 70ish year.

He went about as good (and dramatic) a start as you could get in the 2026 season, when he hit a walk on March 28 against the Royals to complete a come-from-behind victory where Atlanta went down 2-0 on the board. An absolute highlight — especially when you consider that this is his for the Braves!

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – MARCH 28: Dominic Smith #8 of the Atlanta Braves walks to the dugout after hitting a game-winning home run as Matt Olson #28 (left), Austin Lee #27, and Mike Yastrzemski #18 celebrate in the ninth inning of a game against the Kansas City Royals at Truist Park on March 28, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images)

Smith then came up with another big hit on April 14 against the Marlins, when he turned a 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the eighth inning into a 6-5 lead with a one-swing batter’s bases-clearing double. That wasn’t the biggest hit of the year for the Braves, but it definitely was for Smith, and he placed in the top five teamwide.

ATLANTA, GA – APRIL 14: Dominic Smith #8 of the Atlanta Braves celebrates hitting a two-RBI hit in the eighth inning of a game against the Miami Marlins at Truist Park on April 14, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Jack Casey/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)

He had a three-hit game on April 10 against Cleveland, followed by a three-hit game on April 14, a four-hitter on May 12 against the Cubs and then a two-month hot streak with three hits against the Reds in May. That time when he felt that Smith was not infrequently missing the chance was really a wonderful time, wasn’t it?

What does Smith do? Nor was anything so new or unusual. He was hitting the ball hard in the air. Smith has always been a bit of an underdog – a big guy with prodigious raw power who uses a slow, slap-oriented swing, but leans somewhat less in the first couple of months. He was still a bit tougher at organized contact most of the time, and he spun quite a few times after I hope it will end, but it just so happens that he joins the strong leadership on a useful journey for two months. For his part, although he was similar to his colleagues, Smith was much more in a swing mode, especially early in the election, in April and May. He then got very passive, and it seemed as if his ability to do damage went with him.

What did I do wrong?

When June rolled around, Atlanta’s entire offense got cold at the plate, and that included Dom Smith. In fact, Smith never really recovered from that team-wide form in June — from June 1 until the end of the regular season, Smith hit .192/.275/.288 with a .254 wOBA (.248 xwOBA), a solitary power number of just .096, four home runs and a 57 wRC+. Magic has well and truly gone and reached the point where Smith is basically benched for much of the last month.

Remember how I mentioned all those multi-hit games for Dominic Smith earlier in the season? Well, from August 1 until the season just concluded, Dom had a grand total of six (6) hits. Five of those hits came in August and the sixth one after the Braves clinched the division. What happened with those two hits in Game 3 of the Wild Card series was somewhat miraculous, considering how little had been going on in the game up to that point.

As mentioned above, Smith began to swing noticeably harder after his first success. But he’s become so passive it’s almost a joke — he’s been hitting over 70 percent in April and May, and that rate has been declining so much that in September he’s barely seen a 50 percent strikeout rate. Combine that with the fact that, despite the harder trend, his contact was much poorer, and you have “how to lose a big start in four months”.

Credit to Cicero for continuing to do the work behind the scenes, but even when you take into consideration the level of production from June onwards, with the team itself starting to get its full complement of players back from injury, it makes sense why Smith didn’t take too much action down the stretch.

It was Smith’s worst game of the year… the only one… that fit his entire season. On July 5, well after shedding some semblance of offensive competence, the Braves faced off against their old team, the Mets. Smith grounded into a double play to score the Braves (already scored three runs) in the first, and later made two in the game as the Braves trailed by two runs. But then the ninth happened, and things became wild in Smith and the county. The Braves were outscored, 10-3, at the beginning of the board, thanks to Carlos Carrasco, to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 10-3 sleeper. But, Smith’s hit for the second batter in the bottom of the inning, and a Drake Baldwin grand slam and a bunch of other stuff later, the Braves were down 10-9, with both the tying runs and the go-ahead runs in scoring position, with Smith going up for second in the inning. He went ahead 2-0. took the blow. He tried to capitalize on a fastball above the zone, but couldn’t get to it. Devin Williams followed up with a shift around shin high, and Smith missed that too. Game over. It feels like April-May Smith has turned into another Big Dom Smith Moment, but alas, no.

Minor note: Smith had an amazing 5-PA streak in the playoffs. His slash line was .400/.400/.400, as he struck out three times and managed two weak singles. It’s hard to know what the Braves were waiting for, but it’s a weird trip that feels about right.

2017 Outlook

Well, Smith is free agent and as it is now, it doesn’t seem likely that they will be on paper. Also, he rarely saw the field at the end of the season and this is not the kind of thing that means he wants to be respected going forward. There will certainly be Big Dominic Smith moments in the future, but it likely won’t come with the Braves.

However, Smith used the bat and got two months of proof that he can perform very well at a higher level if he can figure out a way to tackle it for a long time. Maybe not deciding to hit the half-watches that you see go start in that effort. That should be enough to ensure that the organization will give him a shot in spring training, so we certainly haven’t seen the last of Dominic Smith in the big leagues. It seems likely that he will be an “old friend” rather than a returning player.

All that said, he’s projected to be at or barely above replacement level at this point (and given 2026, it makes sense), so if a team were to add him and use him, it would be the vibes and/or lack of other options, like the Braves in 2016.