Smoak is vital to this offense because he's a switch hitter with power from both sides.
We DO need LH power, but we can't rely solely on it, unless those lefties can all hit LHP (memo: Fielder has a .800 career OPS against LHP and .980 vs. RHP, with a huge crash in batting eye to boot). Last thing we need in the late innings is a team going to a southpaw and striking us out meekly 1-2-3. Somebody who can break up the left-handedness is required.
Switch-hitters with 35+ HRs, last 50 years:
Mantle, Teixeira, Berkman, Beltran, Chipper, HoJo, Caminiti, Hundley. That's it... and at least one of the last two wasn't legit.
If you think Smoak is able to do that at some point, then he's a commodity that really can't be found anywhere else. Maybe he isn't able to. Maybe he'll only do 25 HRs a year, but with his ability to hit LH and benefit from the park, while also being able to switch sides and hit from the right when situational relievers show up means if he's ANY kind of a hitter he's very valuable to the offense the Mariners are building.
I think he's some kind of hitter. ;)
I would do what I could to make a Smoak/Fielder thing work for the Mariners. Prince at 1B 70% of the time, Smoak at DH 70% of the time would be fine. Giving Prince days off from the field might help the big lug going forward, and if he starts to get injured in a few years and needs more DH time, we have a 1B already on the roster.
B-R's page on Smoak indicates he's a FA after the 2015 season, btw, but I don't believe that's true. The Rangers did us a favor with his callup date - he missed post-2015 FA by a week.
Pay the money, keep the man. He's under club control through 2016, and if there's no need to give him up, don't.
~G
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