Dave Roberts shares reason for Will Smith's offensive struggles

Will Smith has struggled offensively over the past 30 games, with performance worsening recently. His batting average and slugging have declined, and the Dodgers have lacked power all season. The weak-contact rate has risen compared with 2025, even though Smith’s effort and approach remain consistent. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts moved Smith down in the batting order to reduce pressure on offense and allow him to focus on catching with Shohei while letting the game develop. Roberts identified problems hitting fastballs, missing pitches with spin and failing to square up. Smith has also had difficulty against breaking pitches, especially sliders, and his numbers against fastballs have dropped versus last season.

""He hasn't been swinging the bat well for a while now," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained why Smith was dropped to seventh in the batting order. "He's always putting forth his best effort as far as the intent, which I really appreciate. "I think for me, sliding him down a couple spots, it's three in a row tonight, let him really lock in on the catching part of it with Shohei, and then let the game come to me. For me, it was just take a little bit of the focus off the offense.""

"Smith has hit .208/.290/.302 over his last 15 games and there has been a severe lack of pop all season long. The right-hander's weak-contact percentage is up to 2.7% from 1.8% in 2025. Even though Roberts can tell Smith is stepping up to the plate with a plan, the results haven't been there as they historically have."

""He's not hitting the fastball. For me, there's a lot of he's missing the fastball," Roberts said. "I think there's sliders, spin, that's in zone that he's just missing. "I think when you're not squaring up the fastball and you're missing spin, that's a tough combo. Again, the intent, the grind of at-bats, is certainly there. But it's just not ending at-bats when he typically does.""

"Smith has struggled against breaking pitches this season, but sliders have especially given him a hard time. The 31-year-old has a .200 batting average and .200 slugging percentage against them this season, compared to .359 and .609 in 2025. The same goes for fastballs, against which he has a .250 batting average and .425 slugging percentage, compared to .295 and .571 last season."

Read at Dodger Blue