Smith reaping rewards of offseason adjustments

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ARLINGTON -- Josh Smith admittedly has a good sense of humor. He’s as self aware as they come, too.

So when asked about his recently changed batting stance, Smith didn’t hesitate to point out: “Well, I was hitting like a buck 50, so ... . That was kind of annoying, so I just had to make some changes.”

Not exactly, but Smith did hit just .185 in 90 games last season as a utility man. Though he’s not an everyday player, he knew he needed to change some things.

“I made a couple adjustments just with my setup,” Smith said. “I’m probably a little bit more in my legs and just trying to stay stacked, I guess, with my head over the center of my body throughout my load. … It feels good. Obviously it's only three or four games, so I’ve just got to keep working to try to perfect it in the cage.”

Smith went on to explain that he felt like his previous load caused his head to drift back and forth, and he felt like he needed to be more centered in his swing to drive the ball to all fields.

Smith said the change came about based on a combination of ideas between himself and assistant hitting coach Seth Conner. Smith lives in Dallas and trained at Globe Life Field in the offseason, where he was able to work on hitting in a way he never has before.

“We also had an auto pitch feeder,” Smith said. “So I'd hit off that, just trying to find something that felt comfortable. I used to just hit and not really know what I was doing. I've been trying to learn a little bit about the swing, just to know when something's off and how to fix it. I've kind of gone down the route of learning a lot about hitting.”

The early returns for Smith have been good, especially as he has gotten more playing time in wake of Josh Jung’s right wrist fracture.

Smith has a .348/.464/.435 slash line through his first 10 games this season.

“He is an extremely hard worker,” hitting coach Tim Hyers said. “I think that needs to be said about how passionate he is to get it right, but also, he works really hard. The game just makes you concentrate on those little things because they get exposed here.”

Smith said hitting is one of those things he never really thought about too much. It always just came naturally to him, from his time in college at LSU to his time in the Minor Leagues with the Yankees and Rangers.

Now, after hitting just .191/.306/.287 in 163 games over his first two big league seasons, he’s more in tune with the in-depth aspects of hitting.

“I like where he's at,” Hyers said. “I think he's kind of calmed the movement down. He's not as jumpy to the plate, and he's got a lot more body control towards home plate and in the batter's box, especially with his lower half. I know he's really concentrated on being able to stay in his back side, on that back hit, so it gives him some stability. We all know he's got great hands, so I think if he can control his body movement to allow his hands to work, that's when he's at his best.”

More than anything, Smith seems more comfortable in who he is as a player this season. He’s no longer trying to hit a home run in every at-bat. He’s going up to the plate every time just looking to put together a quality at-bat and get on base for the guys behind him.

Smith is also comfortable knowing his role when Jung returns from injury.

“I think as a young player, you want to make an impact to stay in the big leagues,” Hyers said. “I think now he's got more of a comfort of, ‘Hey, I can play here and that can help the team win.’ I think that's when the better part of the skill level comes out. When you can kind of relax and every at-bat isn’t do or die, it's now more using every at-bat to help the team win. I think that’s just the process of learning as a young player.”