He’s hit Will Smith multiple times.
It takes a special kind of toughness to be a Major League catcher. Aside from willingly jumping in front of triple-digit pitches with limited protective equipment, catchers know they can get hit with a bat on a backswing. It’s a risk of the position.
But one player, in particular, had Dodgers catcher Will Smith upset on Monday. During a fourth inning at-bat, Atlanta Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna struck Smith on the side of the head with his backswing. As Ozuna was making his way down the first-base line to jog out the fly out, he stopped when Smith had words for him. Bullpens cleared, but the incident didn’t escalate.
Now, a player never intentionally hits a catcher with a backswing — that’s just simply not how it works. But Ozuna finishes his swing notably long, which often leads to the kind of contact that we saw on Monday. Smith basically had enough, so he reacted.
This wasn’t an isolated incident with Ozuna. Last season, Ozuna hit Smith across the face with a backswing on a grounder.
MLB Network also put together a montage of Ozuna’s backswing making contact with catchers. It happens that often with him.
Smith had also just returned from the concussion IL, so he was especially upset to have a bat hit him on the head so soon after an earlier head injury. Yet, his beef was also specific to Ozuna. He mentioned after the game that it was a common occurrence for Ozuna, and that he couldn’t believe that something hadn’t been done to fix the backswing.
That’s easier said than done, though. Ozuna’s swing has always been like that, and he’s not the kind of player to revamp an entire swing to placate the concerns of opposing catchers. Ozuna said that he didn’t mean to hit Smith and suggested that the Dodgers catcher position himself further back next time.
Ozuna is in the lineup again for Tuesday’s game in Atlanta. So, we’ll have to see how the Dodgers respond or if another backswing incident occurs.
