Smith staying ready amid uncertainty over MLB season

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TORONTO — As Toronto Blue Jays prospects gather in Dunedin for the start of minor league camp, Kevin Smith is staying ready in Nashville.

The reason Smith — the No. 9 prospect on my 2022 top 50 list last month — isn’t there is because he’s now part of the Major League Baseball Players Association after his 18-game MLB debut last season.

Thanks to the ongoing lockout, Smith, who picked up just three hits in his tiny sample size of 36 trips to the plate last season, hasn’t been able to use the club’s facilities or have any contact with the coaching staff about his off-season progress due to his status as a member of the 40-man roster.

With the potential for a key utilityman role in the big leagues at some point this season, depending on what the Jays front office does with the infield depth chart coming out of this lockout, the 25-year-old faces an important personal campaign that’s likely to get off to a late and uncertain start.

“You’re almost trying to transition into spring training mode when you’re not at spring training,” Smith said this week from Nashville, where he’s training at The Bledsoe Agency facility as he normally does in the off-season with a handful of other young players.

“I try to get down to spring training early a lot and try to hang out with the guys and hang out with the coaches and try to get into that mode a week or two before everything ramps up. That aspect of it is a little weird, still being at home here at the end of February, but as far as training goes, everything here in Nashville is top notch and I haven’t missed out on too much.”

Uncertainty is something Smith should probably get used to.

With the Jays in win-now mode, he’s going to be expected to perform when called