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Blue Jays prospect Austin Smith. (Dunedin Blue Jays)<\/p>\nTORONTO \u2014 Austin Smith\u2019s teammates support what he\u2019s doing. They praise him for the boldness required to be a two-way player and ask questions about his preparation, but along with that they like to give him a hard time.<\/p>\n
During spring training, Smith would work out with minor-league pitchers every morning before transitioning over to the position players for outfield reps and baserunning drills. Some mornings, he\u2019d get bemused looks as he loosened up his left arm.<\/p>\n
“The pitchers think it’s funny,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThey’re like, ‘What are you doing over here? You\u2019re an outfielder. Go with the outfielders!’ They think it\u2019s funny and they definitely make \u2018Smitty Ohtani\u2019 jokes. But it’s definitely been really fun to be able to do this at a professional level.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 10th-round pick in 2025, the 23-year-old Smith is just now beginning his journey as a two-way player in professional baseball. He debuted as a position player last summer, but with the blessing of the Blue Jays he\u2019s now pitching and hitting for the Class A Dunedin Blue Jays, pushing himself closer to his dream of being a big-league outfielder who also pitches in relief. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lofty goal that requires extra preparation, but his coaches say he embraces the challenge. Even for the Blue Jays, it\u2019s something they\u2019ve never done before \u2014 a chance to develop a talented young player while also signalling to other recruits that they\u2019re open-minded and flexible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t know what to expect,\u201d recalls Ryan Casteel, the first-year manager of the Dunedin Blue Jays. \u201cBut I’m excited about it. I like Austin. I love Austin as a player. Great kid. It’s been fun.”<\/p>\n
Growing up, Smith loved baseball. His father, Brian, played professionally in the Seattle\u00a0Mariners organization for a couple years after being selected in the 49th round of the 1995 draft and his younger brother Trevor loves the sport, too. So from the age of four or five years old, the left-handed hitting, left-handed throwing Smith played lots of baseball.<\/p>\n
By age seven, he was playing travel ball. By eight, he was throwing curveballs. A San Diego native, he grew up a Padres fan, but he also liked watching the Philadelphia Phillies, and especially Bryce Harper, whose game he tries to emulate to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like his swagger,\u201d Smith says. \u201cHe has that like mentality of he’s the best and no one’s better than him. It’s kind of how I treat my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith was just a hitter when he first enrolled at Granite Hills High School in San Diego, the alma mater of former big-leaguers like Brian Giles, Marcus Giles and Shane Spencer. But at some point during his sophomore year, coach James Davis needed a pitcher, put Smith on the mound and liked what he saw.<\/p>\n
Get ready to do a lot of more of this,\u00a0the coach told Smith.\u00a0Because you\u2019re going to be pitching and hitting.<\/p>\n
From there, Smith\u2019s two-way ambitions intensified. In college, he pitched and hit at the University of San Diego, where he was a John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award semifinalist. As a hitter, he batted .305 with an .847 OPS in college. As a pitcher, he struck out 168 in 161.2 innings on his way to a 5.07 ERA.<\/p>\n
Along the way, he drew inspiration from baseball\u2019s biggest star.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, 100 per cent,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI mean, Shohei Ohtani, he’s a special talent, such a distinct talent. Me watching Shohei play is like, one day I want to do that so that people can think of Austin Smith as being one of the greatest two-ways to play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Jays prospect Austin Smith. (Dunedin Blue Jays)<\/p>\n
First, he had to get drafted. Led by area scout Tony Cho, the Blue Jays watched Smith carefully and expressed interest in a deal last summer when Smith was eligible as a senior. But while other teams wanted Smith as a hitter, the Blue Jays saw more potential, telling him they were considering letting him pitch also.<\/p>\n
They selected him in the 10th round, offered him a modest $5,000 bonus and told him it was time to get to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was super excited,\u201d Smith recalls.<\/p>\n
Though they drafted Olerud as a hitter in 1989 and famously pursued Ohtani in free agency before the 2024 season, the Blue Jays haven\u2019t actually developed a two-way player of their own before. They\u2019ve put together development plans for potential draft picks, but this will be the first time they\u2019ve undertaken this challenge. The more they spoke with Smith, the more his enthusiasm came through.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was all for it,\u201d recalls Blue Jays player development director Joe Sclafani. \u201cSo we went into it trying to figure out what’s the proper way to do that. How do we map out the season?\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, those challenges have gone from theoretical to real. After the draft last summer, Smith debuted as a position player, but he didn\u2019t pitch in his first taste of pro ball. Then, as spring training ramped up, he and the Blue Jays developed a plan where he does both.<\/p>\n
For a typical spring-training day, Smith would arrive at the field around 6 a.m. He\u2019d then start his prep work, eat a quick breakfast and join the organization\u2019s other pitching prospects. Along with the other pitchers, he\u2019d play catch, complete various throwing drills and work on conditioning with sprints. Unlike Ohtani, Smith\u2019s a reliever \u2014 but still, there\u2019s a lot of work.<\/p>\n
Next up was his outfield and hitting prep. After about two hours with the pitchers, Smith would join the position players for their work, including defensive drills, baserunning work and batting practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then if it was a lifting day, I’d lift at the end of all,\u201d Smith recalls.<\/p>\n
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Smith runs onto the field. (Courtesy Dunedin Blue Jays)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot of work \u2014 but that\u2019s not how the 23-year-old sees it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn’t say it was too tiring,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI\u2019d say it was more fun. But definitely I already know professional baseball’s a grind. There’s so many games, so at some point it’s gonna be tiring, so that’s when you dig deep and push past it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On that front, he\u2019ll have some support. Casteel\u2019s managing for the first time this year, but he\u2019s familiar with the rhythm of professional baseball after 13 seasons playing in the minors. The 34-year-old skipper knows Smith\u2019s taking on more work than most, so he makes a point of checking in daily to see how he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s super honest with me, but it’s very organic,\u201d Casteel says. \u201cI trust my eyes on what I see if it looks like he’s dragging, then it’s obviously like it’s time to give him a blow. We have to push guys, but we can’t break guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that the season\u2019s begun, the Blue Jays have picked Thursdays as the day Smith pitches. There\u2019s flexibility in all of this, but for now that gives him some clarity as he plans his week. He plays the outfield four or five times a week and typically throws a touch-and-feel bullpen ahead of his game appearance, but on Thursdays he\u2019s just a pitcher, sitting in the bullpen until his name is called.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s definitely a little easier knowing that I’m just a pitcher and I’m not focused on any hitting stuff,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n
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