Aidan Smith. Photo by Matt Kipp / Brooklyn Cyclones

Aidan Smith was in Greensboro, North Carolina, getting ready to play the final game of a six-game series when his manager pulled him aside. Smith was getting pulled from the lineup. His manager didn’t know why yet, but the call came down from above.

It was Aug. 2, the day before the MLB Trade Deadline. Smith knew something was probably about to go down.

“It’s always in the back of your mind,” Smith said. “They don’t really pull you for no reason, so. Especially that close to it, you kind of have an idea of what’s going on. You just don’t know the deal or where you’re going and stuff like that.”

Then, it’s a fire drill. The now-former Hot Rods outfielder left Greensboro and headed back to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to pack up his stuff. From there, he got on a plane and met the Cyclones in Wilmington, Delaware, where the Cyclones were set to start a road series vs. the Blue Rocks. 

“You basically pack up your whole life, and you know you’re moving on to a new place,” Smith said. “It’s a little bit of excitement there too, because you’re wanted.”

It wasn’t his first time experiencing this, either.

Smith was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2023. A fourth-round pick, he signed for over double his slot value to forgo his commitment to Mississippi State. One year later, Seattle sent him to the Tampa Bay Rays as part of the Randy Arozarena trade. He spent the second half of 2024, all of 2025 and the first half of 2026 with Tampa Bay before he was traded yet again, this time as part of the Freddy Peralta trade.

Similar to Sammy Stafura, another new Cyclone whom the Mets acquired at the trade deadline, being traded twice helped him know what to expect. Still, that doesn’t mean it was no big deal.

“My best analogy to it is like switching schools,” Smith said. “Your parents move, you come with them, you’re there, and you don’t really have a say. It’s like, just go and make friends and meet new people. For me, it was my second time, so a little easier this time, kind of knew what I was getting into. Obviously it’s sad to say bye to all your friends in your old org, but [it] doesn’t mean you can’t be friends just cause you’re not on the same team.”

Smith had at least one familiar face in Brooklyn to greet him. At the end of last season, the Rays sent Smith to play in the Arizona Fall League. There, he was teammates with Cole Mathis, who the Mets acquired earlier this season for David Peterson. 

“Great dude, love him,” Smith said.

The two of them talk a lot about cards. Mathis is a big baseball card collector himself, and Smith has recently started to get into it. He has his own Topps Pro Debut Baseball 1-of-1 card and a Topps Chrome Baseball Shohei Ohtani card numbered to 10 that he pulled, which he said is currently the best card in his collection. Smith even dabbles in Pokemon card collecting and has a Base Set 2 Charizard, which goes for hundreds of dollars minimum on the resale market and potentially north of $10,000 if graded well. 

And Smith had two of his friends come with him. The Rays sent infielder Émilien Pitre and pitcher Gary Gill Hill to the Mets along with Smith, and the entire trio spent all of 2025 in High-A together with the Hot Rods. He FaceTimed both of them, just to quickly say what’s up.

“It was very brief conversations,” he said. “We were just kind of like congratulating each other, and words of encouragement for everyone. Just go do your things.”

All three players have had hot starts with the Mets. Pitre, a contact-oriented player, hit .375 with Double-A Binghamton before being promoted to Triple-A Syracuse. Gill Hill has been very good through his first four starts in Binghamton. Smith has mashed.

In his first game with the Cyclones, Smith went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. He picked up his first hit as a Met in his first at-bat.

“You always have a little bit of nerves because new people, new org, you’re trying to start off on the right foot,” Smith said. “It definitely felt good. Just kind of take a breath and like, ok, now we’re good. Now we just continue to play.”

From there, things got crazy. Smith hit his first Mets home run in his very next game. Then hit another the next day. And then a third in his very next game. And then a fourth two games later. In his first six Cyclones games, Smith went 10-for-22 with four homers and a double. Altogether, it added up to a 1.545 OPS.

“You’re not trying to hit home runs, at least, I’m not,” Smith said. “I think that’s just a byproduct of having a good plan at the plate and getting pitches you wanna hit, and putting good swings on it. I mean, it doesn’t get better than that, but it’s not something you’re trying to do. But when you do do something like that, it’s pretty cool.”

At his best, Smith has five-tool potential. He’s a no-doubt center fielder, with a 60-grade or better on run, field and arm on both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America. The latter even threw a 65-grade on his glove. He has a lot of power in his bat, as he’s demonstrated early in his Cyclones career. The big question with him will be if he can make enough contact.

Even with his one-dot OPS so far as a Cyclone, he’s striking out over 30% of the time. He always struck out a bit more than average, but it jumped over 30% for the first time with the Rays. With it, his OPS fell, down from .874 in 2024 to .719 in 2025 and .672 before the trade in 2026.

“He’s kind of on a mission to get back to some things he used to do well,” Cyclones Hitting Coach Devin DeYoung said. “Felt like he got away from it, and he’s kind of tunnel-vision on what he’s trying to accomplish. He says he feels very comfortable here, he likes it here already. I’ve had great conversations with him. He’s a high-level baseball mind.”