Welcome to Atlanta, Dominic Smith.
Glancing at MLB’s National League East standings Saturday morning, seeing the Atlanta Braves occupying first place after eight games in the young season is an unexpected surprise. The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, both clubs with payrolls exceeding the Braves’ spending, are off to slow starts this season. And who could have predicted that when Smith, 30, signed a minor league contract in February, with an invitation to spring training, that he would be leading Atlanta’s offense at this stage of the 2026 season? Better yet, who would have gone out on a limb to predict that the 10-year pro would have made the Opening Day 26-man roster?
Stranger things have happened on the baseball diamond. Smith and the Braves’ relationship continues to have legs since the season-opener in Atlanta, with a 6–0 win over the Kansas City Royals. At 6–2, while sitting atop the NL East Division leading into Saturday’s third game of a four-game road trip against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta’s unlikely hitting hero so far is a present that manager Walt Weiss couldn’t have expected but is glad to receive. Speaking with SI.com’s Harrison Smajovits, Weiss fondly looked back at adding Smith to the club’s fold during spring training in Florida.
“He’s a real pro. We didn’t know when we brought him in what his role was going to be. I just knew that I liked him from the other side,” Weiss said.
While last season’s National League Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin, second baseman Ozzie Albies, first baseman Matt Olson, and right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. are doing their expected contributions, for the most part, to keeping the Braves offensively dominant, the addition of Smith into the mix had ignited Weiss’s lineup in a way that few could sincerely say they saw coming on Opening Day. After Atlanta’s Friday 2–0 win in Arizona, Smith’s hitting numbers are numbing. A .353 average includes two home runs, with five RBIs in 17 at-bats. His 12 total bases are eye-catching. Being aboard the bases regularly makes Smith a candidate to potentially be in a scoring position or advancing the runners ahead of him. This translates into a potent Atlanta scoring machine.
Smith, who is signed to a $1.25 million deal, came to the Braves by happenstance. When left fielder Jurickson Profar was suspended in March for all of 2026 due to testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs a second time, a roster spot opened up with Atlanta. The injury to everyday shortstop Ha-Seong Kim in January (torn tendon on his right middle finger), which is expected to keep him out of action until the middle of May or into June, would also offer some breathing room for Smith to display his talents in the Grapefruit League.
Manager Walt Weiss #22 of the Atlanta Braves watches the action against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the sixth inning at Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 2, 2026. Chris Coduto/Getty Images
On Friday, speaking to MLB.com, Weiss offered his opinion on the importance of Smith’s bat in the Braves lineup this season.
“When the suspension happened, I said there would be an opportunity for some guys, and guys are going to step up and shine and he’s certainly doing that,” Braves manager Weiss said after Thursday’s one-sided affair against the Diamondbacks. “Dom is taking advantage of the opportunity and we always talk about him giving a professional at-bat. He’s showing off some power too.”
It was in the Braves’ second game of the season that he received a hero’s welcome, after hitting a walk-off grand slam that landed in the right-field seats in Atlanta’s Truist Park. The 6–2 victory over the Royals endeared Smith to the Braves fans as the newest and favorite designated hitter. The game-winning swat of Smith’s bat came just weeks after the passing of his mother. Going from a non-roster walk-on to a clubbing walk-off hero was the first of what promises to be more emotional moments this season for Smith.
“It’s amazing,” he said after the game, via the Atlanta-Constitution’s Chad Bishop. “I played against the Braves for a long time. Being on the other side of a lot of these endings kind of hurt, so to be on the right side of it this time was so fun.”
Smith’s early-season hitting success couldn’t have come at a better time, given the Braves’ starting pitching woes. Spencer Strider is sidelined with an oblique injury, and a return to the starting rotation is mid-April at the earliest. Spencer Schwellenbach is on the 60-day injured list, after an arthroscopic right elbow surgery to remove bone spurs Feb. 18. Hurston Waldrep also underwent arthroscopic surgery in February to remove loose bodies in his right elbow. He is expected to pitch again for Atlanta in June or July. Having Smith join in with an already electric lineup of proven run producers remains an added bonus for the club’s overall early success in 2026.
Winners of two straight games on their first road trip of the season in Arizona, the Braves are setting the tone among the National League of being contenders, not pretenders, for their division that was once thought to be the right of either New York or Philadelphia to lay claim to. With Smith now part of the Braves’ landscape, Weiss has an added option to have his club go bat-to-bat with the best MLB has to offer.