Back from suspension, Mets' Drew Smith ready to 'stop thinking' about sticky hands
Mets reliever Drew Smith is ready to move past his suspension for allegedly using a foreign substance, but with how seemingly random the inspections and enforcement of baseball's rules have been, that may be easier said than done.
“I’m ready to stop thinking about it,’’ Smith said on Sunday, via the New York Post. “Once I get the first check out of the way, I think I’ll be all right. We’ll see.”
Smith was ejected from the June 13 game against the Yankees before he even threw a pitch, which led to an automatic 10-game ban. "It was sweat and rosin, I don’t know what else to say. Nothing changed and I think the process is so arbitrary," he said at the time.
Smith still maintains he "wasn’t doing anything wrong in the first place," and won't change his pregame routine but will be "more conscious of it going forward."
But getting past that first check – either before he throws a pitch or after during the Mets' series against the Milwaukee Brewers – might have the 29-year-old more nervous than facing big league batters for the first time since what he called a "random" and rare on-mound inspection stopped his season.
“That’s the hard thing,” Smith said on Sunday. “It was hot that day, like today, and it’s humid and right now my hand is tacky, just from playing catch with the rosin. Once it’s hotter, if you use the [rosin] bag, you could be in trouble.”
Smith who appeared in 26 games without incident on the season before the Subway Series has pitched to a 4.18 ERA (4.32 FIP) allowing 12 runs (11 earned) on 20 hits over 23.2 innings.
In looking for a possible reason for the inspection, the right-hander did see his average fastball velocity increase from his season average in his penultimate outing in Pittsburgh before the suspension on June 11, from 95mph to 97mph. But he has a non-nefarious explanation for the increase.
“That was strictly from mechanical changes,” Smith said. “The previous week or so, I was working on my old mechanics and in the Pittsburgh game, it clicked.”
Smith also maintains that his spin rate, which has often been pointed to as the telltale sign a pitcher is using a foreign substance, remained consistent. It was up for all four of the different types of pitches he used against the Pirates, but it was not a dramatic change.
In looking for help coming back, Smith has looked to Max Scherzer, who was suspended earlier this season after several inspections led to an ejection in Los Angeles. The veteran also blamed sweat and rosin for the increased stickiness on his hands.
“He was in the same boat as me and said his first couple of outings back, he was wary of it,’’ Smith said. “He just said to be more careful in the bullpen and maybe don’t pick up the rosin as much.”
The Yankees' Domingo German is the only other big league pitcher who has been busted this season for sticky hands, but two players at Triple-A Syracuse have been caught: Dylan Bundy and Eric Orze.
“It might have just been bad luck that it happened to me, but four of the five guys that have gotten [suspended] this year have been from our organization,’’ Smith said.
“The way it’s been handled the last year and a half, the league could do a much better job,’’ he added. “For all of us to get banged from the same organization, I know we’re not the only team using that rosin.
