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Dodgers Reveal Will Smith's Status Before Giants Series

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Rex Villas | Last updated Sep 12, 2025 8:54 PM ET

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a groove heading into an intriguing series against National League West rivals, the San Francisco Giants, this Friday evening. The reigning World Series champions are coming off a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies and are entering the Giants series at Oracle Park in San Francisco having won all of their last four outings.

However, the Dodgers will not have one of the reliable bats in their stacked lineup starting against San Francisco.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shared just before the Giants series that catcher Will Smith is not part of the lineup for the said contest.

"Will Smith is not in the lineup, but is available off the bench tonight, Dave Roberts said. MRI came back clean and swelling is down, but they want to be mindful to avoid a situation where he was scratched like Wednesday night," Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported via a post on X.

This will be the second consecutive game that Smith has been relegated to the bench amid a hand injury that he suffered during a recent series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Smith's hand was hit by a foul tip, which caused swelling.

Although Smith is not expected to serve time on the injured list, the Dodgers are seemingly taking a careful approach to the backstop, especially with the MLB postseason getting close.

With this update, the Dodgers will be starting Ben Rortvedt in lieu of Smith, who has been hitting well in the 2025 MLB regular season.

This year, he is slashing .296/.404/.497 with 17 home runs and 64 RBIs through 110 games. His .901 OPS is higher than teammates and former Most Valuable Players Freddie Freeman (.859) and Mookie Betts (.737). Among Dodgers players who have played at least 100 games in 2025, Smith is only behind Shohei Ohtani in terms of OPS, with the Japanese superstar brandishing a 1.000 OPS over 143 games.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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