February 18, 2021 1:37 PM : Smith has the confidence of manager Brian Snitker should Atlanta choose to use a traditional closer, but the team isn't committing to going that route, David O'Brien of The Athletic reports.
Analysis: Smith has a solid case as Atlanta's top reliever and has saved 49 games in his career, but he's also left-handed, so the team could deploy him against an opposing lineup's top lefties whenever they're due up, which may not always be in the ninth inning. If the team uses a committee approach, Chris Martin and A.J. Minter, among others, could also find themselves picking up saves. If Smith does open the year as the locked-in closer, there's no guarantee he keeps the job, as his numbers fell across the board last season. His ERA jumped from 2.76 to 4.50 as his strikeout rate fell from 37.4 percent to 29.0 percent. He also gave up seven homers in just 16 innings of work.