D-Backs Power Up With Pavin Smith

During a conference call between club officials and Pavin Smith the night before the draft, the Diamondbacks learned a few things about the Virginia first baseman’s approach at the plate, including that he was trying to hit for more power his junior year.

That fact made his results all the more impressive for the D-backs, who selected Smith with the seventh overall pick in the 2017 draft.

“The thing about it is, most of the times when guys do that, their strikeouts go up. And as you can well see, they didn’t go up,” scouting director Deric Ladnier said. “He’s just got this tremendous knack to get the barrel to the ball. It really speaks for itself. And I think as time progresses you’ll see even greater power out of this young man.”

The lefthanded-batting Smith didn’t just record more walks than strikeouts during his standout season for Virginia. He had more homers than strikeouts, too. In 228 at-bats, he hit .342/.427/.570 with 13 homers, 38 walks and just 12 strikeouts. Smith’s power production increased from seven and eight home runs in his freshman and sophomore years, respectively.

Meanwhile, his strikeout totals tumbled, going from 40 to 23 to 12 in his three seasons.

“I hate striking out with a passion,” Smith said. “. . . I think hating striking out is one of the things that drives me to not strike out.”

Though the Diamondbacks already have a franchise cornerstone in Paul Goldschmidt at first base—and though Smith stressed to the D-backs that he’s comfortable in the outfield, where he played about once a week this year—the club plans to send him out as a first baseman.

“Our plan was strategically to take what we felt like was the best player available,” Ladnier said. “We weren’t looking at positions. If it would have been a pitcher, it would have been a pitcher. But you all know as well as I do that college bats fly off the board. Today was a perfect example of that happening.”