Cam Smith is in his own head. How do the Astros help him get out of it?

AL EastBlue JaysOriolesRaysRed SoxYankeesAL CentralGuardiansRoyalsTigersTwinsWhite SoxAL WestAngelsAstrosAthleticsMarinersRangersNL EastBravesMarlinsMetsNationalsPhilliesNL CentralBrewersCardinalsCubsPiratesRedsNL WestDiamondbacksDodgersGiantsPadresRockiesScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsThe Windup NewsletterFantasyMLB ProspectsMLB OddsMLB PicksPower RankingsStarting Pitcher RankingsMLB Latest Cam Smith is batting .140 over his past 30 games. Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images Share articleHOUSTON — Cam Smith struck out two more times on Friday night, falling deeper into a funk that raises further questions about his place on the Houston Astros roster. Pressure to keep his spot has existed since last winter, when general manager Dana Brown gave Smith no guarantees about anything ahead of his second major-league season. In response, Smith said everything expected from someone with his maturity and stoicism. Whether that mindset remains intact is becoming a pertinent question. First-year hitting coach Victor Rodriguez is convinced all of Smith’s struggles are self-inflicted. On Friday, a tap on Rodriguez’s shoulder verified the thought. “Hey,” Jose Altuve told Rodriguez, “this kid is struggling mentally.” During his day off, Altuve observed Smith throughout Friday night’s 2-0 win against the Texas Rangers. Smith’s mannerisms, swing decisions and demeanor at the plate provided Altuve a clear portrait of his struggles. To try and solve them, Rodriguez asked Altuve to attend Smith’s round of early batting practice on Saturday afternoon. Altuve obliged — and reiterated what Rodriguez has preached to Smith across the first seven weeks of this season. “Don’t lose your aggressiveness,” Smith said Altuve told him. “That’s what we saw early on with you, don’t lose it. Don’t be passive.” Rodriguez has tried this tack before. During his four-season stint as the Boston Red Sox’s hitting coach, Rodriguez brought David Ortiz in for rounds of Pablo Sandoval’s batting practice. Last season in San Diego, Rodriguez called Dustin Pedroia and asked him to lend advice to Padres sensation Jackson Merrill. As a boy, Merrill idolized Pedroia. “I felt like Altuve was going to help more,” Rodriguez said on Saturday. “The same message Altuve is giving to him, I’ve given to him. But Altuve has been there, he’s seen it, he’s Altuve. When it comes from Altuve, you kind of go like, ‘Whoa.’ This guy is a future Hall of Famer and he’s telling me this, it works.” “(If) you have kids and you’re a dad and you tell the kids something that is the right thing, but you bring somebody from another place, he listens to that person more than he listens to you.” Rodriguez’s analogy offers a reminder: Smith is still a kid. He turned 23 years old in February, played just 32 minor-league games before becoming a big leaguer and is still figuring out how to find his footing. “Guys like you are (normally) making those adjustments in the minor leagues against guys your age and experience,” Rodriguez often tells Smith. Balancing Smith’s development with the bigger needs of the ballclub is a challenge team officials embraced last season. Circumstances are now more dire. Houston is 10 games below .500 in a make-or-break season for both Brown and manager Joe Espada. Injuries have depleted a lineup starved for stability. Smith is not providing it. Making Smith the poster child for the malaise is disingenuous, but he is someone Houston expected to slot in the middle of its order all season. Brown calls him an “aircraft carrier” for a reason. Now, it’s worth wondering how much longer Smith can appear in the lineup at all. He did not play on Saturday night. He didn’t start on Thursday, either, perhaps portending a change in Smith’s status as an everyday player. An 0-for-2 showing from the seven-hole on Sunday shaved Smith’s OPS to .604 after 177 plate appearances. Only 23 of the sport’s 172 qualified hitters have a lower one. “I’m obviously not producing, so I’m starting to think more, trying to do more,” Smith said on Saturday. “Just getting away from who I am. “I think that’s the main thing keeping me down right now is just getting in my own way.” To hear Rodriguez describe it, Smith’s work in the batting cage is brilliant. His swing is on time and short. His barrel is staying through the baseball. “When he comes here, he’s late,” Rodriguez said near the batter’s box at Daikin Park. “And because he’s late, he’s dropping the head of the bat. He’s under the ball. He’s swinging and missing a lot. In there, I can put the machine at 110 (mph), and he’s like whack, whack.” “What he does there in that cage is completely different than what he does here. What doesn’t allow him to take what he does there to here is mental.” Poor batted ball luck isn’t helping — Smith’s expected batting average is .248 and his expected slugging percentage is .439 — but this is a bottom-line business that only looks at the .196 average and .314 slugging percentage he has actually posted. That Smith boasts some of baseball’s most elite bat speed is sabotaged by a 30.7 percent whiff rate and a 31.7 percent chase rate. “Honestly, I’d like to just simplify each pitch, just commit to an approach and win each pitch instead of saying, ‘OK, I have to get this many hits to catch up or do this.’ Commit to each pitch, that’s the goal,” Smith said. “Just trying to find my way out, get out of my own way mentally.” Team officials must contemplate whether Smith is capable of doing that at the major-league level. Brown resisted demoting Smith during his struggles during the second half of last season. Doing so this season — Brown’s final under contract — would bring the sort of brutal optics he can ill afford. “He knows that if he doesn’t get hits, they’re going to send him somewhere to get hits,” Rodriguez said. “There’s pressure (to) get hits. In the minor leagues, there’s no pressure of getting hits. That, I think, is in his mind.” Jake Meyers’ expected return on Monday in Minneapolis will further slash into Smith’s playing time. If Smith remains on the roster, platooning him with left-handed hitting Zach Cole in right field may be the most logical option, but the depth of Smith’s struggles must at least prompt some thought about whether a stint in Triple-A Sugar Land would be beneficial. The absence of any alternatives in Sugar Land cannot be overlooked. “There’s not a position player on the entire team,” said one rival evaluator who recently scouted the Space Cowboys. Altuve’s oblique injury will also force the Astros to play Brice Matthews more at second base, accentuating the need for Smith to remain on the roster as an option in the outfield. That Smith is a Gold Glove-caliber right fielder — one who entered Sunday worth five Outs Above Average — is a factor, too. Houston can make room for Meyers on the 26-man roster by either optioning seldom-used infielder Shay Whitcomb or making official Altuve’s placement on the injured list. Whitcomb doesn’t play as is, but now that Matthews will become more of a factor on the infield, Whitcomb’s presence here is obsolete. More intriguing decisions may loom when either Joey Loperfido or Taylor Trammell is ready to return from the injured list. Neither is on a minor-league rehab assignment yet, perhaps offering Smith a window to stop standing in his own way. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms