2012 Age: 28

2012 WAR (Fangraphs): 0.7

2012 WAR (B-Ref): 0.9

2012 Salary: $1.75M

2013 Contract Status: Arbitration (5.091 Service Time)

First, a note on the WAR numbers. Because relievers aren't on the field as much as a position player or a starting pitcher, a WAR of over 1 is considered excellent for a reliever, and anything over 0.5 in either system denotes a good reliever. In 2011, Smith had a 1.2 Fangraphs WAR, and a 2.2 B-Ref WAR, both among the best in the majors.

This season, he wasn't as good as in 2011, but he was still a very effective pitcher. Even though he looks like he wouldn't be that effective against left-handed hitters, he had virtually no platoon split this season, allowing Manny Acta to bring him out regardless of who was due up.

Smith has a decent strikeout rate, but what makes him such an effective pitcher is that he combines the strikeouts with a very good groundball. Almost 60% of the balls put in play against him are grounders, and only 17.5% of his pitches are put in play. Of the 1069 pitches Smith threw in 2012, only 73 were put in play as either fly balls or line drives. And that means very few extra-base hits were hit off of Smith; he allowed just 12 doubles and 4 homers this year, which is key for the success of a late-inning reliever.

(Via Brooks Baseball)

So in other words, Smith a pitcher that can either be brought in as a fireman, like he was here...

Or simply be brought in to pitch a full inning, no matter who's due up. He'd make an excellent closer, even though he doesn't throw that hard.

Depending on what the Indians do this offseason, Smith could be elevated into an eighth inning role, or simply stay a seventh inning guy. He'll be getting another bump in salary through arbitration, though not nearly what he would have gotten had he been closing games. He's one year from free agency, and with a good 2013 season will almost certainly get a lucrative multi-year contract on the open market.

2012 Game Log

Career Stats