There’s a good chance that young Dominic Smith is headed to Triple-A to start the 2018 season after the New York Mets went out and signed veteran Adrian Gonzalez to a major league deal last month.

Mets GM Sandy Alderson talked most of the offseason about needing insurance for Smith at first base after seeing some warning signs in his brief big league debut in 2017.

Smith got all the motivation he needed and he’s already at camp in fantastic shape, he talked Peter Botte of New York Daily News about how he feels now, “I notice a difference in everything I do, even just walking around the house. Just getting up and moving around, having more energy, better posture, better stamina, better everything. And I definitely feel different already out on the field.”

Smith is down to roughly 225 pounds after finishing the 2017 campaign around 255 and having issues with the speed of the game down the stretch for the Mets. The touted defensive first baseman looked bad in 49 MLB games with -7 DRS in only 378 innings.

The 22-year-old Smith thinks his transformation will help on both sides of the ball, “I feel like I get around way easier. I’m stronger in BP, more mobile, I can bend over and get back to my feet quicker and change directions quicker and react faster. I definitely see a big difference in this short period of time.”

Smith struggled at the plate in his 183 big league plate appearances with a .198/.262/.395 slash line while striking out 26.8% of the time and only walking 7.7%. Though he did slug six doubles, nine home runs and post a career-high .198 ISO.

Wherever Smith begins the 2018 he is ready to learn from Gonzalez (he grew up watching A-Gon being a SoCal kid), “For them to go out and (sign Gonzalez) and try to help me along with my development, you can’t do anything but appreciate that and thank them, because whatever happens, I know I can definitely learn a lot from A-Gon.”

Of course one of the big issues for Smith will be keeping himself in his current shape as he’s noted in the past it’s tough during the season to keep with proper eating habits.

Dom says his days of bad eating habits are over though after realizing how good it makes him feel, “Every time I came into spring training I’ve always felt like a good baseball player. But this is the first year I’ve felt like a good athlete.”

Photo by Ernest Dove