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Dominic Smith was the subject of many trade rumors all lockout, then right as the 2022 season was about to begin, he was on the verge of heading to the West Coast in a trade.

Smith, who’s been with the Mets since he was drafted in 2013, was the centerpiece of a trade that would send him to the San Diego Padres and Eric Hosmer, Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan back to the Mets. New York balked at the idea of taking on Hosmer’s paid-down contract, and Smith never made it to another team.

Right after the trade rumors swirled, Smith kept it positive, saying trade rumors were just part of the business and that he’s “happy to be a Met.”

In a new interview with Brendan Kuty of Newsday, though, Dom was more intentional with his words, noting, “I just want to play every day.”

“I’m here to be ready no matter what situation I’m put in,” he said in the spring, and to start the year, that was in an occasional start at first base or designated hitter. He started in 10 of the team’s first 23 games (43.5%).

Then Robinson Canó was cut from the team on May 2 when rosters were trimmed from 28 to 26 players. That was also a day after Smith had his best day of the season–4-for-4 with 3 RBIs–and he’s started in 7 of the team’s 16 games since then (43.8%).

So, he’s not really playing more. Overall on the season, he has a .552 OPS and 72 wRC+.

As the Newsday article points out, manager Buck Showalter said he wants Dom to get playing time as well as J.D. Davis and Travis Jankowski–two of the team’s other bench players. (Luis Guillorme gets pretty regular playing time due to his versatility playing second and third base.)

It’s hard to balance all of those at-bats and keep everyone happy. That’s part of managing. But all three players have performed below-average on offense, and neither of the three players has really made a convincing statement that one should play above the other.

Nevertheless, Smith has his wishes.

“I would like to be in the lineup every day, every time, righty, lefty,” Smith said. “I feel like I can impact the team every day.”

“I like where this team is going. I feel like I can impact this team in a number of ways, and that’s being [in the lineup] every day, in my opinion.”

Smith also made the point that he’s basically been in the same bench role since 2017 when he came up. Outside of the 2021 season, where Smith was forced into an everyday role and struggled due in large part to lingering injuries, Dom has taken to an occasional starting role with the Mets. He’d start a couple times per week, come in for defense late in games and pinch-hit another couple times per week.

“Being here since I was 22, now I’m 26, and still in the same position. About to be 27. If there’s a team out there that wants me to play and wants to let me play, I would love to play every day. That’s just how I feel about that.”

He wants that to be with the Mets. Will it happen? Does he have to produce this season before he gets more at-bats, or will he get the at-bats while healthy to prove himself every day? The Mets tried to give him the opportunity to play every day by trading him to another team, but they didn’t like the return. Will they get a more desirable return now after his performance through 79 plate appearances?

We’ll see how Buck and general manager Billy Eppler handle the continuing carousel of at-bats as we move into the dog days.