Giants closer, All-Star candidate Will Smith knows not to look too far ahead

SAN FRANCISCO — Will Smith must wait five days to find out if he’ll be a major league All-Star for the first time.

It’s heady stuff for a 29-year-old left-hander who sat out the 2017 after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his left elbow and is having the best year of his career. Smith is flattered to be considered, but uninterested in the mental gymnastics that go along with it.

“It would be a real cool honor, obviously,” Smith said Tuesday before the Giants faced the Colorado Rockies at Oracle Park. “I put in a lot of hard work during rehab to be able to come back and be with my teammates. But I haven’t really thought that far ahead, kind of just going one game at a time, trying to win games now.”

It was the same approach that got Smith through the 567 days from the March day he walked off the mound for the Giants against the Chicago White Sox to the day in 2018 that he returned against the San Diego Padres, knowing he faced a long and difficult rehabilitation.

As difficult as the season has been for the Giants, who were 33-44 going in to Tuesday’s game, it’s been a spectacular one for Smith. His numbers compare favorably to anyone in baseball, let alone the National League. All-Star pitchers and reserves will be announced Sunday.

Smith is 1-0 with a 2.01 earned run average with 47 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings and is 20-for-20 in save opportunities. The only N.L. pitchers with more saves are San Diego’s Kirby Yates (26-for-27) and the Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen (22-for-25). But Smith has allowed a lower opposing batting average than either (.157) and his 0.77 WHIP (walks and hits to innings pitched) is better as well.

The only reliever with a better WHIP and lower batting average is Milwaukee’s Josh Hader (0.66, .106). And considering the dearth of Giants candidates and the mandate that one player be elected, Smith would appear to be close to a slam dunk.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy seems to think so.

“What a year he’s had,” Bochy said. “He had to go through the Tommy John, and that’s a long road. We really needed a closer, and it started last year. The way it’s happened, nothing would make me happier.”

The journey back to the mound has kept Smith’s frame of mind on the moment.

“You can’t really get ahead of yourself,” Smith said. “If you start thinking a month ahead and something doesn’t go the way you want it to that day it can frustrate you. So I tried to honestly do it one day at a time, get through that day, get through rehab and get my mind off it, then do the same thing the next day.”

At the time, the Giants staff included pitchers such as Derek Law, George Kontos and Hunter Strickland who had been through the surgery. They were a wealth of information, and Smith said the training staff “worked as hard as I did.”

Not that there weren’t some rough spots.

“There are some days where you think it’s never going to end. You wonder if you’re ever going to come back to the way you were,” Smith said. “Those thoughts cross your mind. It’s normal to have those, but you still have to show up every day with a positive attitude and try to get it done. If you do that, you can be successful.”

Smith has a mid-90s fastball to go along with two breaking pitches and a legit change-up, an arsenal that isn’t common to a role in which some of the best practitioners go by the philosophy of “hard, harder and hardest with a power pitch or two. Smith was a good pitcher in 2015 with Milwaukee, when he went 7-2, appeared in 76 games and had a 2.70 earned run average.

He’s even better now, and began closing last season, tying Strickland for the team lead with 14. Not that Smith was seeking a role other than simply getting the precious opportunity to do something that was nearly taken away.

“I just wanted to play, that’s it,” Smith said. “I knew we had Strick. Strick was a good closer here. I wasn’t coming back shooting for that role. It just happened that way. After sitting out a year, it puts everything in perspective and you don’t take anything for granted. I was going to pitch in any inning that Boch let me pitch.”

There is one curveball to the All-Star procedure in that Smith, whose one-year, $4.2 million contract makes him a free agent at year’s end, could be coveted by a playoff bound team at some point before the July 31 deadline. The game is in Washington, D.C. on July 9.

Again, Smith isn’t looking too far ahead. He was drafted by the Angels and traded to the Kansas City Royals, then from the Royals to Milwaukee, then from Milwaukee to the Giants.

“I’ve been traded before. If I get traded, it will be my fourth time so that’s not really a big mental thing for me,” Smith said. “I kind of know what to expect I guess if it does happen. I’m going to show up every day and try and have a little fun when I’m at the ball field.”

BELT LEADS OFF: That angular first baseman at the top of the order Tuesday night was Brandon Belt, who walks a lot (45 times) and perhaps could give the Giants some first-inning pop at the top of the order. He’s hitting .229.

“Hopefully he gets on base, he’s a power threat, helps get the offense going,” Bochy said. “I think it’s fair to say we’ve had our struggles and you change things to see if you can get out of that rut, especially here at home.”

Bochy said he’s been mulling the change for “a few days.”

POSEY STILL NO. 3: Catcher Buster Posey, 0-for-4 Monday night and mired in a 5-for-32 (.156) slump with one double since returning from the injured list with a hamstring strain, remained in that spot. For the season, Posey is hitting .239 with three homers and 18 RBIs.

“Sure you look at the numbers and say, `Why is he hitting there?,’ ” Bochy said. “Well, as a club, we’re not swinging the bat very well, let’s be honest here. We’re hitting (.223). It’s not like we have a lot of guys that fit that mold. But his presence, I guarantee you is still there for the teams that go against us.”