Yankees sign familiar former Mets first baseman, Red Sox folk hero as insurance

If the New York Yankees need to rest Paul Goldschmidt or trade Ben Rice for any reason during the 2025 season, they'll have a pretty affable backup locked and loaded.

On Monday night, while the rest of the world was distracted by Roki Sasaki's finalists -- don't want to talk about it -- the Yankees came to an agreement with very familiar face Dom Smith on a minor-league pact, per Jack Curry of YES.

Smith, one of the game's top first base prospects as recently as 2017-18, made his most significant big-league impact with the Mets in 2020. Based on where we are now, you're not going to believe me, but once upon a time, we played a 60-game regular season confined entirely to empty stadiums. And, during that season, Smith realized his full potential as a contact-first, smooth-swinging lefty bat, hitting .316 with a .993 OPS and 10 bombs in 50 games. He finished 13th in the National League MVP race.

Unfortunately, he's been unable to replicate that success, and all of a sudden, that very strange year was five seasons ago. Since that summer, Smith has moved on to the Nationals, Red Sox, and Reds ... and now the Bronx/Scranton.

Yankees sign former Red Sox, Mets first baseman Dom Smith to minor-league deal

Smith will more than likely begin the season at Triple-A, pending injury, but that's exactly how he got to Boston last spring as a fill-in for Triston Casas. In his not-so-short time there (84 games of escaping the DFA Horn), Smith captured the attention of the Boston faithful with his hustle, smile, and unorthodox game. He posted a .706 OPS while the Red Sox treaded water and, yes, collected the two-out hit that set up Masataka Yoshida's gut-wrenching two-run, game-tying home run off Clay Holmes last July.

Now, Smith is a Yankee and Holmes is a Met, and all might be right with the world.

Expect Smith to be an excellent quote at camp, and a potential fan favorite in the late innings at George M. Steinbrenner field this March. If he travels north with the team, something has gone wrong, but there are certainly depth options with less potential and positive experience than Smith, who's a lot like a warm blanket.