Curt Smith (born September 9, 1986 in

Willemstad Willemstad ( , ; ; en, William I of the Netherlands, William Town, italic=yes) is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdo ...

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

, in the former

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

) is a Dutch former professional baseball player. He is also a member of the Dutch national team. He was drafted by the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

in the 39th round of the

2008 MLB Draft The 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft continued Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, and was held on June 5 and 6, 2008. First round selections ;Key Supplemental first rou ...

Career

Smith attended the

University of Maine at Orono The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

, and hit .403 in his final season as a senior.

St. Louis Cardinals

Smith was selected by the

out of the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

in the 39th round (1,175th overall) of the June 2008 First-Year Player Draft. At Maine, Smith was named America East Player of the Year in 2008. In 2008, Smith played for the Rookie ball

Johnson City Cardinals The Johnson City Cardinals were a Minor League Baseball team based in Johnson City, Tennessee. The team was affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals organization from 1975 through 2020 and played in the Rookie-level Appalachian League. The team won ...

and the Single-A

Quad Cities River Bandits The Quad Cities River Bandits are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Their home games are played at Modern Woodmen Park (formerly John O'Donnell Stadium) in Davenport, Iowa, one ...

. In 2009, he was assigned to the Single-A advanced

Palm Beach Cardinals The Palm Beach Cardinals are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in the town of Jupiter in Palm Beach County, Florida, and play their home games at Roge ...

, and briefly spent time with the Double-A

Springfield Cardinals The Springfield Cardinals are a Minor League Baseball team based in Springfield, Missouri. They compete as a member of the Texas League's North Division. The Cardinals began play in 2005. The team is owned by the 11-time Major League Baseball ...

. Smith spent the entire 2010 season with Springfield, and was named a mid-season All-Star. On April 3, 2011, Smith was released by the Cardinals organization. At the time of his release, Smith was a career .301/.336/.457 hitter in 260 minor league games.

Miami Marlins

After spending the remainder of the 2011 season with the

Lincoln Saltdogs The Lincoln Saltdogs are a professional baseball team based in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the United States. The Saltdogs are in the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball. Since the 2001 sea ...

of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

, Smith signed a minor league contract with the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The franc ...

organization on December 16, 2011. After spending the season with the Double-A

Jacksonville Suns The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. They are located in Jacksonville, Florida, and are named for shrimp caught in the area. The team pla ...

, batting .261 with 9 home runs in 96 games, Smith elected free agency on November 2, 2012.

Minnesota Twins

On March 15, 2013, Smith signed a minor league contract with the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

organization. After hitting .231/.301/.367 with 4 home runs and 19 RBI in 45 games for the Twins' Double-A affiliate, the

New Britain Rock Cats The New Britain Rock Cats were a minor league baseball team that competed in the Eastern League. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for 12 years, the Minnesota Twins for 20 years and the Colorado Rockies for one. They playe ...

, Smith was released on July 4, 2013.

St. Louis Cardinals (second stint)

After spending the remainder of the 2013 season with the Lincoln Saltdogs, for whom he also played in 2011, Smith signed a minor league contract with his original organization, the

, on January 18, 2014. Smith spent the season with the Double-A

, slashing .262/.322/.397 with 11 home runs and 52 RBI in 114 games.

Lincoln Saltdogs

On December 22, 2014, Smith signed with the

of the

American Association of Independent Professional Baseball The American Association of Professional Baseball is an independent professional baseball league founded in 2005. It operates in the central United States and Canada, mostly in cities not served by Major League Baseball teams or their minor lea ...

. In 2015, Smith played in 87 games for Lincoln, posting a .294/.358/.492 slash with 12 home runs and 61 RBI. On July 31, 2016, Smith re-signed with the Saltdogs for his fourth season with the team. He played in 82 games, posting a .331/.403/.548 batting line with 17 home runs and 60 RBI. For the 2017 season, Smith played in 95 games for Lincoln, slashing .322/.424/.474 with 11 home runs and 62 RBI. On December 21, 2017, Smith again re-signed with the Saltdogs. In 2018, Smith logged a .315/.367/.548 batting line with 18 home runs and 74 RBI in 92 games. In 2019, Smith appeared in 95 games for the Saltdogs, recording a .288/.344/.465 slash line with 14 home runs and 58 RBI. On November 25, 2019, Smith once again re-signed with the Saltdogs, however he did not play in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On February 10, 2021, Smith rejoined the Saltdogs for the 2021 season, his eighth season with the club. In a July 4 game against the

Kansas City Monarchs The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 193 ...

, Smith hit a 2-run home run that made him become the all-time home run leader in franchise history. The shot was his 91st home run with the Saltdogs. He finished the season batting .280/.363/.480 with 10 home runs and 51 RBIs over 88 games. Smith retired from professional baseball following the season on October 19, 2021.

International career

Smith was named

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

after the

2011 Baseball World Cup The 2011 Baseball World Cup (BWC) was the 39th international Men's amateur baseball tournament. The tournament was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which titled it the Amateur World Series from the 1938 tournament through the ...

. He played for Team Netherlands in the

2019 European Baseball Championship The 2019 European Baseball Championship was an international baseball tournament organized by the Confederation of European Baseball. The 2019 Championship was held September 7–15, 2019, in Bonn and Solingen, Germany. The tournament contributed ...

, and at the Africa/Europe 2020 Olympic Qualification tournament in Italy in September 2019.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Curt 1986 births 2009 World Baseball Classic players 2013 World Baseball Classic players 2015 WBSC Premier12 players 2016 European Baseball Championship players 2017 World Baseball Classic players 2019 European Baseball Championship players Curaçao baseball players Curaçao expatriate baseball players in the United States Jacksonville Suns players Johnson City Cardinals players Lincoln Saltdogs players Living people Maine Black Bears baseball players New Britain Rock Cats players Palm Beach Cardinals players People from Willemstad Quad Cities River Bandits players Springfield Cardinals players Venados de Mazatlán players Curaçao expatriate baseball players in Mexico Curaçao expatriate baseball players in Nicaragua