Left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer was the Dodgers’ fifth-round selection in the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of San Jacinto Community College which is located in the greater Houston, Texas area.

He had previously been selected by the San Diego Padres in the 33rd round of the 2014 June draft as a senior out of Bishop Eustace Preparatory School. He chose not to sign at that time and instead attended Florida Gulf Coast University before transferring to San Jacinto for the 2016 season.

Smeltzer was born in Voorhees, New Jersey – a township in Camden County. He has always loved playing baseball but as a 9-year-old his baseball time was almost interrupted when he was diagnosed with pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma, a very rare form of cancer. The disease was treated with chemotherapy and radiation over a relatively long period of time.

Smeltzer credits his family, his medical team and baseball for helping him emerge as a stronger individual, especially when he saw how sick many other children were compared to him. He never stopped playing baseball and had his picture taken during that time – without his hair or eyebrows – with Cole Hamels, then a pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies.

“I played baseball all the way through it,” Smeltzer said. “I got threatened with feeding tubes but if I kept eating I didn’t have to get the feeding tube. And if I didn’t get the feeding tube, it meant I was able to keep playing baseball. Baseball kept me being a kid through all of this because I couldn’t go to school or church or anything social. Without the normalcy of playing baseball, I honestly believe that I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Not one to change his game style, the young Smeltzer played as he always had before his illness hit. Doctors told him not to get hit by pitches, but he leaned in anyway. They told him not to dive, but he still did. Between doubleheaders he slept on the bench to gain strength.

Devin Smeltzer continued to play baseball leading up to the 2016 draft and the beginning of his professional career.

In his year at San Jacinto, Smeltzer posted a 1.18 ERA and 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings. And yes, he was the one we read about with the 140-pitch game in which he held Chattahoochee Valley to two hits and struck out 20.

“I honestly thought I had less than that,” Smeltzer said, while citing his previous high of 126. “Early on, I was all hyped up with the adrenaline and all, but after that I was just worried about locating and making sure my body was intact and getting everything out of my body. I had no idea my pitch count was that high, I felt great.”

Smeltzer was no stranger to dominance as he had pitched a no-hitter in the Cape Cod Baseball League during his time there in 2015. Pitching for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, the left-hander threw the first nine-inning no-hitter in the Cape Cod League since 2010. He was nearly perfect as well, a tough two-out walk in the seventh inning was the lone blemish in a 5-0 shutout of the Harwich Mariners.

Following his successful summer league in 2015 and his college season in 2016 the Dodgers signed the 6-foot-3, 170-pound left-handed pitcher who incidentally reminds them of a young Mark Buehrle.

“He’s an artist on the mound, if you will,” said Dodgers scout Clint Bowers. “He has an effective, funky, unique style that creates deception. He really hides the ball. The delivery and mechanics combine with the stuff for a real nice package. The curve is his bread and butter, but he has a four-pitch mix that keeps hitters guessing and off balance. They never know what’s coming.” Bowers is the same scout that signed present Dodger Ross Stripling and former Dodger Shawn Tolleson.

Devin Smeltzer signing his contract with the Dodgers on July 6, 2016.
(Photo courtesy of Icon Sports)

Smeltzer started his professional career on July 8 with the Arizona League Dodgers. Making all of his 11 appearances in relief as a 19-year-old, he found the going a bit rough. Over 10.2 innings he gave up 16 hits, walked six and struck out 12.

Already looking forward to the 2017 season it is expected he will get an opportunity to start at some point in the season and perhaps with the Class-A Great Lakes Loons.

Meanwhile, Devin Smeltzer has other things to do. He credits baseball with preserving his childhood and cancer with helping to mold his adulthood and define who he is.

“Without cancer I wouldn’t be who I am today,” Smeltzer said. “If I was asked to go through it again, as a 20-year-old guy getting drafted by the Dodgers, I’d say I would go through it again. It really taught me priorities and people in my life — who I need to keep around, who I need to get rid of. It was honestly a blessing in disguise. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Even as a 10-year-old, Smeltzer, as a show of support that he hasn’t forgotten those who helped him, started writing names under the bill of his baseball cap. Some of them were other children with cancer. Some were survivors, like him. Some were not.

He has played on numerous teams since he left the hospital. He has worn dozens of hats and he has written names on all of them. That also means he has gathered those names by visiting young cancer patients in hospitals, especially at St. Christopher’s that did so much for him. He says it helps to remind him not only how he returned to the mound, but also why.

“I play for them,” Smeltzer said, “but at the same time, they watch over me.”

“When they get a new patient, a lot of times they’ll call me and ask me to go talk with the kid and the parents,” Smeltzer said. “That’s what I want to do. I want to give back.”

“My story isn’t about me anymore,” he told Joseph Santoliquito of CBS Sports last spring. “My story is about giving hope to other people. “It’s about every kid who had had cancer. I beat cancer, but the battle is still there.”

Yankees scout Matt Hyde covers the Northeast and each year reads a stack of questionnaires received from prospective draft choices. One of the questions is: What are your personal goals outside of baseball?

“We get so many of these back from kids every year and the fact that Devin responded that he wanted to give back to the people that helped him resonated with me,” Hyde said. “I don’t normally get that. His questionnaire provided the motivation for doing something bigger than all of us.”

Smeltzer’s goals are to forge a baseball career and to “give back” with each goal supporting the other. The Dodgers paid above slot for him helping him to decide against returning to college for another season. His giving back is well underway with his work in supporting charities such as, Swing for the Cure, and Strikeouts for Cancer. At the time of his signing it had not sunk in that his dream of playing professional baseball had already begun its journey.

“Honestly, it hasn’t hit me,” he said. “It just feels like another summer of summer ball. I think it’ll hit me when I don’t have to report to school next year. It’s been a dream come true so far.… there’s a lot of hard work ahead of me but I’ve been blessed to get drafted by the Dodgers.”