Dodgers Strength Coach Travis Smith Shares Incredible Journey, Roki Sasaki's Rise, Bond With Ohtani!

Hello everyone, I'm Noel Sanchez with Dodgers Nation, and today I'm joined by the great Travis Smith. Travis, can you give us a quick introduction just for those that are first meeting you today, our viewers? Absolutely. My name is Travis Smith. I'm the head strength and conditioning coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Been here now, this is going on my 14th season. Awesome. So, been here 13-14 seasons, congratulations on that mark. What does it mean to you, and how has your job evolved in the time that you've been here? This has been an amazing journey. It means a lot to me. I'm originally from Chicago, so actually being a young black male from the city of Chicago, making it, being able to be here on a center stage like this is really cool and important for me, and also for other people to see that you're able to make it. Being here for this long, it's been great. I started out in double A, worked my way up to triple A, and then finally being a major league assistant, minor league coordinator, and then finally becoming the head strength and conditioning coach has been great. So Travis, we're going to get into your background and your journey here, but I want to start off with last night, because Roki Sasaki, he had his best start of his young Dodgers career, struck out 10 Angels batters. I couldn't help but notice you were one of the first people that he came up to in the dugout afterwards. You guys were laughing and smiling. You've been working with him since he joined the Dodgers a season and a half ago. What are some of the biggest improvements he's made in the work that you guys do together that have led to the success that we've seen recently from him? Yeah, I don't know about leading to the success. A lot of people now are getting interviews just about working with Roki. Dave Roberts said that he's been working with me, and yes, we've been working together for quite some time, starting at the end of last year. Just being able to see all the work that he put in during rehab come into fruition, performing in the playoffs, doing great things, but really just seeing Roki be consistent, putting in work ethic. He has work ethic, and really just pushing him to be better each and every day. Seeing it play out, this is exactly what we thought it was and what our organization believed it would be, and so I'm just excited to see it happen. You told Jack Harris that Roki's sitting at around 205 pounds right now, even though MLB lists him at 187. How much of that do you think is diet changes, and have you helped Roki select some meal plans or put new things into his diet when he came to America? Much different diet probably than when he was pitching over in Japan. Yeah, actually Roki has his own nutritionist, own chef, so he's doing all of that on his own. More so, I think, just being able to, like I said, lift consistently. Being able to add more load to his training has helped him put on more weight, and then understanding as he does that, he's able to eat more, get more calories in him, and then taking what he did this offseason, putting it all together, coming in in better shape, actually more muscle, and I think that little weight gain. And I would say more so, probably gaining 10 pounds more so than from 187 to 205. Exactly. That's amazing, Travis. I want to get into your journey. I've read that you've had a big background in football in your past. Can you talk to me about that, and at what point in your life did you have to pivot from being a player to going into being a trainer and a coach? Definitely. Yeah, I played college football, and it was great. Great opportunity playing that long. I didn't really play baseball growing up, and so being able to turn on a switch, coming over, really just understanding how to train the body and physiology, and understanding that allowed me to just be in the room. And then, actually, once I got here, the players were very open and teaching me the game, and so that helped a lot, and being able to watch the game, being in tune, understanding workload, so that allowed me to watch even more baseball, and so that really helped, but honestly, being a player, being an athlete, coming over, it just allowed you to relate, understand what these guys go through on a daily basis, injury, how to come back from that, and really just put you in a sense of being understanding of this person. How did the Dodgers welcome you with open arms when you first took on this position? Oh, I mean, it was great. As far as coming over, being in AA, really, I was with the Marlins for a year. Prior to that, I was in AAA, so I came over and went to AA, and it was kind of a seamless transition. Definitely different organizations, and so this was really my first full-time job. Even though I was doing the same thing, I was an intern with the Marlins, and I think at all levels, they had intern positions, and so coming over, it was great. I was able to be in Big League camp right away, and from there, the guys were open arms, everyone, and our head guy at the time, Steven Downey, just allowing me to come over to Big League camp and be there the whole time was great, and then as I worked my way up and through the whole time I was in minor league, I was able to go to Big League camp and spring training every single year, and so getting to know all the Big Leaguers that were here, and then finally, Brandon McDaniel promoted me to be the assistant strength coach and minor league coordinator, and from there, it was great. It turned into me being here at home games, and then leaving and going on the road to the minor leagues, and then from there, I think honestly, players started to voice their opinion like, hey, we need Travis on the road. From there, it worked out. That probably felt great, right, hearing the guys say that? Yeah, absolutely. It worked out, and I think that this organization, we should have multiple guys, two to three people on the road because we have such stars, and they need specific attention. I know people may think that they don't, and just like, for instance, WBC, thinking like, why do they need strength conditioning coaches? I think it's extremely important that these guys have plans, they need the attention, and they need somebody to walk through each step. Some of these guys are coming over, they have their own program in mind, but they definitely need guidance as well. In those early years with the Dodgers, were there a couple players in your opinion that you think you connected with the most and that kind of got you comfortable in the position you were in? Oh, absolutely. I mean, people ask the question like, hey, who is your favorite player, but really, most guys, man, every player to me, it's about relationship. We get to see as strength and conditioning coaches, as performance coaches, we're with the guys in the morning, the afternoon, and the night, and so really just building relationship with each and every player that I can, being a sound board for them, like whatever they have to talk about at home or anything, man, just being a ear, and so guys, I mean, so many guys, Matt Kemp, Dee Gordon, those are guys right away open arm to me, man, and just help me out just to be able to be in big league camp and adjust. You came at a special time, Travis, I think that's really when the organization kind of turned the corner. They became the model, the model franchise, and you helped, there's so many different parts of this organization, but I feel like part of my job in the media is to highlight guys like you that are playing roles behind the scenes, that are doing this type of work, and the audience loves it. That's part of why I wanted to reach out to you today. I knew it was coming, and I was like, I got to talk to Travis, but taking a look overall at the team, I know that probably every day is different for you, but on a day like today, home game, 7, 10 p.m. start time, what is a day in the life like for Travis Smith? Yeah, I get in, we talked about it earlier, now, I used to come in a little earlier to try to work out, get my workout in, but I have a family, I have kids, so I built a gym in my garage, so I try to train at home, then I come in right around, I would say 12, we have a meeting, staff meeting that we go over players, rehab players, and then from there, man, 1 o'clock, guys are showing up, and so, you know, coming out here a little later today because it's like, as I go, everyone's walking in, different guys come in at different times, and we just want to be there for them throughout, and so all the way up until probably now, I'm training guys and working with anybody that comes in, so we have, you know, players that are healthy, active, that we're training, and we're also working with our rehab players that are trying to come back from that. Definitely a busy day, Travis, but I know all of Dodgers Nation will appreciate your process. Now, Travis, I've compiled a couple of viral videos with you that have gone viral over the years, so you and I are going to react to them together, and if you could give me a backstory on some of them, that would be awesome. We'll start off with... Classic one right there, that one went viral, not just the video, but the picture that John Suhu took of you guys bowing down, and then your famous quote. Talk to me about that. Yeah, yeah. Honestly, man, it just came off the dome. Really, I talk to the guys, I try to be the biggest cheerleader, man, and pump them up throughout the day. That's a little bit of the football in me, just trying to be the hype man. Everywhere I go, when I play, you know, as a coach, I want to continue to encourage players every single day, and for Yama or whoever comes up big, man, I want to let them know, man, that they're the man, they're a beast. And so, you know, having, you know, I don't know if I can say it, but I didn't even know that they were going to post that, but being, you know, posting that, I thought, it's like, ah, they sent me a text, like, hey, are you going to get in trouble for doing that? I was like, I don't think so, but I'm, you know, I'm just trying to be the hype man, that's it. I mean, and I feel like if there was any time to say that, that was the time, so, you know, everybody will give you a pass on that one. Now we're going to move to this one. You mentioned the WBC earlier, and the video I'm going to show you, it's probably something you do on a normal everyday work, but it went viral just because of the person involved and because of how it looks, so let's take a look. So, I mean, you worked with a lot of great athletes over the years with the Dodgers, but I mean, being able to work with guys like Aaron Judge and all the other stars on TUSA, was something like that, like you have more appreciation for that moment, working with a guy like him? Yeah, absolutely. It was a great experience. I had way more fun than I thought I would. When I was told that I was going to get the opportunity, Brandon McDaniel asked, hey, are you interested in this? And at first, I was like, I don't want to do it because I don't want to be away from the team. And then he was like, man, you should. So, put my name in, was able to get that opportunity. And really, it was a little bit of affirmation for what we do here, because guys are coming in every single day. Those guys were the best of the best. And seeing them and how they work every single day reminded me of my weight room and how guys coming in every single day with a plan. And really, seeing that there were guys on the team that were a little bit, I would say, they were surprised that guys were coming in every day with a plan. And I was like, man, this is normal. This is how it is, especially in Dodger Stadium. So, it was great. That's the back-to-back World Series way right there. That's right. So, it was a great opportunity just to see the best of the best do it. But I get to see that on a daily basis. Absolutely. All right. One last one for you, Travis. 2024 right here. So, do you remember that day? Yeah, I do. I do. So, every day, you see me coming down. Hi, man. I got handshakes for every player. That was something that I came up with over the years. And really, every time we get a new player, I just try to think about something that they've done. Or I actually do research for WBC. I looked up everybody and thought about their names and what I can come up with. And, you know, for Shohei, at that moment, you know, just thinking about, you know, I mean, he has a wife to play basketball. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if he plays basketball. But just... Was that like a little like the defensive slide action? Yeah, yeah. Just being silly, man. That's right. I thought it was a mix of the nae-nae and it looked like the defensive slide today in practice. That's awesome. All right, Travis. I know you're busy. We're going to end off on some rapid-fire questions. Just really quick ones. Leg day or upper body day? Leg day. All right. Who's the strongest Dodgers player you've ever trained if you had to choose one? Strongest Dodger player? I don't know, man. I mean... Someone in like three or four? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Johnny DeLuca, Shohei. I don't know. Another guy that's pretty strong. I don't know. Those are good. If you named a couple, they probably would all come together and have like a lift-off to get like the Travis title. What is your go-to post-workout meal? My go-to post-workout? You know. Honestly, I don't have one. Yeah, yeah. Do you have like a favorite like rotation meals? Like chicken and rice? Actually, Tyrone Hall, our chef. He makes this chicken and waffles that's amazing. And it's like... It's not fried, but I don't know what it is. But it is crispy and soft on the insides. It's amazing. Yeah, we got to get that on the Dodger Stadium menu for one of the special games. All right. How much caffeine do you drink in a day? I drink three cups of coffee. Okay, okay. Black or do you mix anything? Black. Pour-overs. That's the new thing now. We have an X-Bloom that we've been using and it's been great. Has there been a Dodgers player that has surprised you with how strong they are? Dodgers player that surprised me? You know, not really, man. These guys are amazing athletes. Yeah, so not really someone that surprised me. Like I said, one of the stronger guys, Johnny DeLuca, doing the isometric strength test out the wall. He's legit. So I would say probably Johnny De. All right, last one for you. If you had to give advice to someone trying to be in your shoes, trying to be a trainer or a coach on a major league roster, what's that best piece of advice that you would give them? Really just be a send-me-out-go person. Understanding that whatever the org needs out of you, in that moment, just do your best to be great at it. A lot of people try to think about climbing the ladder or what's next, but really just focus on where your feet are and really work hard. I think that with hard work and being good at what you do, you're going to be seen and that's going to put you in the next level. Well, Travis Smith, there he is, Dodgers strength and conditioning coach. One of the most important pieces to the Dodgers that you see in the dugout, and if you want to get to know him more, we got to know him today. So Travis, thank you so much for your time. Dodgers Nation appreciates you. You're welcome. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.