The 2020s have marked a golden era of Dodgers baseball with a chance to three-peat this season, record-breaking attendance and sponsorships, and a roster that has continued to get better after every World Series title won.
But LA has learned a lot about their organization in that time, and becoming the model franchise in baseball didn’t start with signing Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2023. This has been a process that dates back for more than a decade, and the Dodgers have identified personnel across their operation that have contributed so much behind the scenes in order to become the dynasty they are today.
One of those people is Dodgers Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Travis Smith.
If you don’t know Smith by name, odds are you’ve seen him in the Dodgers dugout after a big home run or on social media displaying a level of energy that shows what makes the sport so special. After Roki Sasaki’s Friday start vs the Angels, he immediately found Smith and spent some time going over what worked in his 10-strikeout performance.
The next day, I sat with Smith in that same dugout to learn a couple of things: What did his journey look like that landed him with the Dodgers? What has he seen from Roki Sasaki that has led to this recent success? And so much more.
Journey to the Dodgers
Smith is a few months into his 14th season on the Dodgers staff. He has experience working on multiple teams at all levels, starting off in Double-A, then Triple-A, then getting promotions to be both Major League assistant and Minor League coordinator and. Now, he’s been operating as LA’s head strength and conditioning coach.
“Being a young, Black male from the city of Chicago,” Smith explained, “being able to be here on a center stage like this is important for me and for other people to be able to see that you’re able to make it.”
Coming from a heavy football background, Smith understands the discipline and competitive nature that different athletes carry. He played college football for four years at Taylor University and acknowledged it allows him to resonate with the grind that comes with a full season for all the players.
He also had to make some big adjustments once he pivoted from a football player to a baseball trainer.
“I didn’t really play baseball growing up,” Travis said. “Being able to turn on the switch, really just understanding how to train the body and the physiology allowed me to be in the room and once I got here, the players were very open to teaching me the game.
“Understand what these guys go through on a daily basis. Injuries, how to come back from that and put you in a sense of being understanding of this person.”
When the opportunity to work for the Dodgers came across Smith, he had to put other career opportunities on hold.
After working in multiple internship programs at the Minor League level, he landed his first full-time position with LA’s Double-A affiliate after working with the Miami Marlins Triple-A team the year before, noting it was a seamless transition.
“I was an intern with the Marlins and at all levels, they had intern positions,” he said. “I was able to be in big league camp right away and from there, the guys were open arms. Our head guy at the time, Stephen Downey, allowed me to come over to big league camp and be there the whole time.”
Throughout Smith’s time working with the Dodgers minor league affiliates, he was invited to the team’s big league camps and spring training every year. This allowed him to get to get to know the team’s veteran players and stars and gain their trust.
Brandon McDaniel, Dodgers VP of player performance, eventually promoted Smith to be the Dodgers assistant strength coach and then a Minor League Coordinator. It turned into Smith being here for home games and on the road for Minor League games.
“From there, players started to voice their opinion like ‘Hey, we need Travis on the road.’ It worked out. This organization should have multiple guys, two or three people on the road, because we have such stars and they need specific attention.”
With Smith having started his journey with the Dodgers 14 seasons ago, he joined the team at a very monumental point in their history. It was right around the time that the Guggenheim Group bought the team and started laying out the blueprint for the powerhouse that we see today.
I mentioned this to Smith and asked him if there were any players in his early days that he connected with off the jump.
He highlighted both Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon.
“As strength and conditioning coaches, we’re with the guys in the morning, afternoon and the night,” Travis explained. “I’m just building out relationships with each and every player that I can, just being a sound board for them, whatever they have to talk about at home or anything.
“People ask the question, ‘Who’s your favorite player?’ Every player to me.”
Travis used to come to the stadium early to work out but now that he has kids, he built a gym at home and arrives to work around noon on home game days with a 7:10 p.m. start time.
From there, Travis’ day is filled with staff meetings to go over specific rehab and workout plans for players, executing lifts and stretches with guys at different times, and scheduled exercise routines leading up to first pitch.
“We have players that are healthy and active that we’re training and we’re also working with our rehab players… we just want to be there for them.”
Connection with Roki Sasaki
Smith has been by Roki Sasaki’s side since his first year with the Dodgers after coming over from Japan and has seen his growth in the weight room.
Sasaki is in the midst of his best stretch as a starter for LA, having posted a 1.48 ERA in his last four outings with his velocity hitting triple digits once again. In his latest start vs the Angels, he struck out 10 batters across seven shutout innings.
Coach Travis says what we’ve seen out of Sasaki’s last few starts is exactly what the organization believed he was going to be.
“We’ve been working together for quite some time, starting from the end of last year,” he explained. “Just being able to see all the work that he put in during rehab come into fruition like performing in the playoffs… he has work ethic, really just pushing him to be better every single day.
Sasaki has gained 10 pounds in strength since his rookie season and has his own nutritionist and chef guiding him as he continues to grow into his body.
Smith credits more of his impact on helping Sasaki lift consistently and pushing him in a healthy manner.
“Being able to add more load to his training has helped him put on more weight. He’s understanding that as he does that, he’s able to eat more. Taking what he did this offseason, putting it all together, coming in in better shape with more muscle.”
Viral social media moments
Coach Travis is no stranger to social media, as many new fans have met him through various platforms. Whether or not the cameras are rolling, he says he tries to be the biggest cheerleader for the players and pump them up throughout the day.
I compiled three videos of Smith that made their rounds online over the past three years that I believe capture what he means to the Dodgers organization.
The first one was an exchange that went down after Game 2 of the 2025 World Series when Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game en route to a 5-1 win for LA.
Smith and Sasaki among others were captured on BTS footage from SportsNetLA in the team facility bowing down to Yamamoto after his historic performance. Smith exclaimed “You need a wheelbarrow for your b***s!” to the eventual World Series MVP that made the clip go viral.
“That’s the football in me,” Travis said, “For Yama or anyone that comes up big, I want to let them know they’re the man.”
He was sent a text by the team asking if he was worried he was going to get in trouble for his quote, but Smith said he was just doing his job.
“I was like I don’t think so, I didn’t even know they were going to post that. I’m just trying to be the hype man.”
Next up, I showed Smith a reel of him warming up with Aaron Judge during the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Smith joined Team USA’s staff as the strength and conditioning coach and got to work with some of MLB’s biggest stars like Judge, Kyle Schwarber, Mason Miller and Will Smith. He was a part of an incredible ride that saw Team USA make the championship game.
Travis was hesitant to take the WBC opportunity because he would be away from the Dodgers but McDaniel urged him to do it.
“I had way more fun than I thought I would,” Smith said. “It was a little bit of affirmation for what we do here. Guys are coming in every single day and they’re the best of the best. Seeing them and how they work every day reminded me of my weight room.”
Coach Travis says some of the guys on Team USA were surprised that guys were coming in every day with a plan. He noted with a smile that this is how it is for top-level professionals, especially at Dodger Stadium.
My final clip for Smith was one from the 2024 season. Gavin Lux was in the dugout giving Smith and Shohei Ohtani a motion which led to Smith and Ohtani kicking off a long handshake that looked like a mix of the popular “Nae Nae” dance move and a basketball defensive slide.
Smith explained to me that every time the Dodgers get a new player, he tries to think about something that they’ve done or creative spins using their names for handshakes and celebrations.
“For Shohei, at that moment, he has a wife that played basketball. I don’t know if he plays basketball but just being silly.”
Finally, I asked Travis what’s the best piece of advice he’d give to someone with aspirations to become a trainer or coach on a Major League staff.
“Be a ‘send me, I go’ person. Understand that whatever the organization needs out of you in that moment, do your best to be great at it. A lot of people try to think about climbing the ladder or what’s next but 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.”
