Dom Smith has gotten off to a rough start to the season for the New York Mets, and it seems the team has run out of patience with the 26-year-old. On Tuesday, the team made the difficult decision to send the slugger down to Triple-A, demoting him amid his early-season woes, according to Laura Albanese.

It's a bit of a surprising decision from the Mets, but certainly not one that's unwarranted. Smith failed to live up to the hype thus far into his career, and has failed to make an impact in his limited opportunity in 2022.

This season, Smith is slashing .186/.287/.256 with 0 home runs, 14 RBI, and 7 runs scored. Across 86 at-bats, Smith has struck out 24 times and drawn just 9 walks. His -0.2 WAR is another indication of how poorly he's performed, and with the Mets fixated on a World Series in 2022, they couldn't afford to have him on the roster much longer.

With Smith down in Triple-A, he'll get the opportunity to iron out the kinks in his swing and hopefully get back to his groove. If he proves himself in Syracuse, a return to the big leagues is definitely not out of the picture, but he's gotten some serious adjustments to make if he wants to be part of the Mets' run for a championship later on.

Last year, Smith featured in a career-high 145 games, registering 446 at-bats. He slashed .244/.304/.363 with 11 home runs and 58 RBI. It was a down year from Smith, who was one of the best players in the National League during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, during which he hit .316 across 50 games.