Vahe Gregorian: How 3-time World Series champion Will Smith became linchpin of Royals' offseason

Smith and Stratton had been teammates in San Francisco and again last year in Texas. And while Smith never before had met Lugo, at Picollo’s suggestion Smith (and Stratton) reached out to him to make the case.

When Lugo signed, the first to congratulate him was Wacha, with whom Lugo played in New York and San Diego.

“So I said, ‘You ought to come to Kansas City with me,’ ” Lugo recalled.

Next thing you know, Lugo said, “Wacha texted me he was on his way over.”

And on the ripples kept extending, including directly from Stratton to Renfroe, college teammates at Mississippi State.

All starting with Smith, whose signature on a one-year, $5 million contract came in December, shortly after the Royals left the winter meetings in Nashville disconsolate over their inability to bring to fruition the pivotal sorts of deals they’d sought.

So before he even got the chance to take on the on-field closing role projected for him, Smith helped close deals that figure to bolster everything around him as he seeks to demonstrate that he’s something more than just a good-luck charm.

It’s all a long way from his first stint with the Royals, with whom he made his first MLB appearance in 2012 (he got blasted for three home runs and five runs in 3 1/3 innings at Yankee Stadium).

That was just days before the release of Men In Black 3, featuring another Will Smith.

So The Kansas City Star that night suggested he might wish to have that memory wiped away by one of the “neuralyzers” used in the movies series.

But Smith is only too happy to remember the night, saying it was still a proud moment to share with his parents.

“That was one of the few times I got my (butt) kicked on a field,” he said, “and I really didn’t care.”

Still, he’d come to wonder, “Am I going to stay up here?” as he went 6-9 with a 5.32 ERA that season and transitioned a year later to the bullpen.

Then came the trade in 2013, he said, “just as you could see (the Royals) starting to turn in the right direction” and the young budding stars starting to “morph into the players they turned out to be.”

Now he sees the same sort of turn bubbling up in 2024.

And he is grateful to be part of the fresh high hopes this time around.

“Why not us?” he said. “We could surprise some people. We could do some stuff.”