Probably just a coincidence. Or maybe he has some work to do.
Kershaw - .751 OPS. That's 111 points higher than Russell Martin. 131 higher than Barnes.
Hyun-Jin Ryu (not including tonight) - .833. That's 253 points higher than Martin. 173 more than Barnes.
Walker Buehler - .693. 93 points higher than Barnes. Martin only has 3.0 innings.
Kenta Maeda - .678. That's 139 points higher than Martin. 78 points lower than Barnes though.
Ross Stripling - .801. Negligible sample size though. Still the highest.
Julio Urias - in only 12.0 innings, Will has seemingly worked well with Julio. Just a .527 OPS. It's .498 with Barnes & .805 with Martin.
Kenley Jansen has been bad with everyone but Martin.
Pedro Baez - .612. It's .485 with Barnes & .537 with Martin.
Yimi Garcia - .654. Just .441 with Barnes. Martin should NEVER catch Yimi again. .871 with 10 homeruns allowed.
Joe Kelly - .723. .665 with Martin & .832 with Barnes. Austin was catching Kelly more in the early part of the season, when Joe reeked.
Dylan Floro - .912. .480 with Barnes & .711 with Martin.
Caleb Ferguson - ..564. The best on the team. .724 for Martin. .865 for Barnes.
It's not too surprising a young catcher with minimal major league experience would have to get to know his pitchers & the opposing hitters better. Smith's bat is very valuable. I'm sure you'll work real hard on this aspect too.