Kevan Smith could only watch, confused, when he didn’t make the cut.
It was the end of August in 2015, and Smith, then a 27-year-old catcher for the Charlotte Knights—the Triple A affiliate of the White Sox—figured he’d be a major leaguer once the calendar flipped to September. A seventh-round draft pick in 2011, he was finishing his first tour of Triple A, and his August (.316/.371/.439) had been strong. A call-up on Sept. 1, when major league teams expanded their rosters to 40 players, and a long-awaited MLB debut felt certain.
Yet as Smith and his teammates stretched on the field in Durham, N.