Kyle Hart got called into the manager’s office at Pawtucket on Tuesday, and the news wasn’t good — Major League Baseball planned to fine him for not wearing a mask.
Manager Billy McMillon and pitching coaches Shawn Haviland and Paul Abbott waited a beat alongside farm director Ben Crockett. Then they broke the real news.
“I was a little worried at first,” Hart said, “but then they told me, you can go pay your fine at Fenway Park tomorrow.”
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And so it is that Hart, a 19th-round selection in the 2016 draft, will make his debut on Thursday when he starts the finale of a four-game set with the Rays.
It’s the culmination of a journey that began in college at Indiana, where Hart spent five years, his career interrupted by Tommy John surgery. The 6-foot-5 lefty has never lit up radar guns or blown away scouts with his pure stuff, but he has gotten results at every stop along the way, posting a 3.13 ERA in 77 minor league appearances.
“My mindset going into tomorrow is the same as it has been my entire career,” Hart said. “Every year, I started a level lower than what I thought I should be at. I thought I should be in Greenville, they started me in extended. I thought I should be in Salem, they started me in Greenville, and so on and so forth. This year I thought maybe I had a chance of starting with the big league team and they put me at the alternate site.
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