​PHILADELPHIA — One day, long before they became anchors on the Cleveland Guardians’ pitching staff, Cade Smith and Gavin Williams were playing catch before a minor-league game. Smith was working on a new pitch and hoping his teammate could give him some feedback.“I just remember the first time he started throwing the splitter,” Williams said. “He was like, ‘I don’t know where it’s gonna go.’ And it was the grossest thing I’ve ever tried to catch.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I told the pitching coach I would never throw with him again if he was gonna throw the splitter because I could not catch it.”For a while, that splitter lagged behind Smith’s fastball as an intriguing but inconsistent secondary offering. Today, it’s one of the best offspeed pitches in the sport, the latest example of Smith leveling up in an unlikely career built on enormous developmental gains. Driven by intense commitment to maximizing his potential and unrivaled dedication to his preparation, the 27-year-old has vaulted out of obscurity to become an MLB All-Star.Williams, a starter, was a first-round draft pick, and he moved through the minors with the hype of a top prospect. Smith, a reliever, wasn’t drafted at all, signing with Cleveland in 2020 as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Hawaii following the shortened, five-round draft during the pandemic. That unusual entrance to pro ball made Smith something of a mystery early in his career. But it didn’t take long for his peers to recognize that the big right-hander from British Columbia had the ingredients to become something special.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Especially when I got into learning about the metrics, and it’s like, ‘Oh, Cade’s got 99th-percentile extension?’” Williams said of Smith’s ability to get far down the mound before releasing the ball. “And it’s like, how is he not a bigger name than what he is?”“It happens a lot in Cleveland, where it’s like, ‘I’ve never heard of this dude,’ and then he’s amazing,” said Guardians teammate David Fry, who first caught Smith in the Arizona Fall League in 2022. “And [Smith] was one of those guys.”That knack for uncovering hidden gems made Cleveland an appealing landing spot for Smith when he made the choice to leave college after three years and sign as an undrafted free agent. But that opportunity was only the first step along a daunting climb to the big leagues, and Smith did not take his chance lightly.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“When I left college and signed, I knew that I was dropping out of regular school to go to baseball school,” Smith said. “That was the mindset I entered in, knowing that Cleveland is renowned for pitching development — I have an opportunity to learn here. There was no part of me that was like, ‘My 88 to 92 [mph] with no offspeed pitches is gonna be good enough.’ So I knew that things had to change.”Smith had the talent to