Nick Evans: Late 2000's Mets Utility Player (2008 - 2011)

Nicholas Reginald Evans was born January 30, 1986 in Glendale, Arizona. The six foot two, right-handed hitter was drafted out of high school in Phoenix, by the New York Mets in the 5th round of the 2004 draft.

Evans was primarily a first baseman in the Mets organization, in 2007 he batted .286 with 15 HRs at A ball St. Lucie. In 2008 he was at AA Binghamton when he was brought up to the Mets in May to replace an injured Marlon Anderson.

Mets Career: Evans debut on May 24th in a 9-2 Mets win at Colorado. In his first MLB at bat, he doubled off Colorado’s Jeff Francis. Evans then hit two more doubles in the same game. He became the first Met since Kaz Matsui in 2004 to have three extra base hits in his MLB debut. 

Evans got to play regularly for one week, but after his hot start he was batting just .174 when he was sent back down to AA Binghamton. There he would bat .311 with 14 HRs & 53 RBIs on the year. 

During the summer he was back with the Mets when Ryan Church got injured. On August 7th he drove in two runs in a 5-3 win over the Padres highlighted by David Wright's two run walk off HR. On August 31st he hit his first career HR coming off the Marlins Chris Olsen in a 6-2 Mets win in Florida. 

He had his second multi-RBI game on September 3rd in a 9-2 win at Milwaukee. At the end of that day the Mets had a three game lead in first place. They would fall out of first on September 16th & miss out of making the post season on the last day of the season at the last game ever played at Shea Stadium.

 In 50 games at the big-league level, Evans hit .257 with two HRs ten doubles, nine RBIs with a .706 OPS. 

2009: By now Evans had become a highly touted prospect. He was a first baseman by trade, but his Mets future would soon be in jeopardy with the emergence of Ike Davis. 

Another issue for Evans, was that he did not hit for power. The team was hoping he could be more of a gap hitter, especially in the new vast dimensions of Citi Field where he had little chance to hitting HRs. 

In 2009 Evans began the year at AAA Buffalo but struggled & got sent down to AA Binghamton. But he did well batting .276 & by the end of June he was back with the Mets.

On June 24th, in his second game back, Evans hit a two run HR off the Cardinals Brad Thompson at Citi Field in the Mets 11-0 win. The next day he hit a two run double off Chris Carpenter in the Mets 3-2 win over St. Louis. 

On June 19th he was sent back to AAA Buffalo then returned on August 25 for the remainer of the Mets 70-92 season. On the year he hit .231 with one HR five doubles & seven RBIs in 30 games (15-65).

2010: Evans started the season at AAA Buffalo & AA Binghamton where he hit .300 with 20 HRs 44 doubles & 80 RBIs. That earned him a call up in July for two games then a return in September. 

On September 8th, Evans came to bat as a pinch hitter for Lucas Duda with Josh Tole on first in a 2-2 tied game with the Nationals. Evans drove a double off Sean Burnett bringing in Thole with what was the game winning run.

Walk Off Hit: On September 19th, Evans came to bat as a pinch hitter in the bottom f the 10th inning of a scoreless game with Ruben Tejada on second base. Evans came through with an RBI single off Pittsburgh's Chan Ho Park beat the Pirates for an exciting 1-0 walk off win. 

In 20 games with the fourth place Mets, Evans hit .306 with one HR, three doubles & five RBIs in 36 at bats.

2011: Evans continued to hit at the minor league level batting .313 with 13 doubles 8 HRs & 32 RBIs at AAA Buffalo. 

Evans was brought up to the Mets in May after David Wright went on the DL. It took him ten games to get his first hit although he drew five walks in that time. 

On July 8th he collected his first hit of the year & drove in his first run in a 5-2 Mets win. Two games later he homered off Jeremy Affeldt in a Mets loss at San Francisco.

On June 8th he was sent down to make room for Lucas Duda but returned to the club a month later. Soon Ike Davis went down for the season with injury & Evans saw more playing time.

In early September he hit HRs in back-to-back games in D.C. in a split with the Nationals. 

Multi RBI Game: On September 6th in Florida, Evans had a multi-RBI game, with three hits driving in three runs in a 7-4 win over the Marlins. He drove in eight runs the rest of the way but hit just .214 in the final 21 games.

In 59 games, Evans drove in 14 runs batting .256 with 4 HRs 10 doubles 26 runs scored & 25 RBIs. At first base he posted a .993 fielding % making just three errors.

The Mets decided to part ways with Evans as he was let go to free agency in November. 

Post Mets Career: He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates playing just 21 games in their minor leagues in 2012. He was granted free agency getting signed & then released by the L.A. Dodgers. 

In Spring Training, Evans signed with the Arizona D-backs & played 133 games for AA Mobile batting .267 with 19 HRs & 81 RBIs. 

In 2014 he made his final MLB appearances, playing 18 games for the D-backs from May through July. On June 3rd he hit a HR at Colorado. 

On July 26th, he hit a 10th inning three run pinch hit HR at Philadelphia helping in a 10-6 Arizona win.

In 2015 Evans played at AAA Reno batting .310 in 139 games. He was released by Arizona & signed with the San Diego Padres but soon ended his MLB career.

Career Stats: In a five-year MLB career, Evans batted .257 with 30 doubles 3 triples 10 HRs 56 runs scored & 53 RBIs. He struck out 112times walked 28 times posting a .305 on base % & .725 OPS in 177 games.

Retirement: In 2014 Evans played in the Nippon Professional Baseball league & i 2015 the Korean Baseball Organization.