There are two Mets in the Arizona organization, with diverging, lingering lore in Mets fandom. First is Oliver Perez. Perez joined the Mets in 2006 as part of the trade that brought Roberto Hernandez to the Mets and Xavier Nady to the Pirates. The Mets then signed Perez to a fairly massive contract. You probably remember, whether you want to or not, the contract being a failure and Perez was released. He then joined the Nationals organization (didn’t make it to the majors that year), had two successful seasons of relief pitching for the Mariners and had a solid year of relief with Diamondbacks. So he has now had a second career in the bullpen (often it is easy to forget that he had a really promising rookie year).
Next is Nick Evans. (Who? Hopefully you remember this joke.) Evans came up out of the Mets organization in 2008 back when the Mets had several players that seemed almost identical to Evans (Jacobs, Murphy). While Murphy was the only one that was successful long term, Evans had a few good seasons for the Mets. They just didn’t have a position for him and he didn’t have enough offense to push him in the conversation. After leaving the Mets in 2011, he signed with the Pirates, then the Dodgers, and finally the Diamondbacks, where he put up solid numbers 20+ AB’s in 2014.
This series of articles will take us across every organization in baseball and look for former Mets in the majors and minors to see how they are doing, leading up to a “Former Mets Team” to see how the current Mets stack up with pieces we have all over the place. I am still looking for Mets team members on the Pirates, Rangers, White Sox and Tigers. If you any, please let me know!
