The most interesting guy who played first for the Mets in their full-season minor leagues in 2010? Nick Evans. Yeah, that’s a long way from being The Most Interesting Man in the World, but it’s a start. Evans beat up AA pitching at a .294/.366/.527 rate and kept going in AAA where hit hit .314/.385/.557. Along the way, he totalled 44 doubles and 23 home runs in 125 minor league games. He even hit a little bit in the big leagues this time through, going .306/.324/.472 in 36 AB. He’s always hit lefties much better than righties and could well be a cheap bench piece next year who could play a little first, left or third in a dire emergency.

And that’s the weird part of Evans’ whole season. The Mets did not prepare him for a utility role. He played 12 games at third in AA and four in AAA, and just two in the outfield. Early on, the idea was that playing Evans at the same position everyday would help him get comfortable. At some point, like when he was crushing the ball, he should have played more third and more left to put himself in a position to help the big league club.

– Toby Hyde, MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com.

One of the less-heralded baffling decisions among the many made by the last administration in Flushing was not letting Evans regularly play the outfield in the Minors this season, even though he reportedly requested time there. It will be interesting to see how the next front office handles the oft-forgotten Evans, who has nothing to prove in the Minors and no options remaining on his contract.

Since Evans mashes lefties — including in his small 121 at-bat Major League sample — and offers some defensive flexibility, it seems like a no-brainer to keep him around in the righty bench bat role once filled by Fernando Tatis.

Since left field and third base will be filled by right-handers and right field will likely be manned by a switch-hitter, there probably won’t be a ton of chances for Evans until someone gets hurt. As Duke suggested in the comments section yesterday, Evans could probably combine with Lucas Duda to create a reasonable-hitting corner outfield platoon, though that could be a bit frightening defensively.

That’s really all I have to say about Nick Evans, I guess. Slow day in Metsland. Basically, the dude is too good, too young, and too inexpensive to be passed through waivers, and it will be a pretty damning indictment of the next GM if he or she goes out and spends a couple million on a righty bench bat only to cast Evans aside.

How’s this for a suggestion? How about not spending anything, and keeping the roster mostly intact?

Let me clarify. While the Mets will surely not bring everybody back, with some trades and signings likely to happen, they should not invest much money into the 2011 roster….

By 2012, the Mets, with a year under a new GM and manager, will get an idea of the direction their franchise is heading. By then the Mets will have a concrete idea of where they should allocate their money.

– metfandan74, Mets360.

Let’s get this out of the way first: metfandan74, you f#@$ing shill! Obviously the Wilpons put you up to this, poisoning the minds of the fanbase into thinking saving their money this offseason is a good idea. CLIFF LEE OR BUST!

Sorry.

Seriously, though, I’m glad this came up at Mets360 first because I’ve been trying to come up with a reasonable way to suggest something similar here. We’ll have plenty of time to delve into this during the proper offseason and obviously the first concern is hiring a GM. But the Phillies will return basically their whole club save Jayson Werth in 2011, and its hard to imagine any reasonable series of moves that would guarantee the Mets could contend in the NL East next season without the full health and productivity of the guys already on the team and without seriously jeopardizing their future.

There will be plenty of minor moves and roster tweaks to improve the team that should help the Mets’ chances in 2011 so I don’t think they should sit idly by all winter. We know enough about baseball’s whims to understand that every once in a while, everything just sort of falls right for well-constructed teams and squads that look great on paper break down, so there’s no sense throwing in the towel on next season before it even starts.

But the Mets, with so many contracts coming off the books after next season, will not only be in a much better position to spend come next winter, they’ll also have a much stronger sense of where they need to allocate their resources. Will Johan Santana ever return to being anything like Johan Santana? Will Jason Bay hit home runs again? Are any or all of Josh Thole, Ruben Tejada, Daniel Murphy, Lucas Duda, Dillon Gee and Bobby Parnell viable Major League contributors?

As it currently stands, the Mets look set for 2011 at first base, third base and shortstop. Bay’s contract means he’ll be slated to return in left field, even if the nature of his injury murks things up a bit. Angel Pagan should be back. Carlos Beltran we’ve discussed.

Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey earned spots in the 2011 rotation with their performances in 2010, even if Niese faded down the stretch. The bullpen will need help, but when doesn’t a Major League bullpen need help?

Thole’s first 90 Major League games have been good enough to earn him the benefit of the doubt for 2011, but the Mets would be wise to sign a catching complement good and healthy enough to play regularly if Thole falters.

They will certainly need at least one middle infielder capable of starting at second base while the club determines if one of Tejada, Murphy, Reese Havens, Justin Turner and Josh Satin could eventually man the position in the bigs.

And they’ll need starting pitching, too — someone to eat innings and take strain off the bullpen and depth to ensure that the last rotation spots are earned, not pre-ordained.

But none of those acquisitions should require the type of imprudent, big-ticket expenditure that fans will inevitably begin clamoring for the day after the new GM is named.

It’s not about rebuilding or retooling or re-whatevering. Don’t worry about labels. It’s just about doing what’s best to create a sustainable winner as swiftly as possible. And the way to do that, as we’ve seen, is not always to try to win as swiftly as possible.