From Concrete Jungle To South Beach: Miami Hurricanes Newest Pitcher Rob Evans
1285 miles is the distance between New York and Miami by car. To be more specific, 18 hours and 54 minutes is how long the trip would take without stopping down I-95N. Pitcher Robert Evans didn't make that drive, but a flight led him to Coral Gables with the plan to be a starter for the Miami Hurricanes for the upcoming baseball season.
Thanks to the 2024 MLB Draft, the Hurricanes lost the three best arms on their roster: Rafe Schlesinger, Gage Ziehl, and Brian Walters. Evans entered the transfer portal after a successful year pitching at Georgia State and knows this is a great opportunity. Moreover, he understands that competition will be stiff especially with four other arms from the portal joining him.
Living and growing up in a section of concrete jungle* in Harlem, New York, competition is all he knew. This challenge only adds to his competitive edge and drive to earn a starting slot.
*Concrete jungle: a modern city or urban area filled with large buildings and regarded especially as a harshly competitive, unwelcoming, or dangerous place - Merriam Webster Dictionary
Growing up in the projects of New York is not the easiest thing to do. Evans did with his family of eight.
Family is the most important thing in Evans's life next to God and baseball. He has built an everlasting bond with them and some of his fondest memories with them come from playing baseball on a concrete field near his home. That field also helped nurture and grow his love of the true American sport.
Naturally, playing baseball on concrete will lead to scars and bruises, but Evans never minded that he was on concrete. It only made him a tougher player who thrived in the setting.
"I always got scarred up. I run around, fall, clumsy. Sometimes I'd slide just cause. I didn't really give a dang," Evans said. "My dad would be like 'What's wrong with you'. I was just happy to be out there."
Evans explained that while baseball was a popular sport in New York, it wasn't funded publicly so access to quality fields would be limited or too far away for him and his family to travel to.
That also built a lot of toughness within him. Evans has played on every quality field, but the concrete field allowed him to be free.
"It prepares you for a lot. I've played on so many bad terrains but that concrete field had painted lines that were fading, and you just run around being free doing God knows what on the field. It had a street right behind it, and it was amazing, " Evans said.
After winning many Concrete World Series, he naturally started playing for his high school team and travel ball during his early teenage years. During that time, he was beginning to get noticed by recruits and scouts from MLB. Coming out of New York, he was a top-five recruit and one of the top pitchers in his class. However, he didn't finish his high school career in NY. He spent his junior and senior years playing in South Carolina. That is when NC State took notice and offered him a scholarship.
It was a dream come true, especially knowing all the sacrifices that his family had to make to get him to the position that he was in. Evans committed and was a month away from being a Wolfpack before deciding that another route was best for him. He committed to play for Chipola College in Florida where he spent a year maturing as a person and player.
He knew his junior college experience was a one-year deal, but this was the beginning of his route to becoming a Hurricane. While in JUCO was drafted in the lower rounds of the MLB draft. He received official offers from the Chicago Cubs and the Seattle Mariners but knew that there was more for him to do.
"I thought that coming out of high school I could definitely get drafted out of JUCO. The offer was presented to me, but just not what I wanted," Evans said. "It wasn't a problem. Me, my agent, mom, and dad we all prepared for it. I wanted to play professional baseball as quick as possible, but now that I look back at it, I'm glad that I've taken in these two extra years of college. I feel like it's going to prepare me to be a good professional, not just a professional."
That led him to play his only season for Georgia State. Evans started the season on fire but suffered an injury undisclosed by many within the facility. He suffered an elbow fracture, but he played through it until a breaking ball cut his season short. Tears streamed from his eyes in the dugout after the realization, but he never regretted playing through his injury and fighting through the pain.
During this time, he remembered the challenges and fights his mom went through when she found out she was sick. His friendship and love for his mom are why he is the man he is today and why he continued playing through the injury.
"I just love to fight. I always believed in myself, I've always betted on myself," Evans said. "Over these past few years, I've had to battle and dig deep. It really stems from my mom. She battled breast cancer for three and a half four years, probably five honestly. Fully healthy now and that lady fought more than anybody."
Evans continued.
"She's done so much for me and my family. Raising six kids with my dad, but you could really say my mom is the full mom. She's a super mom. She does everything. Even when she was sick, she traveled with me to fields and baseball games. I took that and I always wear it on my shoulder because people don't really understand that, but it's one of those things that just keeps you internally motivated. If my mom was able to fight through breast cancer, who says I can't fight through a little elbow pain," Evans said.
Playing through it led him to get this opportunity with the Canes. The left-handed pitcher had a clean and simple surgery during the off-season and is fully healthy. He has high expectations for himself and that belief in betting on himself will carry through to having the best season of his career.
"My expectation is to be a top [1-5] round draft pick. There are no ifs, ands, or buts around it. I'm going to work and do what I have to do. I'm going to make sure on the field and off the field, I'm doing what I can. I'm going to be a leader as much as I can be," Evans said. "I just want to be the best Rob Evans as possible. I feel like the past two years of my life, have been a good Rob Evans, but I'm not at my peak yet. I think this year is the peak year and I will not stop until I get to it."
Evans knows this is the biggest year of his life, and he won't let the chance for him or the Hurricanes to not perform at a high level slip by.
"At the end of the day, this is the biggest year of my life. It's not only a big year for me but also for the program. After a year where the team didn't succeed, and we got a lot of guys coming in, it's a prove-it year and I want to be a part of the guys that prove it and get to say Omaha." Evans said.
