Happy Birthday to Dwight Evans, one of the great Boston Red Soxs. In a career that lasted twenty seasons, he spent nineteen of them with the Red Sox and one with the Baltimore Orioles. Also, during his 20-year career, Evans established himself as one of the great all-around Right Fielders. 

Career Statistics/Accolades (1972-1991):

.272 BA 2,446 HITS 385 HR 1,384 RBI 1,470 RUNS .370 OBP

  • 3x All-Star
  • 8x Gold Glove
  • 2x Silver Slugger

As his career progressed, he improved offensively; his first big year was in 1981, his age-29 season. That year, in a shortened strike season, he finished 3rd in the AL MVP voting, leading the AL with 22 HR, a .415 OBP, and 85 Walks in 108 games. Four times in his career, Evans drove in 100 RBIs and scored 100 or more Runs. At the plate, he was very patient, leading the league in walks three times, recording 1,391 of them during his career. While he only batted over .300 once, Evans had nine seasons of OBP .360 or higher.

Defensively, Evans is one of the greatest defensive Right Fielders of all time; he had one of the strongest arms of almost any Outfielder during his time. Only Roberto Clemente and Ichiro Suzuki have won more Gold Gloves in Right Field than Evans. His 4,247 career Putouts are 3rd all-time among Right Fielders, and his 155 Assists are ranked 16th all-time among Right Fielders. His lifetime .987 Fielding Percentage throughout 17.736.2 Innings was multiple points above the average among players at his position during his career. 

Only Carl Yastrzemski has played in more games in a Red Sox uniform than Evans. Despite not finishing his playing career with the Red Sox, he was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame after his retirement in 2000. There is still a debate on whether Dwight Evans belongs in the Hall of Fame. I personally don’t think he’s a Hall of Famer, based on his offensive numbers not being good enough. However, I will say, if the criteria is you have to be as good as Harold Baines or Bill Maseroski to get into the Hall of Fame, he certainly blows those guys away.

References:

  1. Dwight Evans via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Evans_(baseball)#
  2. Dwight Evans Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/evansdw01.shtml