Kirk Nieuwenhuis

[Michael Trzinski]

Three-sport star Kirk Nieuwenhuis made a recruiting trip to the University of Colorado and was standing on the sideline watching practice. Off to his side, a muscular 6-foot-2, 200-pound player dwarfed Nieuwenhuis, who was less than six-feet tall and was kind of slender. It turned out that the player was Mason Crosby, who went on to kick for the Green Bay Packers for 16 seasons. Years later, Nieuwenhuis said, "If this guy’s the kicker, what am I getting myself into?” Nieuwenhuis chose to play baseball instead.

Kirk Robert Nieuwenhuis played basketball, football, and baseball at Denver Christian School in Colorado. He attended Azuza Pacific University in California and played in the Alaska Baseball League, where he was named ABL Player of the Year in 2007. He was chosen by the New York Mets in the third round (100^th overall) of the 2008 MLB Amateur Draft.

Nieuwenhuis spent four seasons in the Mets organization before getting called up to the Mets in early April 2012. He batted .252/.315/.376 over 282 at-bats in 91 games but was sent down to make room for another player coming off the disabled list. After playing five games at Triple-A Buffalo, Nieuwenhuis was found to have a partially torn plantar fascia in his right foot, which ended his season.

The lefty-swinging outfielder, who had grown to 6-foot-3, 225-pounds, split time between Triple-A Las Vegas and the Mets the next two seasons, playing a total of 108 big league games in that time. In 2015, he played for both the Mets and the Los Angeles Angels before being selected off waivers by the Brewers in December 2015.

Nieuwenhuis and Keon Broxton split time in centerfield for Milwaukee in 2016, but Nieuwenhuis only batted .209/.324/.385 across 392 plate appearances. He set career bests with 125 games, 18 doubles, 13 home runs, eight steals, and 56 walks.

He began the 2017 season with Milwaukee but was sent down to Triple-A Colorado Springs after a slow start with Milwaukee where he batted .080/.233/.240 over 15 games. Nieuwenhuis was released after the season and was signed by the Seattle Mariners in early 2018 but played only at Triple-A Tacoma. He never made it back to the majors. Nieuwenhuis spent 2019 playing for Long Island in the independent Atlantic League.

In 2020, Nieuwenhuis became the hitting coordinator for his alma mater. Two seasons later, he was named head coach.

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