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One of the first things he said to me was, "Two years ago, I couldn't have imagined we'd be sitting here."

In fact, the first time I met Meek was about two years earlier and both 35 miles and eleventy bazillion miles away, depending on whether we're talking literally or figuratively.

Then 22, Meek had just signed with the San Diego Padres as a free agent. He hadn't just come in off the street but had taken a more circuitous route to where we sat on some faded grass in the blazing hot sun in the midst of a few practice fields at the Peoria Sports Complex.

In 2002, the Minnesota Twins drafted Meek in the 11th round out of high school in Washington. He had size, he had strength, he had great stuff.

The next summer, he was the ace of the Twins' staff at Short-Season Elizabethton in the Appalachian League, going 7-1 with a 2.47 ERA and striking out 47 batters in 51 innings while walking 24.

The following year, though, he faltered. His control just went out the window, seemingly inexplicably. He walked 15 batters in only 5 2/3 innings at Class A Quad City before returning to extended Spring Training, then walked 25 more in 22 innings at Elizabethton, where he posted an 8.06 ERA. In 2005, the Twins gave him another chance in the Midwest League, but he walked 36 more batters in 18 innings with a 10.00 ERA before he was finally released. In that span, he threw 23 wild pitches over 46 innings.

It wasn't even about his stuff at that point.

"I was overthinking," Meek recalled as we sat chatting in Peoria. "I'd be out there worrying about my arm slot or where my leg was or 'God, don't throw the ball over this guy's head.' I didn't know how to fix it, but I knew it was more mental than physical."

One thing Meek knew for sure when he got released was that he had to get away from the game for a little while to clear his head. He didn't go near a baseball for a month before he started tentatively tossing again. When fall rolled around, he began calling teams to see if he could get someone to come watch him.

One of those teams was the Padres, who sent their Washington-based scout at the time, Charley Kerfeld, to see Meek. Then-field coordinator Bill Bryk, meanwhile, called his old friend, Twins GM Terry Ryan, to get the scoop on the young right-hander.

"I knew he'd shoot straight," Bryk said. "He told us, 'This guy has a Major League arm, but he can't throw strikes.'"

After much consideration and several high-level pairs of player development eyes watching him, Meek was signed by San Diego as a project of sorts and got to work in Peoria. By the end of instructional league, his fastball was back up in the mid 90s and his control seemed to be improving.

The following spring, Meek was in the starting rotation at Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore of the California League, where he went 6-6 with a 4.98 ERA, walking 62 and striking out 113 in 119 1/3 innings.

At the end of August, though, he was traded to Tampa Bay for veteran slugger Russell Branyan.

"It was nice to hear I got traded for a big leaguer, but it was a shock at first," Meek recalled. "Going from getting comfortable with an organization, its staff and coaches, to going to an organization I knew nothing about and where I didn't know any of the players took some getting used to."

Meek finished up the 2006 season with two games out of the bullpen for the Rays' California League team in Visalia, a small taste of what would turn out to be his new role as a reliever.

The move made a lot of sense from all angles.

"With starters, you look for stuff but also for consistency and location, and not all of that was there with Evan," explained Tampa Bay farm director Mitch Lukevics. "We were thinking that if we put him in the bullpen, where he could show you that plus plus fastball in crucial situations, maybe it would jump-start him a little bit. Sometimes guys get into a different role with a different focus and come at hitters with their good stuff right out of the shoot."

The experiment worked, though not without a few unexpected derailments.

Making his Double-A debut with the defending Southern League-champion Montgomery Biscuits, Meek had allowed just one earned run in four games, a span of 6 1/3 innings, and had walked only two batters.

It was after that fourth outing, in which he struck out three over 1 1/3 perfect innings in Chattanooga, that he returned to the visitors' dugout, poured himself a cup of water and sat down on the bench to take a sip.

The next thing he knew, he was waking up on the dugout floor.

Meek had been hit in the head and knocked unconscious by an errant foul ball that skipped over the dugout railing. Taken to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a concussion and missed two weeks. Though he returned to the field soon after, it took a little while before he felt he was back in shape.

Over the next few months, Meek had his ups and downs, including a three-week stint on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. But he finished strong, perhaps the best month of his career to date.

Over his last 12 regular-season games, as the Biscuits charged to the second-half division title, Meek posted a 1.45 ERA in 18 2/3 innings, walking 10 while striking out 28.

"We all know the game is about performing consistently, and he did that," Lukevics said of Meek's final month. "His approach was better, he threw strikes and he was instrumental in Montgomery winning down the stretch."

Meek admits that pitching in relief took some getting used to, though more from a behavioral angle: adjusting his workout schedule, getting into the rhythm of throwing on a less-regimented schedule, being ready to come into a game on a moment's notice instead of four days' rest and anticipation.

But during some of the downtime, Meek had something of a pitching epiphany.

"I realized maybe I'd been thinking too much about things I didn't need to think about," he said. "I was finding out what kind of pitcher I was, and that last month when I figured it out, everything came together. The command was there, and I was throwing fewer pitches every inning."

And what kind of pitcher is he?

"I'm just a power guy," he said. "I'm going to go in there for one or two innings and just throw hard."

That strong August solidified the Rays' plans to send him to the Arizona Fall League to see if he could continue his progress. He passed that test with flying colors.

"It was nice to carry over here what I was doing, to bring that into the fall league facing some of the best hitters in the Minors, a lot of whom are going to be in the big leagues next year," Meek said. "I was honored to find out I was coming here. And over six weeks, it's really given me an idea of what I hope is to come. These hitters are very good, and doing so well here helped me out confidence-wise."

Meek was one of several AFL players who were on their big-league teams' 40-man roster bubbles.

The Rays, however, had one of the more crowded lists of eligible players and, with 39 players on their 40-man roster as of Tuesday afternoon, weren't able to make space for everyone who could be considered well-qualified.

While center fielder Fernando Perez and catcher John Jaso were considered locks, several others were frequently being mentioned as candidates, among them pitchers Nick Debarr, James Houser, outfielder Jason Pridie, infielder Chris Nowak and Meek.

Debarr, Nowak and Meek were among those who did not make the 40-man roster. They will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft, held on Dec. 6 at Winter Meetings in Nashville.

The fact that Meek is still on everyone's short list says so much about just how far he's come since we sat in that hot Peoria sun two years ago.

Lisa Winston is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

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