Las Vegan Church retires

A day after starting for the 51s for the first time, Las Vegan Andrew Church retired from baseball on Monday.

Church was the Mets’ second-round pick in 2013. He had just reached Triple-a after starting the season at Double-a Binghamton.

“He signed out of high school. He told me he just didn’t have a passion for it,” pitching coach Glenn Abbott said. “And I told him, … ‘I admire you for making that decision. If you don’t have the fire, you’ll never get where you want to go.’ He’s got a wife and …. baby, and he just wants to get on with his life.”

Church, who lives in Summerlin with his wife and 5-month-old, Roman, spent a year at Bishop Gorman and two at Palo Verde and graduated from Basic.

He was 30-30 with a 4.73 ERA in parts of six minor league seasons in the Mets’ system. Sunday, he made his first start in front of family members at Cashman Field, where he attended games while growing up.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I got drafted,” he said Sunday of pitching at Cashman. “I’m glad it’s finally happened.”

Church said he hadn’t seen his young son since spring training.

“That’s the best thing that could have happened,” he said. “…. He’s grown tremendously since (spring training). Being able to wake up in the morning and hang out with him, just seeing (him), it’s amazing.”

Betsy Helfand