Hardball Talk is reporting that the New York Mets have signed 37-year old Buddy Carlyle to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. The right-hander spent 2014 with the Mets where he had the finest season of his major league career. He had a record of 1-1 in 31 innings over 27 appearances and posted an ERA of 1.45.
The Cincinnati Reds selected Carlyle in the second round of the 1996 draft and he has pitched professionally for the past 19 seasons. Keeping up with Carlyle is no easy task as he has now pitched for eleven different franchises. Nine have been North American , but two stops saw him across seas in Japan.
Carlyle has been a little bit of everything throughout his career. He began his career as a starter for the Reds minor league system, and a pretty successful one at that. He flopped as a starter in the bigs when the Padres finally gave him a chance in 1999 and did even worse as a reliever in 2000. The Braves would give him another crack at starting in 2007, when he would make 20 starts. He was 8-7, but his 5.21 ERA was discouraging. He would be a reliever for the rest of his career at that point, making spot starts in a pinch. Until last season’s 1.45 ERA, Carlyle had never posted an ERA below 3.59 in his big league career.
The majority of Carlyle’s career has been spent in the minor leagues. He has spent only parts of 8 seasons in the majors. Carlyle has made 139 appearances in which he has pitched 284.1 innings in the big leagues.