With the team in need of empty 40-man slots, all four looked to be on the roster bubble headed into the offseason.
It was reported earlier today that Andrew Brown and Juan Centeno were both claimed on waivers by other teams but that wasn't the end of the Mets 40-man roster purge. Adam Rubin tweeted that the club outrighted infielder Josh Satin, lefty relievers Dana Eveland and Scott Rice, and righty reliever Buddy Carlyle to Triple-A Las Vegas in order to remove them from the 40-man roster. In our roster preview from September, all four players appeared to be firmly on the bubble so it's not a shock that the team decided to drop all of them.
Satin has been in the Mets organization since they drafted him in the 6th round of the 2008 draft out of UC Berkeley and had success at the plate all the way up the minor league ladder but was unable to stick in the majors until 2013. That season, Satin hit .279/.376/.405 in 221 plate appearances as a bench player and platoon first baseman. He wasn't able to rekindle that success in 2014, however, as he went 3-28 at the plate before getting sent back to Las Vegas in favor of Eric Campbell in early May. Set to turn 30 in December, Satin is a .243/.346/.351 career hitter in nearly 300 MLB plate appearances.
Rice bounced around the minor leagues for 13 seasons before finally getting his first crack at the big leagues with the Mets in 2013 at the age of 31. He performed well enough as the team's lefty specialist thanks to his heavy sinker and lefties hit just .174/.244/223 in 138 plate appearances against him. The lefty struggled badly in his 13 innings of work in 2014 and not long after the Mets demoted him to Las Vegas, he underwent season-ending elbow surgery.
Eveland and Carlyle have both had long careers in professional baseball and despite struggles in the past, both performed admirably for the Mets in 2014 after the club brought them in on minor league contracts. The 31-year old Eveland managed a 2.63 ERA over 27.1 innings as the Mets second lefty behind Josh Edgin, while upping his strikeout rate to a career high level thanks to increased slider usage.
The 36-year old Carlyle had been out of the majors since 2011 but his performance was a pleasant surprise, as he threw 31 innings with a 1.45 ERA and solid peripherals as a long man out of the bullpen.