The Blue Jays have claimed veteran reliever Paul Sewald off waivers from the Diamondbacks, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Arizona had designated Sewald for assignment earlier in the week.
Sewald spent a season and a half with the D-backs in 2023-24 before a 2025 trip to the AL Central (Guardians, Tigers). He returned to Arizona on a one-year, $1.5MM deal after an injury-plagued ’25 campaign and started the year brilliantly. Through mid-June, he picked up 18 saves with a 3.18 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. By all accounts, the reunion looked to be a roaring success.
Under the hood, there were some areas for concern. Sewald was giving up significant amounts of hard contact and only kept 13.8% of his batted balls on the ground. A microscopic .131 average on balls in play kept the bases clean and helped to mitigate the damage of the home runs he allowed, but when that good fortune on batted balls dried up, the home runs became far more problematic. Sewald served up 17 earned runs — on the strength of seven homers — over his final 10 2/3 innings with the Snakes before being designated for assignment.
Sewald was outstanding in Seattle and Arizona from 2021-23. He pitched a combined 189 1/3 innings with a 2.89 ERA, 65 saves, 24 holds and plus strikeout and walk rates in that time. Injuries hobbled him in 2024-25, ballooning his ERA to 4.40 in a combined 59 1/3 innings. This year’s season has been a Jekyll & Hyde affair.
The Jays will assume the remainder of Sewald’s modest $1.5MM salary — about $377K as of this writing. They’ll plug him into a banged-up pitching staff that currently has nine pitchers on the injured list. Sewald won’t be asked to close down games with his new club, as that’s bullpen ace Louis Varland‘s territory. He’ll join veteran Tyler Rogers in a setup group that’s also gotten help from Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty since the deadline trade sending Jeff Hoffman to Minnesota.
