Reliever who gave Guardians nothing in 2025 released by Diamondbacks after attempted reclamation project

The top of this year’s saves leaderboard features plenty of names familiar to baseball fans. While unheralded Rays reliever Bryan Baker is at the top of the list, Mason Miller and Cade Smith are tied for the second-most (30), followed quickly by Aroldis Chapman (27) and Jhoan Duran (25). 

But not far behind them is Arizona reliever Paul Sewald, whose 24 saves is tied for the eighth-most in baseball. 

Sewald being that high up the leaderboard is a bit surprising considering he was an abject disaster for the Guardians last season, and honestly hasn’t been very good this season. 

Even if he’s racked up a ton of saves this season (and is likely going to lead the 2026 Diamondbacks in saves), his tenure with Arizona came to an end yesterday after the team designated him for assignment to make room for new pitcher Zack Littell. 

Paul Sewald's struggles became too much for the Diamondbacks to ignore

That DFA shouldn’t come as a surprise to Guardians fans given how bad Sewald was with Cleveland last season. 

The Guardians signed him to a $7 million before the 2025 season in the hopes he could slide into this setup equation, but he ended up tossing just 15 1/3 innings with Cleveland due to a variety of injuries. 

Cleveland’s front office cut bait with him at the trade deadline by dealing him to the Tigers at the deadline in exchange for cash considerations, and he barely pitched with the Detroit due to more injury troubles. 

Even with that disastrous showing, he was able to get a one-year, $1.5 million contract with Arizona in the offseason, which made some sense given he was the Diamondbacks' closer in 2023 when they made it to the World Series. 

It initially looked like Arizona had struck gold with Sewald’s signing when he posted a 3.08 ERA with 17 saves through his first 29 appearances, but he’s posted a 12.79 ERA in 16 appearances since. 

The lowlight of that span came on July 28 when he blew a save against the Pirates, which led to manager Torey Lovullo removing Sewald from the closer role. He then allowed five runs without recording an out in his next appearance against the Guardians.

Although Sewald walked just 5.5% of the batters he faced, he was in the bottom percentile in barrel rate and ground ball rate, which is never going to be a recipe for success for a pitcher. 

His command may still have been excellent, but that doesn’t matter as much when batters are hitting the ball hard and in the air. 

Even if Sewald’s tenure with the Diamondbacks wasn’t as disastrous as his time with the Guardians, his DFA this late in the season is still a rough outcome for a Diamondbacks team that’s right in the thick of the Wild Card race. 

All the more reason to appreciate how dominant Smith has been at the back of the Guardians’ bullpen.

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