Diamondbacks make ‘brutal decision’ to designate Paul Sewald for assignment

The Arizona Diamondbacks decided to designate relief pitcher Paul Sewald for assignment on Monday after he was removed from the closer role.

Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro first reported the news.

Sewald meant a lot to the Diamondbacks as the closer for most of this season and a clubhouse leader, but he was not performing well enough to hold onto a leverage role.

He faced five hitters in low leverage on Aug. 1 in Cleveland, and all five Guardians recorded hits and eventually scored. That came on the heels of his blown save in Pittsburgh on July 28, when he allowed three runs and recorded one out.

That felt like the final straw, although the veteran had a couple more solid outings in him. The reliever threw 1.1 scoreless innings of lower-leverage relief on Aug. 4 and 5 against the San Diego Padres to close this chapter.

His ERA was 3.18 on June 19, and it has since elevated to 6.23. He has allowed 17 earned runs and seven home runs over his last 10.2 innings of work. The Diamondbacks pivoted to a closer-by-committee formula, and Brandyn Garcia and Kevin Ginkel have received save opportunities since.

“It was a brutal decision,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “He’s meant so much to this organization. … He’s just such a great competitor and was having so much success. And on top of that, he’s a friend of all of us. He’s just a good person.

“To say goodbye to him was not easy. It was agonizing. However, the reasons that were stated in my office yesterday were things such as the role that you’re currently in is not going to be an area of your strength. It’s not something that you’ve done a lot. You’re usually a very back-end guy. We’re going in another direction.”

It is an unceremonious end to Sewald’s second stint with the club. The D-backs signed bulk innings eater Zack Littell to replace him in the bullpen.

Still, his impact on this season has been pronounced.

Even with the struggles over the past month, he is 24-for-27 in save situations, and he had one blown save until July 18. He is still tied for eighth in MLB in saves.

The veteran is the first Diamondbacks closer with 20 saves in a season since Brad Boxberger (32) in 2018, and Sewald did that before August.

Sewald signed back with the Diamondbacks during spring training to help fill a bullpen role with A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez working back from elbow surgeries, and for most of the year it was going better than expected. He allowed the other bullpen pieces to fall into place, and the unit as a whole has been a strength of the team.

Sewald has also been a positive clubhouse presence and leader, not to mention he restarted his Sewald’s Strikeouts 4 Kids initiative to benefit Child Crisis Arizona as he did in his first stint with the club. Sewald pitched in Arizona from the 2023 trade deadline through the 2024 season, helping the D-backs reach their first World Series since 2001 before falling out of favor the following July.

So while he no longer worked out as the Diamondbacks closer or a reliable reliever in a pennant chase, Sewald is part of the story of the 2026 D-backs by helping them get to this point.

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