The Mets announced Thursday that they’ve optioned right-hander Paul Sewald and left-hander Daniel Zamora to Triple-A Syracuse.
This will mark the final option year for the 29-year-old Sewald, who has been up and down between the Mets and their top minor league affiliate for much of the past three seasons. The 2012 tenth-round pick made 57 appearances and racked up 65 1/3 innings out of the ’pen in his debut effort back in 2017. His time in the big leagues since that time has been more sparse. He spent just 19 2/3 frames with the Mets this past season. To date, Sewald has posted a 5.16 ERA in 141 1/3 innings — an ugly number despite strong marks of 9.5 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9. Fielding-independent metrics are more bullish on him, in part because of his abnormally low strand rate (64.3 percent). Given Sewald’s prior MLB experience, he’ll likely be called upon again in 2020 as injuries arise.
Zamora, 26, has only pitched 17 2/3 innings in the Majors, but he’s managed 24 punchouts against six unintentional walks in that tiny sample (a 31.1 percent overall strikeout rate). A rare 40th-rounder who’s made it to the big leagues, Zamora has steadily posted quality ERA, strikeout and walk marks throughout his minor league tenure and should continue to receive opportunities to establish himself in the big league bullpen.
The Mets brought Brad Brach back for the 2020 season and also inked Dellin Betances, adding that pair of righties to the existing core of Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo, Jeurys Familia, Justin Wilson and Robert Gsellman. That limited the chances of either Sewald or Zamora earning Opening Day roster spots, although if the league does begin with expanded rosters this summer when teams ramp up (as has been rumored), it’s possible that either could again be considered for a bullpen spot.
I’m very proud of Paul Seward for securing his first career win in the major leagues last year. At last he has one! 1-14 doesn’t look so bad as 0-14…
Who cares
Paul Sewald.
Extremely fair point
Cut sewald!!! He stinks
A Seawald should be a measurement of homerun distance since all he did was give up bombs
and for the sake of their fans we hope the team never needs to call up either.
I like Seward he’ll be back- I guess Lockett will make the team as a reliever and starter insurance given that he’s out of options. This all obviously depends on if there’s a season.
He’ll be back?? Are you not a Mets fan? The guy turns 30 has a career era over 5 what else do you need to see. Giving him another chance is committing to not winning he’s a loser
Lockett is worse than Sewald by far
Lockett isn’t making the team and also stinks. Lockett is a starter who’s 25 and throws above 88 I’ll take his upside over the absolutely nothing sewald offers
Lockett wasn’t horrible. His bad start against the Cubs bloated his ERA
120 career games and 0 starts. 5.16 era and 1-14 don’t act like one game has changed the fact that he’s been awful
Sewald is SO much worse than Lockett. Zamora better than both. We need starter insurance. We also need Conforto in CF to get Davis much more playing time. If only we could unload Cano!
Bring back Bob Apodaca!!!!