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Diamondbacks Avoid Arbitration With Christian Walker, Paul Sewald

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The Diamondbacks and first baseman Christian Walker have agreed to a deal to avoid arbitration, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The CAA Sports client will make a salary of $10.9MM in 2024. Right-hander Paul Sewald, a client of ISE Baseball, has also settled and will make $7.35MM this year.

Walker, 33 in March, has settled in nicely as an above-average first baseman for the Snakes. He hit 33 home runs last year and had solid walk and strikeout rates of 9.4% and 19.2%, respectively. His .258/.333/.497  batting line translated to a wRC+ of 120, indicating he was 20% above league average. His defense was also highly regarded, leading to 12 Outs Above Average, nine Defensive Runs Saved and a grade of 3.5 from Ultimate Zone Rating.

All of those numbers were quite close to his 2022 season, when he hit 36 homers, walked at a 10.3% clip and struck out in 19.6% of his plate appearances. He had a batting line of .242/.327/.477, 123 wRC+, 14 OAA, 17 DRS and 5.4 UZR.

This is his third trip through arbitration, as he made $2.6MM in 2022 and $6.5MM last year. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a raise to $12.7MM in 2024, but he’ll come in almost $2MM below that. It’s his final season of club control before he’s slated for free agency.

Sewald, 34 in May, is also in his final season before hitting the open market. A late bloomer, he established himself as an excellent reliever in a breakout season with the Mariners in 2021, posting a 3.06 earned run average. He carried that over into 2022 and lowered his ERA to 2.67, racking up 20 saves in the process.

He continued to serve as Seattle’s closer until a deadline trade that sent Josh Rojas, Dominic Canzone and Ryan Bliss to the Mariners. Sewald continued to pitch well and stabilized the bullpen in the desert, helping the club push all the way to the World Series. He finished the year with a 3.12 ERA and 34 saves, plus six more saves in the playoffs. He made $1.735MM in 2022, his first arbitration season, then $4.1MM last year. He was projected for a raise to $7.3MM this year but will barely edge past that.

NL West Notes: Conforto, Manaea, Sewald, Dodgers

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Michael Conforto and Sean Manaea can each opt out of the final year of their contracts with the Giants, with Conforto owed $18MM in 2024 and Manaea $12.5MM.  Neither player has yet decided whether or not they’ll opt out, with Conforto telling NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic that “I think the good thing is it’ll be a hard decision, but I don’t think there’s a bad outcome really.  It will be tough, just because I’m very close with these guys and the uncertainty there could give you a little bit of anxiety, but again, there are a lot of conversations that have to happen before I’m even close to knowing what I want to do.”

Conforto hit .239/.334/.384 over 470 plate appearances in a season shortened by a hamstring injury, while Manaea posted a 4.44 ERA over 117 2/3 innings while working as a starter, long reliever, and bulk pitcher behind an opener.  Manaea might be the likelier of the two to find a larger deal on the open market, as Pavlovic notes that a multi-year agreement could be possible since teams are forever in need of pitching.  Conforto could remain with the Giants and hope for a better platform year before re-entering the market next winter, though he’d be rejoining an outfield/DH picture that already looks crowded, and the Giants might still be making more moves to the outfield to add both athleticism and hitting pop.

Here’s more from around the NL West…

  • The Diamondbacks’ acquisition of Paul Sewald has proven to be one of the trade deadline’s most impactful moves, as The Arizona Republic’s Theo Mackie writes that the Snakes’ once-unsteady bullpen has turned into a strength.  From August 19 until the end of the regular season, Arizona relievers combined for a 2.94 ERA, with Sewald himself delivering a 2.84 ERA over 12 2/3 innings in that stretch, closing out nine of 10 save chances.  As noted by Mackie and D’Backs GM Mike Hazen, establishing Sewald as the closer allowed the team to stick to a pretty set formula for their bullpen usage, and this routine has helped the Diamondbacks both reach the playoffs and advance to the NLCS.
  • The Dodgers’ roster is broken down by J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group, with an eye towards whether or not several players could be back in Los Angeles in 2024.  Among the free agents, Hoornstra likes the chances of a reunion with Enrique Hernandez, as the utilityman’s multi-positional ability could help add depth if a DH-only player (i.e. Shohei Ohtani) were to join the roster.  On the other hand, David Peralta is basically limited to just left field and only against right-handed pitching, so it seems like L.A. might prefer internal options.  There also seems to be a chance the Dodgers will re-sign Jason Heyward, which could make Peralta further “redundant” since Heyward is also a left-handed hitter and a more versatile outfielder.

D-Backs Acquire Paul Sewald

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The Diamondbacks have added a key arm to the bullpen. Arizona and Seattle announced a trade sending Paul Sewald to the Snakes for infielder Josh Rojas, rookie outfielder Dominic Canzone and infield prospect Ryan Bliss.

Sewald was one of the top bullpen arms available. The right-hander has broken out as one of the game’s best relievers since landing in Seattle two and a half years ago. A minor league signee over the 2020-21 offseason, Sewald cracked the Seattle roster by May ’21. He had an excellent run in the Pacific Northwest, pitching to a 2.88 ERA over 171 2/3 innings. He kept his ERA at 3.06 or better in all three seasons.

He has paired that run prevention with very strong swing-and-miss numbers. Sewald punched out just under 35% of opposing hitters with Seattle. That includes a 35.5% strikeout percentage with a 2.93 ERA over 43 innings this year. His fastball only sits in the 92-93 MPH range but has well above-average spin despite a lower arm angle. That movement profile has translated into big whiff tallies. Sewald has gotten swinging strikes on over 14% of his offerings in each of the past three seasons.

Among 176 relievers (minimum 30 innings), Sewald ranks 10th in strikeout rate and 39th in whiffs. His 8.3% walk rate is acceptable and he has dominated hitters from both sides of the plate. Sewald is a fly-ball pitcher who has given up some homers in past seasons, but this year’s 1.05 HR/9 rate is almost exactly league average for a reliever. That well-rounded, consistent production quickly pushed him up a strong bullpen hierarchy. He has worked as the M’s primary closer this season, collecting 21 saves in 24 attempts.

Arizona has searched for that kind of reliability late in games for a while. The Snakes had one of the league’s worst bullpens in 2021-22. It hasn’t been quite so disastrous this season, thanks in part to free agent additions of Andrew Chafin, Miguel Castro and Scott McGough that have all worked out reasonably well. The D-Backs didn’t have anyone of Sewald’s caliber to lock things down, though. Kevin Ginkel and Drey Jameson (the latter of whom is out for a while with an elbow injury) are the only Arizona relievers with a sub-3.00 ERA. Left-handers Chafin and Kyle Nelson are the only pitchers with a strikeout rate above 30%.

Bolstering the pitching depth has been a priority for an Arizona club that has dropped eight of its last 10 to hold a 56-50 record. The D-Backs have fallen out of the projected playoff picture after leading the NL West for a good chunk of the season. They’re only a game out of the final Wild Card spot, though. Sewald will presumably step into the ninth inning for skipper Torey Lovullo. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Arizona could look for another bullpen addition and is unsurprisingly still searching for rotation help over the next 24 hours.

Seattle’s position in that standings isn’t that dissimilar from Arizona’s. The Mariners are 54-51 and 4.5 games out in the AL Wild Card picture. They’re certainly not buried, though president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto acknowledged two weeks ago the club hasn’t played well enough to be aggressive deadline buyers. They’re reportedly open to offers on the likes of Teoscar Hernández and Ty France and have given some consideration to dealing from their stock of talented young starting pitching.

The primary purpose in all those talks is to subtract from an area of surplus to add controllable offensive help. The bullpen certainly qualifies as a strength. Seattle relievers are fourth in ERA and trailing only Houston in strikeout rate. Sewald was a big part of that success, of course, but the likes of Andrés Muñoz and Matt Brash are thriving in high-leverage capacities. Muñoz seems likely to take over the ninth inning with Sewald headed out.

In exchange, Seattle nets the kind of upper level hitting talent they’d been seeking. There’s perhaps no clear “headliner” of the deal, but all three players could factor into the mix in relatively short order. Rojas and Canzone have big league experience, while Bliss had recently worked his way to Triple-A.

Rojas, 29, is the most well-known of the trio. Originally acquired in the Zack Greinke 2019 deadline blockbuster with Houston, Rojas developed into a productive bat-first utility option. The left-handed hitter combined for a .266/.345/.401 batting line in over 1000 plate appearances between 2021-22. He’d never rated especially highly as a defender at any stop but had enough flexibility to move throughout the infield and into the outfield corners.

While not a franchise building block, Rojas looked like a quality role player. However, he has had a difficult 2023 campaign that pushed him into more a depth capacity of late. Rojas has hit only .228/.292/.296 over 216 trips to the plate and remains without a home run on the season. A walk rate that had sat north of 10% is down to 8.3%, while his strikeouts are up a few points to 23.6%. The D-Backs optioned him last month; he spent the bulk of his Triple-A time on the minor league injured list before returning to the majors when Evan Longoria went on the IL over the weekend.

Rojas has primarily played third base in Arizona but has a clearer path to playing time at the keystone in Seattle. Kolten Wong’s struggles have left the M’s with very little out of second base this season. Righty-swinging José Caballero has had a fine debut campaign but is nearly 27 and was never a top prospect. Rojas adds a left-handed complement to Caballero and Dylan Moore and could occasionally see some reps behind Eugenio Suárez at third base.

It’s a buy-low flier for Seattle that also helps to balance the trade financially. Sewald is making $4.1MM this season, his second-to-last year of arbitration. Around $1.37MM remains to be paid out. Rojas is playing on a $2.6MM arbitration salary, his first of four arb years as a Super Two player. He’s still owed around $867K through season’s end. Arizona will take on roughly $500K in salary, thereby preserving a decent amount of financial flexibility for further deadline pickups.

Rojas could be a non-tender candidate after the season, though he’ll get a couple months to try to secure his roster spot at T-Mobile Park. He could be joined immediately by Canzone, a left-handed hitting outfielder nearing his 26th birthday. He has struggled over his first 41 big league plate appearances but has had a monster year in Triple-A. Canzone mashed at a .354/.431/.634 clip with 16 homers through 304 trips to the dish in Reno, making him one of the top hitters even in a favorable offensive environment.

Canzone is limited to the outfield corners but clearly an accomplished minor league hitter. He could factor into the short-term left field mix. Jarred Kelenic is out into September after breaking his foot, while AJ Pollock is on his way to San Francisco. Canzone still has all three minor league option years remaining.

Bliss is not yet on the 40-man roster. A 2021 second-round pick of Auburn, he’s a right-handed hitting second baseman. Bliss struggled in his first full professional season but had a monster .358/.414/.594 showing in Double-A this year. That earned him a spot in the Futures Game and a recent bump to the top minor league level. Baseball America had ranked him the #16 prospect in a strong Arizona farm system, crediting the 5’9″ infielder with a hit-over-power approach and quality range as a defender.

Arizona gets a year and a half of control over the impact late-game arm they’ve been seeking for some time. Seattle is clearly open to reshuffling some veteran talent on the roster but is following through on their stated goal of adding upper level hitting. The M’s aren’t completely throwing in the towel on 2023 while adding more controllable talent.

Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic first reported the D-Backs were making progress on a Sewald trade. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the deal as being finalized, while Piecoro first had the return of Rojas, Canzone and Bliss.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Mariners Willing To Listen To Trade Offers On Ty France, Teoscar Hernández

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The Mariners are listening to offers on certain players on their roster, with Bob Nightengale of USA Today listing Ty France, Teoscar Hernández and Paul Sewald among those being discussed. Their openness on Sewald was reported last week.

The fact that the Mariners are listening to offers isn’t necessarily a shock, as most front offices these days take the approach that no one on the roster is untouchable and it’s worth hearing out all offers as a way to gauge the market. But the Mariners are in a position where dealing major league players might not be an outlandish thought.

Their 54-51 record is solid, but has them in fourth place in a strong American League West. The teams above them in the division have already been some of the most aggressive this week, with the Rangers recently acquiring Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery and Chris Stratton while the Angels grabbed Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk. The Astros haven’t been quite so bold but did get Kendall Graveman from the White Sox, in addition to welcoming Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez back from the injured list.

The Mariners aren’t totally buried, currently sitting 5.5 games back in the division and 4.5 in the Wild Card race. FanGraphs still gives them a 16.9% chance of making the playoffs while Baseball Prospectus puts them at 15.2%. But since their position isn’t strong enough to be firm buyers, they might have to at least consider some selling, something that president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently admitted.

Listening on Hernández is understandable, as he’s an impending free agent. This summer’s market is generally considered to be light on impact bats, which could lead to the M’s receiving notable offers that help them in the future. But they would have to weigh those offers against hurting their chances here in 2023.

Acquired from the Blue Jays in the offseason, Hernández isn’t having his best season. His .238/.288/.408 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 93, or seven percent below league average. But he hit .283/.333/.519 with the Jays from 2020 to 2022 for a 132 wRC+. The M’s were undoubtedly hoping for something more when they gave up Erik Swanson and Adam Macko for Hernández, especially considering his $14MM salary, but perhaps they can still recoup something before the deadline. Despite his diminished production, perhaps some club is willing to bank on his track record, especially with the aforementioned market conditions.

France would be a very different situation, as he can still be retained via arbitration for two more seasons beyond this one. Like Hernández, he’s having a down year relative to his own previous production, having hit .285/.355/.443 from 2020 to 2022 for a 128 wRC+ but just .253/.324/.367 this year for a 100 wRC+. That means that trading him now would be selling low and also punting on a player who could still help in the seasons to come. He’s making $4.1MM this year and will be due raises in the next two years before reaching free agency after 2025.

The Mariners have received a tremendous showing from Mike Ford recently, who was added to their roster at the start of June and has hit 11 home runs since then, serving primarily as the club’s designated hitter. His .238/.302/.540 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 131. He comes with three further seasons of arbitration control, so perhaps the M’s might have some willingness to cash in France and try to put Ford at first base, but that would be a risky path. Ford’s breakout this year has come in just 139 plate appearances while he’s continued to strike out at a 35.3% clip and see 30.6% of his fly balls clear the fence. Since he hit .201/.301/.387 in 468 plate appearances prior to this year, he seems ripe for some regression.

The M’s might have to make some difficult decisions between now and the deadline, given the spot they’re in. They’re not totally out of it but would have to leapfrog teams like the Angels, Yankees and Red Sox before they’re even on the edge of a playoff spot. They could decide to make some moves that help them next year, though it might involve further limiting their chances here in 2023. It might also require them to sell low on players like Hernández and France. But the trade market was already light on impact bats, even before the Cubs pulled Cody Bellinger off the market. It’s understandable why the M’s might want to assess their options and see what a light selloff can do for them, but it would surely be a tough pill to swallow after they made the postseason last year for the first time since 2001.

Mariners Could Deal From Rotation, Open To Offers On Paul Sewald

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There’s been ample speculation surrounding the Mariners’ excellent young rotation since it was reported that the Cardinals had interest in 26-year-old righty Logan Gilbert. And while a trade involving one of Seattle’s talented arms could be a long shot due to the lofty asking price associated with all controllable young starters, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the M’s would at least consider dealing from their stock in order to acquire a young hitter with several years of control remaining.

Seattle’s rotation features veteran ace Luis Castillo and a quartet of touted young righties: Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo. Gilbert and Kirby have largely established themselves as quality big league arms, while Miller and Woo have impressed during their rookie efforts.

Gilbert, sporting a 3.88 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate and 4.4% walk rate in 20 starts, is controllable for four more years beyond the current season. Kirby (3.49 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 2.4% walk rate) has an additional five seasons of control remaining. Miller (3.96 ERA, 23.9% strikeout rate, 5.1% walk rate in 75 innings) and Woo (4.91 ERA but a 28.9% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate in 44 innings) would each come with six seasons of control beyond the current year. Both Miller and Woo were ranked among the sport’s top 100 prospects at the time of their respective promotions.

The price to acquire any of those arms would surely be steep; not only would the Mariners be seeking a controllable bat to plug into the lineup — they’d likely be seeking a high-end, all-around contributor. Reds fans have regularly asked in MLBTR chats about the possibility of shipping Jonathan India to the Mariners for one of those starters, for instance, but league-average offense at second base and three-plus years of control likely isn’t enough to sway Seattle president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to part with anywhere from four to six seasons of control over a big league starter. (Notably, Rosenthal suggests a trade of India is far likelier in the offseason than in the next few days.) The same could well apply to Cardinals outfielder Dylan Carlson — another roughly league-average hitter with three-plus seasons of club control remaining.

Should the Mariners find an offer to their liking on any of their talented young arms, Rosenthal suggests they could call up Emerson Hancock from Double-A. The former sixth overall pick has a 4.26 ERA with solid but not eye-popping strikeout and walk numbers over 19 starts there. Rosenthal also floats the possibility of Seattle acquiring an impending free agent starter — perhaps in a Teoscar Hernandez swap with another win-now club — to step into a rotation spot vacated by a trade of a controllable arm. Marco Gonzales is currently on the injured list but could return later in the season; perhaps Robbie Ray will make it back from Tommy John surgery at some point next year.

While a deal involving one of Seattle’s controllable starters would be tough to pull off, trades of shorter-term veterans could be easier to line up. Reliever Paul Sewald is surely of interest to a number of clubs, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported tonight (on Twitter) that Seattle is signaling an openness to moving him.

Sewald has been one of the best relievers in the sport since breaking out with Seattle in 2021. He owns a 2.90 ERA in 170 2/3 innings in an M’s uniform. The right-hander has been effective in all three seasons, including an even 3.00 ERA over 42 frames this year. He’s striking out just under 36% of opponents against a modest 7.9% walk rate.

The 33-year-old righty is playing this season on a $4.1MM arbitration salary. He’s eligible for that process once more before hitting free agency during the 2024-25 offseason. The asking price on Sewald obviously wouldn’t be as extreme as those on the M’s starters, but Seattle would surely aim high in those talks as well.

Jerry Dipoto Discusses Mariners’ Deadline Approach

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The Mariners pulled back to .500 this afternoon, blanking the Twins to get to 48-48. They’re still in fourth place in the AL West, 9 1/2 games behind the division-leading Rangers. They’re five games out of the final Wild Card spot pending Houston’s night contest in Oakland.

With the club hovering around average all season, the front office finds itself in a borderline position approaching the August 1 trade deadline. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto suggested the team was taking a flexible approach in a chat with Mike Salk this morning during his weekly appearance on 710 AM ESPN in Seattle.

Dipoto conceded the M’s have “not really separated ourselves in a meaningful way to be aggressive on the buying end.” While he left open the potential for short-term additions, he noted they’ll use the next 11 days to evaluate if it’s “better to make a push for the ’23 season or to better situate ourselves for ’24.”

In any event, it doesn’t seem the Mariners are preparing to play at the top of the rental market. “Last year, we were very aggressive in the trade market for what I would call the big fish and we were able to land Luis Castillo,” Dipoto said. “This year, we’re probably not going to be in that market. We’re going to be more in the margins market, trying to find a way that we can get a little bit better in ’23 and better situate ourselves for ’24.”

It’s possible that could involve moving a shorter-term veteran off the MLB roster in a deal for controllable talent. Asked by Salk whether selling is off the table, Dipoto replied, “No, and it never has been. … We are always one foot in the camp of buyer and one foot in the camp of seller, believing that the best way to approach any trade deadline is with the mindset of ’how do we make the Mariners better?’”

That’s not an uncommon approach for executives whose teams are on the periphery of contention. The Red Sox and Brewers attempted (unsuccessfully) to thread that needle last summer, dealing veterans with dwindling control windows while bringing back more controllable upper level talent. As Dipoto pointed out, the Mariners have found themselves in a similar position — most notably in 2021, when Seattle traded impending free agent reliever Kendall Graveman to the Astros for infielder Abraham Toro while Houston was narrowly ahead of the Mariners in the standings.

While Dipoto’s comments leave open the possibility of parting with veteran players, they’re not about to kick off a rebuild. The baseball operations leader expressed confidence in a core centered around the likes of Julio Rodríguez, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, J.P. Crawford, Bryan Woo and Castillo.

Dipoto attributed the club’s middling performance in large part to a lack of depth, particularly in the lineup. “We’re about an average major league offense by most advanced metrics. We need to find a way to be better than average,” he said. “In order to do that, we can tap into a lot of different avenues. Some of it is going to come from our system; some of it is going to come from outside. It has to, and maybe that starts now.”

It’s hard to argue with that characterization. Seattle entered play Thursday ranked 18th in runs. They’re 25th with a .310 on-base percentage and 24th with a .388 slugging mark, though that’s partially a product of a tough home hitting environment. By measure of wRC+, which accounts for ballpark, the M’s have been one percentage point worse than a league average offense.

Conceding that “we don’t have a next wave of bats at Triple-A ready to come and push us over that edge,” Dipoto suggested that building out the lineup depth will be a priority. He took responsibility for the club’s current struggles in that regard. While Dipoto predictably didn’t single out any players, none of Seattle’s top three offseason acquisitions has performed up to expectations.

Teoscar Hernández is hitting .243/.296/.428 across 399 plate appearances. That’s serviceable but certainly not what the M’s had in mind when they sent reliever Erik Swanson and pitching prospect Adam Macko to Toronto in November. Hernández had been an impact bat for the Blue Jays from 2020-22, combining for a .283/.333/.519 line.

Kolten Wong and AJ Pollock, on the other hand, haven’t found any success in 2023. The former is hitting .158/.240/.211 in 58 games after an offseason trade that sent Jesse Winker to Milwaukee. He has lost the starting second base job to José Caballero as a result. Pollock is hitting .169/.222/.315 since signing a $7MM free agent contract to add some right-handed pop to the outfield.

Seattle won’t be able to drum up much interest in either of the latter two players. If they seriously consider moving short-term veterans, though, Hernández should still be on the radar for clubs looking for offensive help. The M’s wouldn’t recoup the kind of value they surrendered to get him, of course, but his pre-2023 track record could make him an appealing change-of-scenery target.

Hernández is playing this season on a $14MM arbitration salary. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end. A couple months ago, he looked like a lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer. That’s no longer an obvious decision, at least raising the possibility of Seattle getting no compensation if they hold him past the deadline and he departs in free agency.

Seattle’s only other impending free agent is backup catcher Tom Murphy. He’s affordable ($1.625MM arb salary) and mashing at a .275/.330/.539 clip in a limited role. As a rental backup catcher, he wouldn’t bring back a major return, but the M’s shouldn’t have a problem finding a trade partner if they were to put him on the market.

Reliever Paul Sewald could be Seattle’s most appealing realistic trade chip. The righty owns a 3.03 ERA with a massive 37.7% strikeout rate over 38 2/3 innings. He has been excellent in all three of his seasons in the Pacific Northwest.

Sewald is eligible for arbitration for one more year, so the Mariners would hold firm to a huge asking price if they made him available at all. Dealing him would probably be their best chance to get an upper level bat with an extended window of team control, assuming they’re not interested in dealing any of their prized young starting pitching.

Health Notes: King, Antone, Sewald

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Yankees righty Michael King, who missed the final two and a half months of the 2022 season due to a fractured right elbow, tells The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty that he expects to be ready for Opening Day and anticipates being deployed as a multi-inning reliever in 2023. The 27-year-old King was in the midst of a breakout season when he suffered his ill-timed injury. Prior to landing on the IL, he’d pitched to an outstanding 2.29 ERA and whiffed 33.2% of his opponents against a tidy 8% walk rate. The righty was also touting a career-high 47% grounder rate and career-low 0.53 HR/9 mark.  His 96.5 mph average fastball was the best of his career. Just three weeks ago, Opening Day was reported to be a slightly optimistic target for King, so his firmer confidence in his ability to be ready for the season is a welcome development for the Yankees and their fans.

A few more health/injury updates of note from around the league…

  • Reds reliever Tejay Antone’s offseason throwing program has been slowed by a forearm issue, reports Mark Sheldon of MLB.com, though it’s not believed to be related to the right-hander’s surgically repaired elbow. Antone was having one of the best seasons of any reliever in baseball before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2021. The former fifth-rounder turned in an outstanding 2.14 ERA with a gaudy 32.8% strikeout rate against a 10.2% walk rate while holding opponents to a comically inept .152/.258/.250 batting line through 128 plate appearances. If healthy, he could quickly ascend the bullpen hierarchy and return to high-leverage work in 2022. Antone has another three seasons of club control remaining and is set to earn just $770K this season. As such, he’ll quite likely garner plenty of summer trade interest if he’s back to form, given the state of the Reds’ rebuild.
  • Mariners reliever Paul Sewald might not be ready for the beginning of Spring Training, as Corey Brock of The Athletic reports that the righty underwent a “minor clean-up of his heel and elbow.” The exact timeline of the procedure or recovery aren’t known, though Brock suggests Sewald should still be ready to go by Opening Day. Turning 33 in May, Sewald is enjoying a late-career bloom. After posting underwhelming numbers over the 2017 to 2020 stretch, he has a 2.87 ERA in 127 appearances over the past two campaigns, striking out 34.8% of batters in faced in that time against an 8.1% walk rate. He and the club agreed to a $4.1MM salary for the upcoming campaign and he’ll have one further arbitration season in 2024 before he’s slated for free agency.

COVID Reinstatements: Sewald, Pinder

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A pair of AL West teams announced reinstatements from the COVID-19 injured list this afternoon.

  • The Mariners activated reliever Paul Sewald from the IL. Penn Murfee, who had been selected to take his place last week, was removed from the 40-man roster and returned to Triple-A Tacoma. Interestingly, that the M’s were able to return Murfee as opposed to outrighting him off the 40-man indicates they’d received permission from the commissioner’s office to designate him as a COVID “substitute.” That seemingly wasn’t the case for first baseman Mike Ford, who’d been called up to replace Luis Torrens a day prior and was designated for assignment when Torrens was activated earlier this week. That suggests that Sewald’s contracting the virus, which made him the third Seattle player in fairly short order to do so, was enough for the league to determine the M’s ability to field a competitive team was impacted. Murfee didn’t make an appearance with the big league club. Mitch Haniger remains on the COVID list but is expected to be back within a few days.
  • The Athletics announced that utilityman Chad Pinder has been activated from the IL. Infielder Christian Lopes was returned to their top affiliate in Las Vegas in a corresponding 40-man roster move. Lopes, who was selected as a designated COVID substitute himself, appeared in his first four MLB games. He went hitless in nine at-bats, although he did draw a walk. Jed Lowrie, Lou Trivino and Drew Jackson remain on Oakland’s virus-related IL.

Mariners Place Paul Sewald On Injured List, Select Penn Murfee

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The Mariners announced that they have selected Penn Murfee from Triple-A Tacoma to join the big league club, with fellow righty Paul Sewald heading to the injured list. No designation for Sewald’s IL placement was given, but Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times relays that Sewald is going on the Covid IL. Seattle had already placed Luis Torrens and Mitch Haniger on the Covid list, who will now be joined by Sewald. Furthermore, manager Scott Servais and third base coach Manny Acta have both tested positive and will have to step away from the team, also per Divish.

Sewald pitched for the Mets from 2017 through 2020 but had a tremendous breakout campaign with the M’s last year. In 64 2/3 innings, he logged an ERA of 3.06, notching 11 saves, with an incredible 39.4% strikeout rate against a 9.1% walk rate. He’s pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings so far this year and will surely be a loss for the team’s bullpen as long as he’s out.

As for Murfee, he was a 33rd round selection of the Mariners in 2018. He split his time last year between Double-A and Triple-A, throwing 78 2/3 innings in 26 games, 14 of them starts. His 4.23 ERA and 10.2% walk rate weren’t especially impressive, but he did rack up strikeouts at an excellent 28.2% clip. He’s thrown eight scoreless innings in Triple-A so far this year. He’ll make his MLB debut as soon as he gets the call to take the hill.

On the coaching side of things, Divish relays that the plan, at least for tonight, is for first base coach Kristopher Negron to take over for Servais as acting manager. Hitting coach Tony Arnerich will take over as third base coach, with minor league coach Zach Vincej taking the first base box. Minor league coaches CJ Gillman and Dan Wilson will be in uniform in the dugout. (Twitter links)

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Mariners Reliever Paul Sewald

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Righty reliever Paul Sewald signed a minor league deal with the Mariners about a year ago.  On May 13th, when his contract was selected by the club, the promotions of Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert got all the headlines.  Little did we know, Sewald would become one of the year’s best stories.  From the point of Sewald’s season debut on May 16th, he’d go on to lead all MLB relievers in strikeouts by a wide margin, with 104 in 64 2/3 innings.  Among relievers with at least 60 innings on the season, Sewald’s 39.4 K% ranked second in baseball.

Born in Las Vegas, Sewald was drafted in the 10th round by the Mets out of the University of San Diego in 2012.  He made his big league debut against the Marlins at Citi Field on April 8th, 2017.  Sewald logged 147 1/3 relief innings for the Mets before landing with the Mariners.

Deploying a sweeping slider, elevated fastballs, and a deceptive delivery, Sewald ascended to the top of the pecking order in the Mariners’ bullpen by August.  Sewald pitched in 19 of the Mariners’ last 32 games as they pushed for a playoff spot, always in the highest-leverage situations.  Sewald’s breakout 2021 season included 10 wins, a 3.06 ERA, 104 strikeouts, 11 saves, and 16 holds.  He’s slated to hold a prominent role in Seattle’s pen again in ’22.

Sewald is currently locked out by MLB, but he agreed to come chat with MLBTR readers today!  Click here to read the transcript.  And be sure to follow Paul on Twitter @ItsPaulSewald.

If there’s been one good thing for this website to come out of the lockout, it’s been these live chats with MLB players.  If you’re a current or former MLB player with some stories to tell, contact us here to set up a chat!  It’s fun and easy, and you get to choose which questions you answer.

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