The Arizona Diamondbacks designated closer Paul Sewald for assignment on Monday, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7, officially ending his second stint with the franchise. The move comes after a stunning collapse that saw the 36-year-old right-hander go from one of baseball’s most reliable ninth-inning arms in April to a liability the D-backs could no longer roster, closing the book on a season that started with real promise and finished in freefall.
Sewald signed back on with Arizona this year hoping to recapture the form that once made him one of the National League’s top relievers, and for roughly three months, he delivered. Through his first 29 appearances, the veteran posted an 18-for-18 stretch of converted saves with a sparkling 3.18 ERA and a 29-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 26.1 innings. He was demoted from the closer role in late July, and Monday’s DFA takes him off the roster entirely as the D-backs try to sort out their bullpen mess.
A Season That Fell Apart After June 19
Everything changed for Sewald in the second half of June. Since June 23, he has posted a 14.29 ERA, a staggering drop-off for a pitcher who looked like a lockdown closer just weeks earlier. Over his final stretch of appearances, he served up eight home runs in just 12.2 innings, and the once-elite command that defined his career simply vanished. He finishes the 2026 campaign at 2-5 with a 6.23 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP across 39 innings, still notching 44 strikeouts against only nine walks but getting hammered on contact far too often, including a blown save against Pittsburgh where he allowed three runs, two of them on home runs, in just a third of an inning.
The 24 saves Sewald racked up before the wheels came off make his overall save total look respectable on the surface, but the underlying trend was impossible to ignore. Diamondbacks fans who track the roster closely on the Arizona sports betting scene watched the closer role destabilize in real time as manager Torey Lovullo was forced to pull Sewald from high-leverage spots and search for answers.
What’s Next for Sewald and Arizona’s Bullpen
With the trade deadline already in the rearview mirror, the Diamondbacks’ only path forward with Sewald is to place him on waivers, where a contending team looking for cheap, experienced bullpen depth down the stretch could take a flier on him. A 10-year veteran with a track record of All-Star-caliber production as recently as 2022 and 2023, Sewald still has the swing-and-miss stuff to be useful in a lower-leverage role if a club believes the second half was more mechanical breakdown than career-ending decline.
For Arizona, the move away from Sewald coincides with the club finalizing a deal with right-hander Zack Littell, giving the pitching staff added rotation depth and a potential long reliever option. In the ninth inning, the Diamondbacks are shifting to a full closer-by-committee approach featuring Brandyn Garcia, Kevin Ginkel, and Juan Morillo. Ginkel, who already has 17 career saves in eight major league seasons, picked up Arizona’s most recent save and appears to have the early edge as the primary option, though nothing is settled. Anyone following the National League West race and checking the latest MLB odds will want to monitor how quickly that bullpen picture clarifies, since ninth-inning stability often swings close divisional games in August and September.
Sewald’s departure also closes the loop on a homecoming story that started with plenty of optimism. He first arrived in Arizona via trade in 2022 and quickly became a fan favorite, anchoring the bullpen during the Diamondbacks’ surprise run to the 2023 World Series. Bringing him back for a second stint this offseason was meant to restore that late-inning stability, and for a while, it worked beautifully. But the second half unraveling proved too costly to overlook, and now the franchise moves forward with an unproven committee steering the most stressful outs of the game.
The Bigger Picture
Sewald’s fall is a reminder of how quickly reliever performance can flip in either direction, a truth that has defined bullpen management across baseball for years. A pitcher can look like one of the game’s best relievers in April and be designated for assignment by August, all within the same season and often without a clear injury explanation. For Arizona, the priority now shifts to stabilizing the back of a bullpen that will be tested immediately as the club fights to stay in the postseason picture down the stretch. For Sewald, the next 10 days will determine whether his career gets a third chapter somewhere else or comes to a quiet close.
