Mets reliever Paul Sewald shouldn’t have a roster spot in 2019

New York Mets reliever Paul Sewald has performed poorly for two straight seasons with an abundance of opportunities. It’s time they move on.

I love giving players chances. I absolutely adore seeing a career minor leaguer make the major leagues and shine. As much as I enjoy this, I also hate seeing someone outstay their welcome. It feels like this is the situation with New York Mets reliever Paul Sewald.

Sewald did a decent job for the Mets in 2017 eating up relief innings in a lost season. For a while, he did the same for the 2018 squad.

However, those semi-quality appearances seem to have evaporated. When Sewald takes the hill, it’s time for fans to run to their hills and hide.

At 28-years-old, Sewald is far beyond the status of a prospect. He has been a reliever throughout his professional career which began way back in 2012. Unfortunately for him, a promising ERA in every minor league season did little to propel him to the big leagues.

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Sewald didn’t pitch in MLB until 2017 when he was less than two months away from turning 27. In his time with the big league club since, the results have been far from promising.

Among all of the weaknesses, it’s the regular losses issued to his record which stand out the most. I know, I know. Wins and losses don’t matter. That’s true for a starting pitcher. For a relief pitcher, losses do matter. Sewald is collecting them like it’s the 1990s again and they’re Starting Lineup figures he swears will be worth something in the future.

Through his first 116 innings pitched, Sewald has delivered a 5.04 ERA and finished with a record of 0-11. The constant losing is a fine tribute to Anthony Young in the early 1990s yet hardly a comparison anyone would like to keep going.

Not all of the losses are complete his fault. That’s true of any loss just as a win is possible with help from the entire team. As a reliever, though, Sewald is expected to pitch only one or two innings at most on a regular basis. To blow a lead in that time and cost his team the game in the process, it says a lot about his ability to pitch under pressure.

We can make a list longer than Martin Luther’s theses of relief pitchers who have taken the mound for the Mets in 2018 that don’t deserve a roster spot in 2019.

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Sewald, a guy who has seen significant playing time, is one of those guys.