Five Hundred in Relief

The Drive

In early 2021, Paul Sewald drove from Las Vegas to Mariners spring training on a minor-league deal, his wife pregnant, wondering whether baseball was over. Four years with the Mets had been years of uncertainty and options. A coaching staff video session led him to elevate his fastball and adjust his slider. The changes clicked in Triple-A, and by summer he was a key reliever in Seattle.

The Number

On June 15, 2026, pitching for the Diamondbacks — his second stint in Arizona — Sewald recorded his 500th career strikeout. He has 512 now, across 421 games, every one of them in relief. The number is a decade of late innings: the Mets years when the role was still forming, the Seattle summers when it locked in, and a 2025 season split between Cleveland and Detroit before he came back to Arizona.

109 saves came along the way. So did a 1.13 WHIP.

The Thread

Sewald was a 10th-round pick out of the University of San Diego in 2012 — the 320th overall selection, signed for $1,000. He earned a degree in accounting there. His parents, Mark and Judi, are both accountants. His father was a 16th-round Red Sox pick in 1979 who chose college instead. His college coach remembered him as a non-scholarship arrival who saw limited early action before a strong senior year — a path that once included offseason substitute teaching.

After his 2021 breakout and the birth of their first child, Paul and Molly launched Strikeouts 4 Kids, pledging hundreds of dollars per punchout to support families in need. The program has continued across teams and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sewald is 36, back with the Diamondbacks, with 23 saves already this season.

Reporting: The Athletic, Seattle Times, ABCA Inside Pitch Magazine, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.