Despite not pitching in high leverage situations right-hander Paul Sewald had played an important role in the 2018 New York Mets bullpen and a big reason for that has been his dominance of left-handed hitters.
Lefties crushed Sewald in his first big league experience last year hitting .290/.385/.441 off him in 111 plate appearances.
Sewald’s main weapon to get right-handers out was and always has been his slider, a pitch that lefties hit well last year. The 27-year-old Sewald knew this and went into the offseason focusing on adding a third pitch according to Tim Britton of the Athletic.
Sewald watched video of Washington National’s starters Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer throwing their changeup. He decided to change his grip from a circle-change to a three-finger changeup grip.
The new grip is working and Sewald is throwing his changeup more in 2018 (8.1%) than he did in 2017 (3.6). Opponents have yet to get a hit off the changeup this season.
Sewald’s confidence in the new grip is growing, ““I feel really confident with it. It’s had a lot of success starting in spring training. Ultimately, having success with it is giving me a lot of confidence with it. Now I feel I can throw it when I want to and in bigger situations. It’s kept guys on their heels.”
The deceptive righty has been fantastic overall this season with a 1.74 ERA and 0.58 WHIP in 10.1 innings though what really jumps out is that lefties are 0-for-13 with six strikeouts against him.
He has also saved the bullpen on multiple occasions with four of his five outings going at least two innings.
