Recently acquired reliever Paul Sewald will join the Blue Jays’ bullpen in the coming days.

Claimed off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, Sewald is currently en route to Toronto and is expected to arrive around first pitch for Thursday’s series finale against the Boston Red Sox. As such, the plan is to activate him to the club’s 26-man roster on Friday, the first of three games versus the New York Yankees, according to manager John Schneider.

Coming over from the D-backs, Sewald had operated in the closer’s role for most of this season before being removed earlier this month, a byproduct of his 6.23 ERA and 5.67 FIP with a trio of blown saves in 27 attempts. Limiting home runs has been his biggest problem, as evidenced by his career-worst 2.77 HR/9 in 45 appearances, but those woes don’t necessarily tell the whole story.

The 36-year-old righty has actually been quite effective beyond his struggles missing barrels, namely minimizing free passes, resulting in a 92nd-percentile walk rate (5.5 per cent). He’s also recorded his highest strikeout rate (27 per cent) in the last three years, earning him a very respectable 21.5 per cent strikeout-minus-walk rate across 39 innings thus far.

Add in the fact that he’s posted the highest chase rate (32.5 per cent) of his career, and there might be room for improvement down the stretch. He’ll likely start out pitching in low-to-medium leverage situations, but he could factor into more meaningful spots with several high-leverage guys running on fumes right now.

Since Sewald won’t be closing for the Blue Jays, another factor that should help his cause is that it’ll become much easier to find him more favourable pockets of hitters to face moving forward. Perhaps that’ll lead to some lightning-in-a-bottle magic for a bullpen incredibly thin on rested arms amid this stretch of 17 consecutive games leading up to Monday’s off-day.

Also part of the attraction with Sewald is that an established reliever like him — with 110 career saves under his belt, as well as 10 seasons of major league experience — doesn’t usually become available after the trade deadline has passed. With the number of arms that have already cycled through Toronto’s bullpen lately, they’re hoping his arrival can bring a bit more stability to those final few spots.

Upon activation, the Blue Jays will need to make space for the former D-backs closer, likely making Chase Lee or Brendon Little — both of whom have options remaining — the most obvious candidates to be sent down.

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