Mariners' options at closer after Sewald trade

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- Playoff-hopeful teams typically don’t deal their highest-leverage reliever ahead of the Trade Deadline, but the Mariners did so on Monday with the conviction that they can withstand the loss of Paul Sewald for the final two months.

“Any time you lose a key guy, a back-end guy like that, it is tough,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “But it's an opportunity for younger guys. Certainly, we've had guys take steps forward.”

This probably won’t be an organic, guy-for-guy replacement, as Servais’ bullpen usage in Monday’s win over the Red Sox may have alluded. It’s also possible that president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto strikes another deal to add depth, though that seems less likely.

But as was the case in 2021, when Dipoto dealt closer Kendall Graveman to Houston at the Deadline, thus opening the door for Sewald to take on a more prominent role, the Mariners will mostly go in-house to fill his shoes.

A look at some candidates:

Andres Muñoz
Sewald pitched in a more traditional closer-type role, with a team-high 20 saves, but Muñoz easily has the more power profile. And, when healthy, he’s served as a 1B option, having recorded some of the most crucial relief outs this year, often in pockets earlier in games. By last postseason, he was among MLB’s best leverage relievers.

Muñoz has finished four games this year, including three last month, and he was in line for another last Monday in Minnesota but blew a save in an eventual loss.

Servais often notes that sometimes a game’s most important outs aren’t always in the ninth inning. That said, can there be a learning curve of more regularly being on the hook for the final three outs?

“There could be, yeah,” Servais said. “I can't say there won't be. Everybody handles it differently. But at the end of the day, you've got to get three outs. And understanding that it's about executing pitches. And sometimes the noise gets louder in the stadiums, and the game can be on the line, so to speak, but the guys that we have all pitched when the game's on the line.”

Matt Brash
Brash got four outs on Monday, just the sixth time he’s pitched more than one inning in 52 outings this year. After needing just 13 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 seventh, Servais brought him back to face Justin Turner, and Brash worked a seven-pitch flyout.

Stuff-wise, Brash is among the best in baseball. But harnessing it has been a challenge, especially in higher-stakes moments. Opposing hitters have a .684 OPS against him in high-leverage situations compared to a .594 clip in low-leverage spots. Sewald had a .365 OPS against in high-leverage situations.

“You're not going to always succeed in those moments -- it's how you deal with failure when it doesn't go your way,” Servais said. “Can you bounce back the next day? And I think our guys are very capable of doing it. And that's part of being a good coach, too. You got to help them through it.”

Brash is in the midst of what Servais called “probably the best month of his career,” with 17 strikeouts and five walks in 9 2/3 innings entering the week.

Justin Topa
The 32-year-old is cut from the same Sewald cloth, but two years later, as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training who blossomed into a key contributor. Topa has surrendered just four earned runs in 20 innings since June, with only three walks and 16 strikeouts.

Topa’s greatest strength is also correlated to contact. His 59.8% ground-ball rate ranked eighth-highest in MLB entering Monday, yet typically teams prefer more swing-and-miss out of their closer to mitigate risk. Topa has typically pitched the seventh or eighth.

“We'll continue to mix and match, moving different guys in that closer role,” Servais said. “It's not really a closer role here with us -- it's just a guy pitching the ninth inning that day. It might be one guy one day, it might be somebody else the next day, based on matchups.”

Anyone else?
A less likely, but still possible, situation could be that the Mariners add another reliever before the dust settles. But their clearer needs would be to address an inconsistent lineup, which they partly did via the return for Sewald -- 3B Josh Rojas, OF/1B Dominic Canzone, SS/2B Ryan Bliss -- though those players represent long-term upside more than immediate impact.

“There'll be opportunities for other guys to come in, and the Trade Deadline isn't over yet,” Servais said. “So we'll wait and see what happens.”

In a very similar scenario two Deadlines ago, Sewald was thrust into a higher-leverage spot and thrived. The Mariners are now banking on someone else replicating that role.