Newest Guardians Reliever Gets Honest About Last Year's Injuries

The Cleveland Guardians didn't need to add to their bullpen heading into 2025. However, they signed one of the best relievers on the market, bringing Paul Sewald into the organization on a one-year deal.

Sewald is going to be a fabulous addition to Cleveland's reliever core, especially to take some pressure off the back of the Guardians' bullpen in the late high-leverage innings.

While the 34-year-old has had a tremendous career overall, 2024 was the first season in which he truly experienced injuries.

Sewald was recently asked whether those injuries affected his 4.31 ERA from a year ago, and the veteran reliever was incredibly honest about his response.

"As a competitor, I want to act like they had nothing to do with it. Is that a realistic thing? Probably not," explained Sewald during the interview.

"I have never been injured in my career. That was the first time I had been injured. So, I tried to pretend it wasn't a big deal, but maybe it had a little bit to do with my lack of velocity. And then, when I was searching for velocity, I maybe got off of my mechanics a little bit, and that's when things started to go south."

Sewald only pitched in 42 games a year ago due to an oblique strain and a neck injury.

The good news is that the veteran said he feels great heading into training camp and feels ready to make a massive impact on this Cleveland roster in 2025.

"I'm excited that I feel great right now, and I'm excited to have a great spring training and come out of spring training strong this year."

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