Following their loss to the Marlins on Friday night, the Mets designated Ty Kelly for assignment and called up right-handed relief pitcher Paul Sewald from Triple-A Las Vegas.
Sewald had a shot of making the Mets’ bullpen coming out of spring training but was one of the team’s last cuts. He notched three strikeouts and issued one walk in his first minor league appearance of 2017. Last year, he had a 3.29 ERA in Las Vegas—which is not too shabby in that environment—with 11.0 strikeouts and 2.9 walks per nine innings.
This is the second time this year that Kelly has been designated for assignment, as the Mets did the same thing with him when they signed Jerry Blevins back in early February. That time, Kelly cleared waivers, and he wasn’t added to the 40-man roster until spring training was over. Last year, he hit .241/.352/.345 with a 95 wRC+ for the Mets in 71 plate appearances.
That combination of moves leaves the Mets with an eight-man bullpen. Considering the team’s extra-innings game against the Braves on Wednesday night and the short start they got from Zack Wheeler on Friday night, that makes sense. But it’ll be interesting to see which pitcher or pitchers get sent back to Las Vegas when Jeurys Familia returns from his suspension.