In the annals of ‘folks who figured it out after leaving the Mets,’ just below Justin Turner is Paul Sewald. When Sewald was a Met, he was a middling member of the bullpen who never had an ERA under 4.50. Two of the four years, Sewald put up an ERA+ of 91, or nine percent below league average. Those years would’ve been the highlights of Sewald’s career up to that point.
However, after signing a minor league deal with the Mariners in early 2021, Sewald’s career took off. Over the next three seasons, Sewald would emerge as one of the top relievers in baseball, and Mets fans everywhere asked themselves, ‘where was this guy in Queens?