D-backs Closer Paul Sewald Cleared to Return After Successful Rehab Outing

An excited Paul Sewald spoke to the media Sunday morning in the Diamondbacks clubhouse. The Closer has been out all season with a Grade 2 Oblique Strain and has been working his way back to health. After a successful rehab outing in extended spring training Saturday, he woke up this morning feeling great without any discomfort. Sewald has been cleared to return to the team and will be activated for Tuesday's game against the Reds in Cincinnati.

Sewald had what appeared to be a setback 10 days ago, but that turned out not to be a reinjury after all. "At this point there's no worrying about my oblique," Sewald said. "I just had something still in there and the only time I've ever felt anything in there I had a torn oblique. So my initial reaction was whoa...am I still injured?"

At that point it was decided to have Sewald get re-imaging and the results showed that he was indeed healed and the oblique was not injured. That gave Sewald the mental clarity and peace of mind to move forward. He's been completely asymptomatic since.

Sewald has felt great throwing his fastball and slider. He had been working on changeup in spring training but has since abandoned the effort to develop that pitch. "I'm not going to have a changeup when I pitch this week. That's a luxury. Right now I have to come back as quickly as a I can. I can throw a slider out of bed. Let's just make sure I can throw the two pitches I've been successful with for three years, let's make sure I have those before I start to work on something else."

Alek Thomas (Hamstring strain) played the field last night in Reno and is DH'ing today. He is expected to be activated off the injured list on Tuesday for the Reds series.

Eduardo Rodriguez (Left Lat Strain) was in the clubhouse today and got a big hug from Lovullo. The two spoke at length. Rodriguez is asymptomatic and will receive re-imaging during this upcoming week. If that imaging is clean and shows his injury is healed he could begin a throwing program shortly afterwards. Timelining that out brings us to an early June return at the soonest, but it's encouraging that he is finally asymptomatic.

Geraldo Perdomo (Surgery for torn Meniscus) will begin standing in the box and seeing pitches this week, but is not yet cleared for full baseball activities. The team will likely be reliant on Kevin Newman and Blaze Alexander to hold down the shortstop position for at least another 2-3 weeks.