Paul Sewald was one of the Blue Jays' most reliable relievers down the stretch this season.

Toronto picked him up after the trade deadline, and he delivered right away following a rough stretch with the Diamondbacks.

Across 16 appearances and 13.1 innings for the Blue Jays, Sewald posted an astonishing 0.68 ERA and 0.68 WHIP, allowing just one earned run with nine strikeouts.

That's about as dominant a small-sample stretch as a bullpen addition can provide, exactly the kind of performance that makes a team want to bring someone back.

But the underlying track record complicates that decision. Sewald's ERA has mostly sat above 4.00 across the past three seasons, and he'll turn 37 next year.

Why Toronto may look elsewhere for its next bullpen piece

That combination of age and a longer trend of inconsistent results makes him a real risk to build around going forward, even with this specific stretch as recent evidence in his favor.

Toronto is more likely to pursue a younger, proven option in free agency, with names like Adrian Morejon or Alex Vesia representing the kind of profile the front office may target instead.

Either would complement Toronto's existing bullpen core of Louis Varland, Trevor Rogers, Mason Fluharty, Braydon Fisher, Brendon Little, and Spencer Miles heading into next season.

That's a genuinely deep group already, meaning any offseason addition is about upgrading depth rather than filling an obvious hole.

Sewald's brief stretch with Toronto still matters as a signal that the stuff is there when things click, even if the front office ultimately bets on someone with a more consistent recent track record.

Whether Toronto brings him back on a short, incentive-based deal, or moves on entirely toward a younger arm, is one of the smaller but still meaningful decisions facing the bullpen this offseason.