Sal Stewart: Up and Coming Royal Player

Welcome back, everyone.

Last week, I looked at Chase Burns of the Cincinnati Reds as an Up-and-Coming Dynasty player. This week, I thought that since I’ve talked about one Reds player, let’s talk about a second Reds player.

Sal Stewart burst onto the MLB scene last year when he hit five homers in 18 games and hit .545. Not a bad way to introduce yourself to Reds fans. With that performance, fantasy owners were excited to see what Stewart would do this year, and so far, he’s been solid, hitting 12 homers and driving in 37 runs in 61 games. That’s on pace for 32 homers and 98 RBIs this season with 26 steals.

So let’s dive in and take a closer look at Stewart.

Mathematics

Sal Stewart grew up in the baseball hotbed of Miami and attended Westminster Christian School, where he played many sports. The Reds had a compensatory option in the 2022 draft after watching Nick Castellanos leave in free agency. That pick was the 32nd pick overall, and with it, Stewart drafted, liking his bat control and seeing power.

A right-handed hitter, Stewart hit the ground running as he slashed .292/.393/.458 in eight games in rookie ball in 2022. Over the next two years, Stewart flew through Cincy’s program and reached the majors by the end of the 2025 season.

Tools

When he was first drafted, most scouts didn’t give Stewart high marks when it came to his ability, giving him a grade of 50 – or average. But Stewart has proved them wrong from the start and has added more energy to his game as he gets older and stronger. In his first full season in the minors in 2023, he hit 12 homers and drove in 71 runs while hitting .275/.396/.415 in 117 games at the A and A+ levels.

In 2024, he appeared in just 80 games and hit eight homers while hitting .279/.391/.454 – basically the same slash line he had last year. Stewart’s power peaked last year in Double-A and Triple-A as he hit 20 homers and drove in 80 runs in 118 games while hitting .309/.383/.524, a line that led the Reds to promote him to the majors.

And that momentum continued in Cincinnati as he hit five homers and batted .545 in 18 games, translating to an 8.6 home run rate for the Reds. There was no way that level was going to continue this year, and it didn’t. But Stewart’s 4.6 home run percentage, thanks to outbursts like this one, is 1.3 points better than the MLB average and more than the 4.0% he had in the minors last season.

Take a look at the spray chart above, and you can see why the Reds drafted Stewart. The man uses every field, both hits and home runs. Stewart does a great job of not just making contact, but making strong connections. His average exit velocity ranks in the 70th percentile, and his barrel percentage ranks in the 89th percentile. However, those two percentages didn’t help him with his difficult percentages, as he ranked in the 39th percentile in that category. That strikeout can be traced to a 44.9% ground ball, something he needs to adjust to utilize his potential.

While down on the farm, Stewart had a 13.3% walk rate with an excellent 15.7% strikeout rate. Carrying those numbers over to the majors would be a tall order, but Stewart shows he can come close to replicating those numbers at this level. This season, he has a 12.6 walk rate with a 19.5% strikeout rate, a big improvement over his short stint with the Reds last year (5.2% and 25.9%).

This is what makes Sal Stewart such an interesting player, as he is more than just a power hitter. Stewart has a good sense of the basics, and he uses them. In 323 minor league games, he has stolen 42 bases in 51 attempts, and so far in his short league career, he is 10 for 12 in stolen bases – all coming this season. He accomplished this despite ranking in the 29th percentile in spring rushing. What he lacks in speed, Stewart makes up for in leaps and bounds.

Results

Overall, Stewart had a great season. But his biggest damage came in the first month of the season (including March) when he hit nine of his 12 homers and drove in 29 of his 37 runs and stole seven of his 10 bases. Since the start of May, Stewart has had a tough time at the plate with just three homers and eight RBIs in his last 30 games.

That means 75% of his home runs and 78% of his RBI totals have come in one month.

Every player experiences a slump, and Sal Stewart is only 22 years old, which means he has a lot to learn at the big league level. In March/April, Stewart had a 13% walk rate and an 18% strikeout rate. In May, those numbers were 12% and 22%, and in just three games in June, they sat at 8% and 33%. So as the season goes on, his walk rate goes down, and his strikeout rate goes up.

The biggest problem for Stewart right now is his struggle with breaking pitches and offspeeds. He has a .307 average and a .567 slug against the fastball with nine homers. But he is hitting .188/.325 against breaking pitches and .227/.409 against offspeed pitches. Major league hitters have learned that Stewart can hit a fastball. But they’ve also learned that he’ll struggle against fastballs and have started throwing him more and more in those spots.

The decision

Does the last month mean that Sal Stewart should be devalued as a player of the next generation? Not at all. Like I said, he’s only 22 years old and has only played 323 games in the minors. He has a lot to learn against big league hitters, and he’s going through that learning curve right now.

Adding Stewart as a free agent is practically impossible. He is registered in 94% of Yahoo and ESPN leagues. But there are always those owners who panic when they see the first signs of a struggling player, and if you are in contention with this type of owner who currently has Stewart in his team, now may be the time to strike and try to change the deal.

This is because in a week, a month, or two months, Stewart will face the rough and start producing as he did in the first month of the season. He’s too good a hitter not to make the necessary changes, and too good a hitter not to try to add to your team.

Thank you!

Thanks for reading, and come back next week.