Sal Stewart: Up-And-Coming Dynasty Player

Hello, everyone. Glad to have you back for another installment of Up-and-Coming Dynasty Players. And if you are new here, welcome.

This week, I am featuring Sal Stewart of the Cincinnati Reds. Drafted only three years ago, Stewart has quickly risen through the Reds’ system and made his major league debut on Sept. 1.

I will admit that I am biased toward Stewart, as I have him in several of my dynasty leagues.

Let’s take a look at Stewart to see why I like him so much.

Career Statistics

Road to the Show

The Reds selected Sal Stewart as a compensation pick in the 2022 draft for watching Nick Castellanos sign with the Phillies. The book on Stewart was that he had a solid approach at the plate, and apparently, that book was correct. The right-handed hitting Stewart has hit his way through the minors to land with the Reds when they added him to the roster on Sept. 1.

Competing against players who were on average three to five years older than him, Stewart has held his own by slashing .289/.390/.466 in 323 games covering 1,378 at-bats with 40 homers, 202 RBI, and 42 steals. This season at Double-A and Triple-A he really found his groove at the plate, slashing .309/.383/.524 with 20 homers, 80 RBI, and 17 steals.

The Tools

• Hitting

As mentioned above, the Reds really liked Stewart’s approach at the plate when they drafted him, and he never lost it during his time in the minors. During his time on the farm, he had a 13% walk rate and a 15.7% strikeout rate. Additionally, he does a great job of going to all fields. At Triple-A this season, he had a 39% pull rate and a 36% opposite field rate.

But he is not just slapping the ball, as he had a 51% hard hit rate while at Triple A. And so far with the Reds, he is continuing to hit the ball hard. While the sample size is very, very small, he entered Friday’s games with an 18.8% barrel rate, and his average exit velocity is 93.8 mph. The MLB average for those two rates are a 7.1% and 88.6 mph.

• Power

You have to remember that Sal Stewart is still only 21 years old, not turning 22 until December 7. With that said, he has developed his power stroke each year in the minors and will only improve as he adds strength. In his first full minor league season, he hit 12 homers and averaged one dinger every 35.5 at-bats. Last season, he hit 10 homers in 80 games as a wrist injury shortened his season.

This year in the minors, he had 20 homers and averaged one homer every 21.8 at-bats. The .415 slugging percentage he had in 2023 (again, his first full season as a professional) is his lowest slugging percentage of his career. Since 2023, his OPS has increased from .811 to .844 to .907 before the Reds called him up. Long story short, Stewart has improved his power game each and every season, and there is no reason to think it won’t continue to get better, especially in the hitter’s park he plays in.

• Speed

Coming out of high school, the knock on Sal Stewart was he does not have a lot of speed. Most scouting reports give him a grade of 40. Yet despite not having outstanding speed, Stewart is actually an above average runner – at least when it comes to stealing bases.

He swiped 42 bases during his minor league career while only getting caught nine times. I’ll take an 82% success rate any time.

Will he continue to be a base stealer with the Reds? That is great question, if I may say so myself. I think with better catchers and pitchers (well, most pitchers) working on holding runners, the steals will not come as often for Stewart, but I don’t think they will simply disappear. That said, you go after Stewart for what he can bring at the plate in terms of OBP and SLG, not stolen bases.

The Verdict

Like several of the players I have featured over the past few weeks, Sal Stewart was a great all-around athlete in high school as he was a standout basketball player in addition to being a stud on the baseball field. Thanks to his basketball skills, Stewart is a better athlete on the field than people probably realize.

That athletic ability will help him be a success on the field. He has a great understanding of the plate, he is going to add more power to his game, and he may even steal some bases.

The biggest question is where he is going to play on the field. In the minors, he played 203 games at third base, 61 at second, and two at first. With the Reds, he’s started five games at first and one at third, and entered the game at third base one other time. It appears second base is not in his future, and with Ke’Bryan Hayes at third, that spot appears to be blocked.

So have the Reds decided Spencer Steer or Christian Encarnacion-Strand are no longer the team’s first basemen of the future? Is Stewart the next man up, or will he be a player who sees time at first, third, maybe some second base, and DH as well? It is too soon to tell, but my hunch is first base is where he will get most of his playing time, meaning his power potential needs to be realized sooner rather than later.

But the fact that he can play multiple positions makes him an even more intriguing player to go after, as versatility in the fantasy world is worth its weight in gold.

With most fantasy leagues now in the postseason, adding Stewart (if available) may not be allowed depending on league rules. If that is the case, he is certainly a player to target this offseason as you prepare for 2026 and beyond.

Thanks for reading, and come back next week.