Sal Stewart: Up-And-Coming Dynasty 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 figured since I already discussed one Reds player, let’s discuss a second Reds player.

Sal Stewart burst onto the MLB scene last year when he hit five homers in 18 games and slugged .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 has been solid, hitting 12 homers and driving in 37 in 61 games. That is a pretty solid pace of 32 homers and 98 RBI for the season with 26 steals.

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

The Stats

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

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

The Tools

• Power

When first drafted, the majority of scouts didn’t give Stewart a great grade when it came to his power, giving him a 50 grade – or average. But Stewart proved them wrong from the outset and has added more power to his game as he has aged and gained more strength. In his first full season in the minors in 2023, he hit 12 homers and drove in 71 while slashing .275/.396/.415 in 117 games at the A and A+ level.

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

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

• Hit

Look at the above spray chart, and you see why the Reds drafted Stewart. The man uses the entire field, both for hits and home runs. Stewart does a great job of not just making contact, but solid contact. His average exit velocity ranks in the 70th percentile, and his barrel percentage ranks in the 89th percentile. However, those two percentages have not helped with his hard-hit percentage, as he ranks in the 39th percentile in that category. That discrepancy can be traced to a 44.9% ground ball rate, something he has to correct to take advantage of his power.

While down on the farm, Stewart had a career walk rate of 13.3% with a very nice 15.7% strikeout rate. Carrying over those numbers into the majors would be a tall task, but Stewart is showing he could come close to duplicating those numbers at this level. This season, he has a 12.6 walk rate with a 19.5% strikeout rate, a big improvement during his short stint with the Reds last year (5.2% and 25.9%).

• Speed

This is what makes Sal Stewart a very intriguing player, as he is not just a power hitter. Stewart has great instincts on the bases, and he uses them. In 323 career minor league games, he stole 42 bases in 51 attempts, and so far in his brief major league career, he is 10-for-12 in stolen bases – all coming this season. He’s this successful despite ranking in the 29th percentile in spring speed. What he lacks in speed, Stewart makes up for it by getting great jumps.

The Results

Overall, Stewart has had a good season. But a lot of his damage was done during 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 tougher time at the plate as he has only three homers and eight RBI in his last 30 games.

That means that 75% of his home runs and 78% of his RBI total came in one month.

Every player goes through slumps, and Sal Stewart is only 22 years old, meaning he is doing a lot of learning at the major league level. In March/April, Stewart had a 13% walk rate and an 18% strikeout rate. In May, those numbers became 12% and 22%, and in only three June games, they sit at 8% and 33%. So as the season has progressed, his walk rate is decreasing, and his strikeout rate is increasing.

The biggest problem for Stewart right now is his struggles against breaking pitches and offspeed pitches. He has a .307 average and .567 slug against the fastball with nine homers. But he is slashing .188/.325 against breaking pitches and .227/.409 against offspeed pitches. Major league pitchers have learned that Stewart can hit the fastball. But they have also learned that he will struggle against the non-fastballs and have started to throw him a steady diet of those pitches.

The Verdict

Does the last month mean Sal Stewart should have his status as an up-and-coming dynasty player devalued? Not at all. As I mentioned, he is only 22 and played in only 323 games in the minors. There is a lot to learn against major league pitchers, and he is going through that learning curve right now.

Adding Stewart as a free agent is basically impossible. He is rostered in 94% of Yahoo and ESPN leagues. But there are always those owners who panic at the first signs of a player struggling, and if you are in a league with that type of owner who currently has Stewart on his team, now may be the time to strike and try to swing a deal.

That is because in a week, a month, or two months, Stewart will figure things out at the plate and start to produce like he did the first month of this season. He is too good a hitter not to make the needed adjustments, and too good a hitter to not try to add to your team.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading, and come back again next week.