Sal Stewart is having the kind of season that turns a team’s future star into an MVP candidate.
The Reds first baseman hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning on Tuesday night to lift Cincinnati past the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4. It was Stewart’s 27th home run of the year and pushed his MLB-leading RBI total to 94. He is now the runaway favorite for the National League RBI title with more than a month left in the regular season.
Cincinnati desperately needed the win. The Reds are hanging around in the NL Central race but trailing Milwaukee, and their offense has been in a nasty cold streak. Over their last 12 games, the Reds are hitting .166 with a 50 wRC+ and a 27.2 percent strikeout rate. That is unwatchable baseball. Stewart is basically carrying the offense on his back right now.
Stewart is only 23. He came up as a top prospect two years ago and has quietly become one of the most productive middle-of-the-order bats in the National League. The RBI total is the flashy number, but he also has a .293 average, .375 on-base percentage, and 44 doubles. He is on pace for a 30-homer, 100-RBI season in the friendliest home park for a right-handed pull hitter in baseball.
The Reds are going to need a lot more of what he did on Tuesday to have any shot at the postseason. Cincinnati sits three games back of the second wild card with 40 to play, which is more or less the definition of “still alive but running out of time.” A hot week from the offense changes the outlook. A cold week ends it.
What is impressive about Stewart is the consistency. His monthly OPS numbers have been almost identical from April through August. Most young hitters cycle through hot streaks and month-long slumps. Stewart has been steady, which is unusual for a player his age and is exactly why the Reds think they have a franchise cornerstone.
Cincinnati’s rotation still needs to hold up. Brady Singer is on the mound Wednesday for the finale of the Cardinals series after posting a 4.50 ERA over his last three starts. Nick Lodolo has been up and down all season. Hunter Greene has been the ace when healthy, but his health is a permanent question. The offense cannot keep bailing out mediocre starts.
Stewart has to keep doing his part. He does not have a ton of protection in the lineup right now with Elly De La Cruz in a slump and Spencer Steer streaky. Pitchers are starting to work around him, and his walk rate has climbed all summer as a result. He needs to keep the strikeouts under control and keep punishing the mistakes.
The MVP conversation should include him. Shohei Ohtani is Shohei Ohtani, so the actual award is spoken for. But Stewart deserves to be in the top-five discussion, and if he wins the RBI title on a wild card team, he has a real case for finishing higher than most people expect.
Cincinnati fans are watching the birth of something. The Reds have not had a legitimate homegrown superstar since Joey Votto’s peak years. Stewart is on that track. He is 23, cheap, controllable through 2029, and playing his best baseball in August.
Six weeks to go. Sal Stewart looks like he is just getting started.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
