It’s easy to forget that Sal Stewart is still two weeks away from his one year anniversary as being a big leaguer. Called up by the Cincinnati Reds on September 1st of 2025 when rosters expanded, he hit the ground running back then, too, but his 2026 season just continues to show that the Reds may just have stumbled upon an unyielding force within their lineup for as long as they choose to have him.
The Reds offense is the absolute pits. It’s the stinkiest, most lethargic unit in the league, a position player corps that ranks dead last in fWAR, wRC+, and half a dozen other metrics you can read about if you can stomach it. Still, somehow, Sal has managed to hoist the entirety of the team onto his shoulders when things mean the most, and he now once again sits as the MLB leader in RBI after his performance on Wednesday night in Great American Ball Park.
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The Reds got shut out yesterday. They had scored 1 (or fewer) runs in 6 of their most recent 10 games played. They were being shut out by Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore until Sal unleashed an absolute unit of a homer off the batter’s eye in CF in the Bottom of the 6th inning on Wednesday, a shot of the 3-run variety when the Reds had been trailing 2-0.
The future of the Reds is now, even if now they aren’t quite good enough just yet. Sal’s big smash gave the Reds the lead after fellow metal youngster Chase Burns held the Cardinals to just 2 ER in his start. The kids are not just all right, they’re damn destroyers of the paths of those unwilling to yield, and the long and short of it is that the front office of the Reds damn well better find more help for the leaders who’ve emerged to keep this club’s head above water so far in this otherwise dismal 2026 season.
Sal Stewart’s going to sock 30 dingers and drive in 120 runs this year. He’s only going to get better from here, too, as the kid – he’s a kid! – is still younger than Baltimore Orioles youngster Jackson Holliday, fellow Reds rookie Edwin Arroyo, Burns (by almost a year), Jac Caglianone, Jasson Dominguez, Chase Petty, and just about every single other dude out there still being dizzied by the world around them at that age.
Sal, though, is already over it. He’s just here to knock the shit out of the ball and win games.
