In the 2024 season Sal Stewart had a strong first half with the High-A Dayton Dragons. He had an .844 OPS at the All-Star break as a 20-year-old. Then during the All-Star break he injured himself and had to undergo surgery and it cost him the rest of the season. In 2025 he remained healthy and flew through two levels before reaching the big leagues in his final month of the year.

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Despite missing the second half of 2024, the Cincinnati Reds felt confident that Sal Stewart was ready to make the jump to Double-A Chattanooga to being 2025. His season started out well as he went 11-28 (.393) with four doubles and two home runs in the first seven games of the season. Things slowed down a bit after that as he had a .633 OPS over the next three weeks without hitting a home run.

On May 6th he began a new series against Knoxville and went 2-4 with a double and that started a hot run at the plate that last for the next four weeks with the Lookouts. In 88 plate appearances through June 1st he would hit.381 and mash eight extra-base hits in 21 games played. The hot-hitting also came to a screeching half against Knoxville in early June as he went 2-19 in a 6-game series. After a day off Stewart and Chattanooga got back to work against Biloxi and he brushed that slump aside and didn’t really look back. For the next month he hit .305/.402/.558 and was named to the Futures Game.

Following his appearance at the Futures Game he was promoted up to Triple-A where he joined Louisville after leading the Southern League in average and ranking among the league leaders in most categories. He would eventually win the Southern League Most Valuable Player Award.

The start in Louisville was a bit slow. Over his first seven games he went 5-28 with one extra-base hit. But in his 8th game he went 4-4 with a double and two home runs against Iowa and just kept on crushing the ball from there. Starting that day he played in 31 games for the Bats and hit .348/.438/.713 with 24 extra-base hits, 19 walks, and just 22 strikeouts. That took him through the end of August. It was also the last game he’d spend in the minor leagues on the year as Cincinnati called him up on September 1st to join them at the big league level.

Stewart would debut on the 1st and go 1-3 with a run scored against Toronto. In total he would play in 18 regular season games, hitting .255/.293/.545 as he showed off plenty of power but did struggle a bit to get on base. Stewart would also play in both games in the playoffs with the Reds, coming off of the bench to draw a walk and driving in a run before going 2-4 with three runs batted in the next day.

For all 2025 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).

Position: 3B/1B | B/T: R/R

Height: 6′ 1″ | Weight: 224 lbs. | Acquired: 1st Round, 2022 Draft | Born: December 7, 2003

Ever since Sal Stewart was drafted he was viewed as a bat-first player. His bat has always been ahead of his defense. It’s not to say that he was viewed as only a designated hitter type, just that he was viewed as a guy who could hit well and would have to put in a lot of work if he was going to play somewhere in the field that wasn’t first base.

He has been able to do that and he spent most of his time in the minor leagues at third base in 2025 but did see limited action at second base. Second base for Stewart is going to be an “emergency only” situation at the big league level – he’s simply not a big league second baseman. At third base he doesn’t shine, but he makes the routine play there and could cover it for you. But that doesn’t seem too likely in Cincinnati as they acquired Ke’Bryan Hayes at the trade deadline and shortly after started getting Stewart work at first base before games in Triple-A. He only played there twice in Louisville before being called up where he played in 11 games there for the Reds.

If Cincinnati winds up playing Stewart at first or designated hitter, that is going to “damage” his value if you’re simply going to look at something like WAR to assess him in the future. But that’s not going to be because he can’t handle third base, it’s that someone else was there that made more sense for the club.

With that said, the value for Sal Stewart is going to come from what he does in the batters box regardless of where he is on the defensive spectrum. There’s a lot to like with what he does at the plate. Stewart can and does use the entire field and there’s some thump in his bat that could allow him to hit plenty of home runs the other way.

His time in the big leagues was limited and he only had three walks and he struck out 15 times, but at every other level he’s played he did better in both areas. Stewart gets the strikezone and has the ability to both make contact and keep a smaller swing-zone.

While there’s nothing elite in his hitting profile, he’s got a chance to be above-average in hitting for average, making contact, drawing walks, and hitting for power.

Stats

You can see the career stats for Sal Stewart here.

Spray Chart (MiLB only)

Video

Interesting Stat on Sal Stewart

In Saturday minor league games during 2025 he annihilated the ball, hitting .430/.485/.814. Nine of his 20 home runs happened in Saturday games.