CINCINNATI — As storm clouds closed in on Great American Ball Park in the fifth inning on Friday night, Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch went to the mound to take out starter Framber Valdez and bring in Kyle Finnegan, usually reserved for the eighth inning.
The Tigers were ahead by three runs, but Cincinnati Reds second baseman Matt McLain had just put the first two runs on the board for the home team before Elly De La Cruz singled. De La Cruz’s single brought Hinch out of the dugout and Finnegan from the bullpen.
The last time Finnegan appeared in a game before the seventh inning was in May 2023, a stretch of 175 regular-season appearances. After the game, a reporter asked Hinch if the threat of rain influenced his decision to bring Finnegan in so early.
“Zero. It was Sal Stewart,” Hinch said. “He’s killing this league. We needed to get out of that mess.”
While Finnegan was able to get the best of Stewart, his Tigers teammates weren’t as fortunate the next day, as the early NL Rookie of the Year favorite taking them for three hits, including a home run and five RBIs.
“You have to be aware of where he is in the lineup regardless of his service time or his experience or anything. He can change the game and he did,” Hinch said before Sunday’s game. “He’s done it two games in a row and I’ll be glad to be done with him in a few hours.”
Entering Monday, Stewart was atop multiple National League offensive categories, including second in offensive WAR (1.5), first in RBIs (29), tied for second in home runs (9), fourth in OPS (.987) and even tied for fourth in stolen bases (7) — one more than De La Cruz, with Stewart yet to be thrown out on a steal attempt this season.
Although 28 games is hardly a large enough sample to look at ‘on pace’ stats, Stewart is on pace to drive in 168 runs, which would obliterate the current rookie record for RBIs, 145 set by Ted Williams in 1939.
While still a rookie in 2026, Stewart made a statement when he was called up last September, hitting five home runs in 18 regular-season games before driving in four of the Reds’ nine runs in the Wild Card Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Coming up through the minors, Stewart was known more as a hitter than a slugger. Entering the 2025 season, he had just 20 home runs in his 205 minor league games, but just one more strikeout (139) than walks (138).
Stewart silenced questions about his power last season, when he matched his career total in 118 games between Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville. The homers did come at a price, with him striking out more and walking less. He was that same type of hitter in his brief call-up to the big leagues, with just three walks and 15 strikeouts.
As the Reds entered the offseason, they remembered the misstep in handing out a starting spot to Noelvi Marte following his impressive September debut in 2023. While Stewart remained a promising player, the team added insurance, signing veterans at his two primary positions, third base (Eugenio Suárez) and first base (Nathaniel Lowe).
Stewart won the starting role at first base this spring and found himself in the cleanup spot to start the season, between De La Cruz and DH Suárez, who was coming off a 49-homer season. Stewart won the first National League Player of the Week honor of 2026 and hasn’t slowed down since.
The Reds held their Hall of Fame ceremonies before Saturday’s game, with multiple members of the team’s Hall of Fame in attendance. One of those was Sean Casey, a three-time All-Star and former New York Yankees hitting coach. It doesn’t take much to get Casey, who serves as an analyst on MLB Network, revved up, but talking about Stewart put the RPMs in the red.
“He’s advanced. It’s a veteran at-bat, just the way he puts it together,” Casey said after Stewart’s three-run homer in the first inning off Tigers starter Jack Flaherty. “The way he can shoot it to right-center, when you start doing that up here in the big leagues, you become a real problem. Sal Stewart’s going to be here a long time. This is pretty cool to watch him.”
On his home run off Flaherty, just Stewart’s second pull homer of the season, he waited on the pitch and almost made it look like he took a one-handed swing before it found the stands.
In his second at-bat, Stewart got behind 0-2 and then fouled off three pitches before the first ball he saw. He fouled off another before he was called out looking by home plate umpire Laz Diaz. Stewart immediately challenged the call and it was overturned. He fouled off two more before ripping Flaherty’s 12th pitch of the at-bat to short for an infield single.
Stewart came up with bases loaded and the Reds up four runs with one out in the sixth inning against reliever Connor Seabold. With a 2-2 count, Seabold appeared to have struck out Stewart, but Stewart drove the ball 102 mph off the bat to the opposite side for a two-run single.
Lowe hit his third homer in two games on Saturday, but as a crowd of reporters gathered near his locker after the win, he looked over to Stewart, whose locker is next to his. “They’re here for you. I only drove in one,” Lowe told him.
The crowd was there for Stewart, but Lowe did get asked a question — about Stewart.
Which was the best at-bat of Stewart’s three hits?
“It’s tough,” Lowe said, “but it’s got to be that 12-pitch at-bat.”
No longer is Stewart an “advanced young hitter,” he’s just an advanced hitter. The young portion is being dropped from the descriptors.
“The approach day-to-day for him, I think that’s why everyone calls him so mature because he has a plan, even if it’s not 100 percent, he’s going to go out there and be committed to that plan,” said Reds hitting coach Chris Valaika. “He has such elite bat-to-ball skills that he knows when to take his chance. He knows when to dial it back.”
Hinch has seen similar results from his own rookie, shortstop Kevin McGonigle. Both, Hinch said, have shown they have staying power in the league.
“The reason young players survive and exceed a performance threshold when they get to the big leagues is they know the strike zone,” Hinch said. “Those who don’t will have a hot game or two, or have a hot series. It’s generally hard to have a hot month if you don’t know the strike zone.”
After reporters closed their notebooks and the TV camera moved away, Hinch summed up his thoughts on Stewart — “He’s scary.”