PITTSBURGH — The message to Sal Stewart has been pretty consistent throughout the first half of his rookie season. He calls it the best advice that he has received.
He’s often reminded to be himself. His passion, energy and edge have been as consistent as anything about the Reds in 2026.
“When you try to be someone else, you stick out like a sore thumb,” Stewart said. “I’m grateful that I can be who I am and the guys on this team allow me to be who I am. I enjoy coming to the yard and playing with this team. I love the game. I love what I do. I’m grateful for what I do. I try not to take it for granted and go out there and play hard and play to win.”
Entering Sunday, Stewart is hitting a solid .252 with a .795 OPS that ranks third among qualified rookies in the National League. His 57 RBI this season are tied for fourth-most by any NL rookie before July since the stat became official in 1920, and Stewart’s 57 RBI rank tied-for-fifth in MLB this season.
“I’m still getting better,” Stewart said. “I’ll always get better. I haven’t played to the best of my ability. It’s been good, but I feel like there’s a lot more in there that I have to tap into for the rest of the season. I make adjustments. They make adjustments. It goes back and forth. Every day is a new day.”
Francona has seen a knack for RBI in Stewart, and the 22-year-old has been a presence in the middle of the Reds’ lineup all season.
Stewart has had his waves of success and struggles this season, but on the whole he’s having a very positive year.
“I think I’m in a good spot,” Stewart said. “You’ve got to stay focused. Once you keep your focus on winning, everything pans out. I’d like to play better. I also understand that halfway through, I’ve had a good year so far. I know there’s better for myself in there, but I just want to go out there and give it my all.”
His RBI are one example of Stewart’s ability to deliver winning plays, and his reliability on defense is another example. His ability to play a solid third base following Ke’Bryan Hayes’ injury is one of the more important developments of the Reds’ season, and Stewart’s versatility allows Francona to put the Reds’ best nine hitters into the lineup on a given day.
Stewart is a great competitor, and he’s one of those guys who has a way of being extremely confident even when he’s in the middle of a cold stretch at the plate.
“When you know you’re a good hitter, and he does… I’m not saying he’s arrogant, I think he knows he’s a good hitter,” Terry Francona said. “When it doesn’t go well, he gets mad, but he knows he’s a good hitter.”
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Eugenio Suárez and Chase Petty got the headlines on Saturday, but Edwin Arroyo quietly played the best game of his young big league career.
“He went the other way with a double, which is always good,” Francona said. “He got the bunt down to third. That was after we had talked to him about it. I thought the other night, he tried to do a little too much (when he bunted against the Brewers in the ninth inning). We said, ‘Slow down, here’s all you’ve got to do.’ He did. The intent was there, and he executed it. When you play the game right, then other good things happen.”
He needs to keep driving the ball like he did on Saturday, and the consistency of his defense is a critical area for him to develop. Overall, he’s getting better.
“He’s a good hustler,” Francona said. “The other night, he hit that ball and ended up going to second. I said, ‘I never want to take away your hustle because I love it, but that was awfully close. We’re down three.’ He looks at you and goes, ‘Ok, I’ve got you.’ He listens, which is really good.”
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Through the first half of his rookie season, Rhett Lowder has a 4.81 ERA through 12 starts.
“I’m on the right path process wise over the last couple of games,” Lowder said. “I’m trending the right way. There are some things I want to get better at. I’m learning a ton. There’s always stuff I feel getting better.”
His rookie season was interrupted by a shoulder injury that kept him out for about a month.
“I’ve been staying in the fight really well, especially after missing so much time,” Lowder said. “That can tough, staying in the fight after not being in some situations for a while. I’ve had outings where it might not go my way early, but I can find a way to keep us in it and give us a chance to win in the long run.”
Lowder sees a few positives with his pitching. His slider has been a good putaway pitch against righties, and the changeup has been a good putaway pitch against lefties. He’s able to freeze hitters with fastballs to end and at-bat, which is a testament to his command and the variety of ways that Lowder can defeat a hitter. He’s a very good mixer and matcher.
On the negative side, his walk rate has been higher than expected this year, and he’s allowing more line drive contact than you’d want. There have been games where he had poor execution on a pitch over the plate that cost him as he allowed a game-changing swing. In each of his last two starts, Lowder has been undone by one big inning.
“I was struggling to find the zone and searching for the pitch to get be back in (the zone),” Lowder said. “It’s non chases and getting into a deep count. You see across they game that hitters are trying to wait pitchers out because the zone has shrunk a bit. Swing percentages are down across the league. You have to fill it up, be on the attack and not waste too many to put them away.”
Lowder, who made his big league debut in his first year pitching professionally (2024) and then missed the 2025 season due to injury, is still so early in his career.
He’s learning as he goes, especially with his approach to game planning for specific opponents.
“You read into what these teams do to different (pitchers), but the approach for one (pitcher) may be completely different from how they approach you,” Lowder said. “You have to do a bit of self-reflection. What are teams going to do against me? You have to be humble. You can’t think you’re really good at this. You have to be honest with yourself, and you might not be doing great and what teams may try to target.”
***Before this weekend’s series against the Pirates, a big talking point was how the Reds had the worst OPS in MLB versus pitches 95 mph+. The Reds’ lineup was the worst in the league against velocity. Then, the lineup went out and had big games against two flamethrowers in Paul Skenes and Jared Jones.
The offense has made an adjustment.
“They’re trying to be aggressive to the fastball,” Francona said. “Not chasing. Seeing it and hitting it. Sometimes, that helps you lay off the other stuff, if you’re committed to something that’s over the plate.”
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Nick Lodolo isn’t quite vintage Nick Lodolo yet.
After missing the first six weeks of the season due to a blister issue, Lodolo has a 5.59 ERA across his nine starts in 2026.
“It hasn’t been clean by any means,” Lodolo said. “I wish I was throwing the ball better. It’s getting better. I’d like to see it turn around ASAP, but that’s not how the game works. I’m showing up every day and doing the stuff that I’ve had success doing, getting back to that stuff mechanically. Mindset wise, it’s the mindset of whatever it takes that day to win. That’s where I’m at.”
His biggest gift is a unique breaking ball for a left-hander that gets huge swings and misses when he’s rolling. That pitch is typically the bellwether for Lodolo. It hasn’t quite been humming this year, so his chase and whiff rates are way down.
“When I’m going, (my breaking ball) is my calling card,” Lodolo said.
Because he was coming back from the blister, the Reds capped the number of breaking balls that Lodolo was allowed to throw when he ramped up toward his season debut back in May. Lodolo is a long pitcher with a lot of moving pieces. He says that repeatability is key with that pitch. He’s just not at the point yet where that pitch is rolling.
“You expect yourself to go out there and instantly start spinning it great,” Lodolo said. “That hasn’t been the case. It’s been getting better. I’ve been working every day on it. You want it to turn immediately.”
The silver lining is that even without his best breaking ball, Lodolo has scratched and clawed to give the Reds some solid starts recently. A couple of his starts over the last month weren’t good enough, but six innings of one-run baseball against the Mets, 6 ⅔ innings of three-run baseball against the Braves and 5 ⅓ innings of two-run baseball against the Diamondbacks were positive nights.
He was on track for another positive start last week against the Brewers. He threw four shutout innings but exited the game with a wrist contusion (the swelling went down, and his wrist is in a good spot entering his start on Monday). Against the Brewers, Lodolo got three whiffs on three swings against his breaking ball.
Lodolo has a huge ceiling, and he posted a 2.82 ERA across his final 14 starts last season. He’s working to get back to that level.
“I want to hit that stretch where I go on a run and it’s a good quality month to boost you to where you want to go,” Lodolo said.
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Blake Dunn, who had the fourth-highest WAR among Reds’ position players despite being in Triple-A or a big league bench player until late May, landed on the injured list on Sunday with an elbow injury. He’s heading back to Cincinnati for further evaluation, and the Reds will need more information before setting a timeline for Dunn to return.
In a corresponding move, the Reds called up TJ Friedl from Triple-A.
“It’s never easy for a guy to be told you’re going to Triple-A,” Francona said. “He handled it like you’d expect Friedl to handle it. When he walked in today, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that many people that excited to see somebody. That’s pretty cool.”
In 18 games in Triple-A, Friedl hit .271.
“It’s a blessing to be back here (in MLB),” Friedl said. “I’m grateful that God opened the door for me to be back here with these guys. It’s incredible to be back in this clubhouse.”
It seems like Francona’s preference is to keep Noelvi Marte and JJ Bleday in corner outfield spots. As a result, it looks like Friedl and Dane Myers are the Reds’ options in center field (I didn’t see Matt McLain working out any more in center field this weekend in Pittsburgh). Friedl and Myers platooned in center field back in April, and it could make sense to go back to that now.
The other center field candidate in Triple-A before the Reds called Friedl was up was Will Benson, who was optioned last week (Héctor Rodríguez is a corner outfielder). Prospect Carlos Jorge is in Double-A and is a name to know down the road.
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Here’s the most interesting storyline of the next week for the Reds: What happens in the rotation when Hunter Greene returns from the IL?
If all goes well for Greene today in his rehab game in Triple-A, he expects to be ready to return to the Reds’ rotation this week. July 3 is a likely return date for him.
The Reds’ rotation right now is Chase Burns, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Brady Singer and Rhett Lowder.
The Reds could go in a few different directions when Greene is ready. They haven’t publicly revealed what the plan is going to be.
Do you go with a six-man rotation through the All-Star break, or even the trade deadline? Do you try a piggyback system? Do you option a starting pitcher to Triple-A? Do you move a starting pitcher to the bullpen? Do you skip a start of one of the young starting pitchers (Burns or Lowder) to help manage their inning totals for the season?
It’s an interesting and fascinating decision.
Also, there will need to be a corresponding move in the bullpen when Emilio Pagán is activated next week.
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Ke’Bryan Hayes (back) has made it through the “Watkins program,” and he’s set to face pitchers on Wednesday and Thursday as he ramps up toward a rehab assignment.
Graham Ashcraft (elbow) will be re-scanned on Tuesday.
Brandon Williamson hurt his finger working out recently, which Francona said set him back by about 10 days.
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