Sal Stewart’s rookie year in the context of Cincinnati Reds history
· Yahoo Sports
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Reds fans and fans across the country.
Stat-heads know the familiar feeling of opening up player pages at Baseball Reference and seeing numbers leaning right, boldfaced and italicized.
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It means a player is currently leading not just his own league, but all of Major League Baseball in a particular category.
Flipping open the page of Cincinnati Reds rookie Sal Stewart lends you that opportunity. He has played in all 139 games in which the Reds have participated so far in 2026, his rookie year, and that’s obviously the most anyone could have played. His 105 runs batted in also sit atop the MLB leaderboard – 105, I should have said.
En route to a 3+WAR season on the backs of a 127 OPS+ (and rising), Sal is putting together the kind of rookie campaign that may very well lead to him winning the National League Rookie of the Year honors. He’s already popped 30 homers, and while that RBI total is currently leading all of Major League Baseball, it has also already eclipsed the previous record for runs batted in by a Cincinnati Reds rookie.
Plain and simple, he’s having a truly remarkable season. The question is, though, where it ranks among the great rookie seasons in Cincinnati Reds history.
Jonathan India took home the award back in 2021 as a member of the Reds. Scott Williamson’s bulldog 1999 season earned him one, too. Chris Sabo, Pat Zachry, Johnny Bench, Tommy Helms, Pete Rose, and Frank Robinson similarly earned the award, with Frank’s 38 homers back in 1956 the benchmark total in that category that Sal will still try to clear before season’s end.
And those are just the guys who won the award as rookies. Lest we forget Joey Votto’s deserving rookie season in 2008 when he posted a 125 OPS+ with 24 homers only to finish 2nd.
This week’s MLB Reacts question is almost a litmus test for the way we evaluate big leaguers these days. As mentioned in the latest rundown of rookies in the running for the award at MLB.com, each and every rookie who has swatted at least 30 homers and driven in at least 100 runs since the award was founded has won it in that season, placing the kind of special value on those stats moreso than, say, defensive runs saved and overall WAR. So, if you’re of the opinion (much like baseball arbitration metrics) that dingers and ribbies just mean more, you may well fall on the side of saying that Sal is having one of the best – if not the best – rookie seasons in Cincinnati Reds history.
What say you?
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