MLB Network analyst just gave Sal Stewart the ultimate Rookie of the Year defense

As we get ready to enter the final month of the 2026 season, the National League Rookie of the Year race has become one of the most hotly debated topics — mainly among Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals fans — with Sal Stewart and JJ Wetherholt neck-and-neck as the calendar readies to flip to September.

But is the race really as close as some (mostly Cardinals fans) would have you believe? If you ask MLB Network analyst Chris Young — a 13-year veteran and former All-Star centerfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks — he'd tell you the answer is, no. And he gave a pretty good defense for his position earlier this week while on set with Mark DeRosa, Robert Flores, and Lauren Shehadi.

DeRosa and Flores went back and forth with each recognizing Stewart's accomplishments, though the pair left room for Cardinals' rookie JJ Wetherholt and New York Mets outfielder Carson Benge to sneak onto the podium ahead of the Reds' slugger. Thankfully, Young was present to bring the conversation back to reality.

"Rookie of the Year is a straight numbers award. It's always been, and it's an offensive award," Young said. "With it being an offensive award, and I want to make sure to come off clear — this by no means is a knock on what JJ (Wetherholt) has done this — JJ has had an amazing rookie season. But this should not be a close race."

Preach, CY! Finally, someone who gets it. While all the egg-heads and nerds want to cite asinine and subjective figures like Wins Above Replacement, Base Running Value, Outs Above Average, and every other off-the-wall metric the poindexters want to concoct, Young brought the conversation back to brass tacks.

Chris Young gives the best defense yet for why Reds slugger Sal Stewart deserves NL Rookie of the Year

"You're talking about 28 (home runs) and a hundred (RBI) right now," Young continued. "It leads me to believe that WAR, although it's not a scam, it's getting a little scam-ish. It's getting a little scam-ish. I'm sorry, when you look at the numbers side-by-side, if I'm Sal, I'm expecting to win the award if this is the person that's right behind me."

"What stands out to me with WAR, you're talking about a 1.9 to a 4.8. You're telling me that JJ Wetherholt is twice the player of Sal Stewart? That's hard for me to believe. And it makes me think that maybe WAR needs to be recalibrated to an extent, especially when it comes to first basemen," Young concluded.

Young then went on to reveal some classic cases from previous years when WAR didn't appropriately value the contributions that some of the greatest first basemen of their era produced. Fred McGriff in 2000 (.277/. 373/.452 with 27 home runs and 107 RBI) only received 0.2 bWAR. Ryan Howard's 2008 campaign, a year in which he finished second in the MVP voting, only netted him 1.8 bWAR despite hitting .251/.339/.543 while leading the league in home runs (48) and RBI (146).

"I've seen some years, and I'm not going to call out any names, of some centerfielders and middle infielders who've had very subpar offensive seasons — great defensive seasons — and they're four, five-win players. I'm sorry, this is not apple to apples," Young said. "It's something that needs to be recalibrated, with first basemen specifically, because you're talking about some big seasons that I feel like they're not getting the love for."

And with that, thanks to CY, the defense rests. It's really not that complicated, folks. If Stewart continues to crush baseballs over the final month of the season, he'll be your 2026 NL Rookie of the Year, and the race might not be as close as everyone seems to think.

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