Royals may provide Reds with the perfect trade target to unlock Sal Stewart's potential

Sal Stewart could be the lynchpin in the Cincinnati Reds pulling off a successful offseason in which they fill all of their holes and improve a lineup that was terrifyingly top-heavy in 2026. With 32 homers, 112 RBI, and a strong Rookie of the Year case, the 22-year-old is clearly part of the solution.

However, the extent to which Stewart can help solve the Reds' offensive woes extends beyond how he plays on the field and includes where he plays on the field. The youngster is a natural third baseman, and by moving him back to his comfort zone, Cincinnati would not only extract more value from him, but also open up a spot at first base that should be easier to fill than the hot corner.

One such first base target could come via the trade market in the form of Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. A hulking, left-handed slugger, Pasquantino hit .249/.333/.428 with 17 homers in just 114 games last season. Those are good numbers, but they look even better in the context of what the 29-year-old had to deal with, fracturing his hamate bone which required surgery and then subsequently landing on the IL again with hand/wrist soreness as a result of the original injury.

A look at his 2025 performance, when he was fully healthy, is a better illustration of what he can be. Pasquantino crushed 32 dingers while slashing .264/.323/.475. Having a pair of 30-plus-homer bookends in the infield would be a fantastic development for Cincinnati.

Pasquantino would also help balance out the Reds' lineup in other ways. Cincinnati hitters combined for a league-worst 25.5% strikeout rate. Pasquantino struck out just 15.8% in 2026, and owns a career mark of 14%. The Reds' left-handed hitters combined for a league-worst .217 batting average, a 23rd-ranked .387 slugging percentage, and just 50 homers, which ranked 27th. The Kansas City veteran would right all of those wrongs.

The Reds likely need to get a third team involved in order to pry Vinnie Pasquantino away from the Royals

Cincinnati and Kansas City are two teams that find themselves in similar predicaments. Both are small-market Midwestern clubs, built around a pair of young stars in the infield. For the Reds, that's Stewart and Elly De La Cruz. For the Royals, that's Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia, both of whom are signed to long-term deals.

KC moving on from Pasquantino makes some sense. He's older than their core, only has two years of team control remaining, and by opening up first base, they can move 23-year-old slugger Jac Caglione in from the outfield, where he has struggled defensively.

Royals general manager J.J. Picollo has mentioned that the club will be aggressive this offseason in hopes of rebounding after a disappointing 2026 campaign. However, he noted that the aggressiveness won't coincide with a marked increase in spending. Instead, this seems like a rebalancing of assets in order to fill more pressing holes.

The greatest needs for Kansas City are in the bullpen, as well as adding offensive firepower to the outfield. That's where things hit a snag for the Reds.

Cincinnati also needs to rebuild its bullpen this offseason, and doesn't have a ton of outfielders to spare. On top of everything else, Picollo noted that his team is too heavily left-handed in the lineup, which would take some of the appeal away from players like Hector Rodriguez and/or Carlos Jorge, should the Reds want to dangle them. Even if the handedness wasn't an issue, Cincinnati would be wise not to open a new hole in service of filling an existing one.

To make this hypothetical deal come to fruition, the Reds would likely need to involve a third team. In this case, they'd spin off a couple of prospects to convince that third club to part with a solution that's better aligned with the Royals' needs.

The good news is that these two clubs have done business together before, most recently in the Brady Singer-Jonathan India trade, so there seems to be a good working relationship between Picollo and Nick Krall.

Like everything else that seems to be coming the Reds' way, this won't be easy and will require creativity to solve, but by embracing flexibility and moving Stewart to third, the franchise will be better set up to make these outside-the-box moves that yield a stronger roster overall.

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