Sal Stewart jumpstarts Rookie of the Year buzz with huge start for the Reds

During the offseason, Cincinnati Reds infielder Sal Stewart garnered some Rookie of the Year buzz, but mostly resided in the periphery of national attention. The biggest obstacles in his path looked to be the members of the Reds' NL Central foes, with Pittsburgh Pirates' phenom Konnor Griffin and St. Louis Cardinals' blue-chipper JJ Weatherholt standing out as the experts' darlings.

Once spring training got underway, his teammates became fully bought in on his ROY candidacy. The praise wasn't unwarranted as the youngster slashed .327/.450/.592 with more walks (11) than strikeouts (9) during the warmup period. Now that the regular season has gotten underway, Stewart is making an even louder statement and setting the scene to make the chase for the award no contest.

It's only been four games, but with a .667/.765/1.167 performance against the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates, Stewart has finished Opening Day weekend ranked second in the majors in average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, hits, and doubles. That's quite the statement.

Reds infielder Sal Stewart has put the Rookie of the Year voters on notice

How good Stewart's start has been cannot be overstated. In fact, it's been record-setting. At the conclusion of Sunday's action, Stewart was 22 years, 112 days old and had reached base 10 times over Cincinnati's first three games. Only two players in MLB history had accomplished that feat over their club's first three games at a younger age: Barney McCosky in 1939 and Jim Fregosi in 1964. The last Reds player of any age to reach this milestone was Barry Larkin in 2001.

The Reds' offense was just about average last season in terms of runs scored, coming in 14th in baseball with 716. Power production was the biggest Achilles heel, with them ranking in the bottom third of the league in homers and SLG.

Eugenio Suarez returning to the Queen City will provide a boost, but beyond the addition of the veteran slugger, there are some important developments happening that could be transformative for Cincinnati's lineup.

Matt McLain also lit it up against Boston and came into the regular season as perhaps the spring's hottest hitter. If he's truly back to his 2023 form, he'll give the club a much-needed shot in the arm at the top of the lineup.

Meanwhile, Stewart's Rookie of the Year pace and power potential could give the Reds yet another fearsome slugger in the heart of the order, solving the power production problem once and for all.

McLain returning to form and Stewart playing a full season essentially serve as two additional high-profile offensive acquisitions. If all goes according to plan, we might be talking about Cincinnati finishing with a top-five offense in baseball in 2026. If the club reaches that lofty status, Stewart will be a huge reason why, essentially clinching the NL Rookie of the Year in the process.

Slumps and losing skids will inevitably come, but you don't need to squint to envision Stewart becoming an instant superstar, making it easy to extrapolate all sorts of pleasant outcomes from that development.