Cincinnati Reds 3B prospect Sal Stewart hit .306 with 10 home runs and a .377 on-base percentage in 80 games for Double-A Chattanooga.
ATLANTA – This time last year, one of the Cincinnati Reds’ most impressive hitting prospects had the All-Star break off, and he took advantage when he went home to Miami.
Until he slipped on a rock and didn’t play again the rest of the season.
Sal Stewart still has a big ugly scar running the length of his right wrist as a constant reminder.
“Just a freak accident,” the third baseman said. “I was in the ocean, and when I slipped, there was a shell under the water that sliced my wrist open.”
The injury was severe enough to require surgery and the removal of a tendon.
“It was tough,” he said, “but it made me better.”
It’s easier for him to say now, a year later, as he enjoys an MLB All-Star week in Atlanta that included a Futures Game appearance Saturday among baseball’s top prospects — and big career news after the game.
“I’m a believer in Jesus. He allowed that (injury). And I don’t know why,” Stewart said. “That’s not even part of my will. I just have to trust in Him.
“It actually helped me tremendously,” Stewart added. “It got my body right and got me mentally prepared for the next year.”
"Next year' is here for top Reds prospect Sal Stewart
“Next year” is here in a big way for the right-handed hitter with the keen eye at the plate and big enough numbers at Double-A Chattanooga that he got the call from manager Jose Moreno after the Futures Game that he’ll play his next game for Triple-A Louisville.
“I don’t know where it ranks, but it’s a pretty great day,” said Stewart, who came off the bench Saturday to play third and bat once, hitting a fly to right – then was enjoying the moment with his family immediately after the game when he got Moreno’s call.
“It was great. Knowing that my hard work’s paying off, and I’m one step away,” said Stewart, MLB Pipeline's 84th-ranked prospect. “Now I’m really one phone call away. Just super excited.
“Another steppingstone, and I’m almost there.”
Stewart already had caught the eye of new Reds manager Terry Francona during Stewart’s first big-league spring training a few months ago.
“He’s a very advanced hitter,” Francona said. “I don’t know when it is, but he’s gonna be a good major-league hitter. I firmly believe that.”
“He missed a little time with the (wrist) last year but he’s a good-looking hitter,” the manager added. “He goes line-to-line, which you don’t see a lot of strong right-handed hitters do when they’re young.”
Stewart, who has hit at every level with plate discipline evaluators rave about, has added more power to his game this season. Maybe even a little more athleticism, through the rehab process he alluded to.
Working with Barry Larkin critical for Reds prospect Sal Stewart
Also through boxing with Barry.
Specifically, that’s boxing training with Reds legend Barry Larkin, who discovered during his playing career the relationship between the rotational/linear dynamic in boxing and baseball.
Larkin said he used boxing training – heavy-bag work, speed bag, sparring – to tap into that areas of strength that built and apply it to what turned into a Hall of Fame career.
Stewart was a natural student.
“When I was younger, my dad always felt like boxing was a great thing for my footwork and my athleticism,” Stewart said. “I ended up doing it in the offseason, but ended up stopping just because it was a lot on my body – I was doing it a little too much.
“Then B-Lark – he’s awesome. B-Lark’s the man,” Stewart said. “He’s like, ‘Hey, let’s do some bags today, and I jumped right in. It’s awesome. Anytime a Hall of Famer tells you to do something you should probably listen.”
That was another steppingstone into the season, Stewart said, improving “my athleticism, my footwork, my hand-eye.”
He still stays in touch with Larkin during the season.
Whether the rehab work last year, general offseason regimen or spring boxing had the biggest impact on what came next, Stewart, 21, has put himself in an enviable position 80 games into his season.
One phone call away.
“It makes my heart race a little bit,” said Stewart, a 32nd-overall draft pick in 2022, who hit .306 with 10 home runs and a .377 on-base percentage for Chattanooga. “But I try my hardest to to just stay in the moment, stay where I’m at. It’s above my pay grade. It’s out of my hands. The only thing I can control is playing hard, playing to win. And whenever that time comes, it comes.
“I know what I can do. I know what I’m capable of,” he said. “I’m ready for the call whenever it is.”
At least one guy in the Southern League might have been happy to see him go.
“You know you’re really going to have to work to get him out,” said Marlins pitching prospect Thomas White, who has faced Stewart in A-ball and again this year in Double-A. “He hits off-speed stuff really well, where a lot of hitters sell out mostly for the fastball. And you’ve got to be careful because if you miss a spot, he’s going to hit it. Because he can hit everything: fastball, changeup, curveball.
“He’ll swing at three pitches in a row and foul them off, and then you’ll dot something just off the plate and he’ll spit on it,” White said. “Like he saw it all the way. He’s got a great eye.”
Top Reds prospect Sal Stewart knows he must remain patient
Where Stewart won’t gaze with that eye is at his phone for the next call or toward Cincinnati to break down the roster and potential opportunity with some flux at third base and veteran corner infielder Jeimer Candelario getting recently released.
“I never look at it from that perspective,” Stewart said. “Whenever my time comes it comes.”
But he also knows this much almost exactly one year after his career arc flashed before his eyes:
“I’m healthy. I’m ready to go. I feel great,” he said. “Body feels good, mind feels good. So I’m gonna take this time off and then make a push for that September callup.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds prospect Sal Stewart promoted to AAA after Futures Game
Category: Baseball
