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    Reds MiLB Notebook: Sal Stewart is hitting more, slugging less

    Doug Gray 13

    In 2024 Sal Stewart was having a good season with the Dayton Dragons through the All-Star break. But during that break he injured himself and wound p having surgery on his wrist that would cost him the second half of the year. This season he moved up to Chattanooga and picked up where he had left off.

    In 22 games in April Stewart hit .301 with seven doubles and two home runs – good for a .458 slugging percentage. He only walked five times, but was hit by six pitches and that helped boost his on-base percentage up to .383 for April. Overall it was a good month at the plate.

    After starting out May by going 2-13, Stewart has picked up the pace. In the 12 games since then he’s hit .396 – going 19-48 with three doubles. That’s boosted his line for May to .344/.385/.426. He’s only walked four times during May in 65 plate appearances and after being hit quite often in April he hasn’t been hit by a pitch at all in May.

    Through 38 games this season in Double-A, the 21-year-old is now hitting .319/.384/.444. Now that strikeouts have ever been a problem for Stewart, but so far his strikeout rate is down a little bit from last season. His 15.1% strikeout rate is the 5th lowest in the league among qualified hitters in the league (teammate Hector Rodriguez is 3rd at 11.6%). At the same time, his 5.7% walk rate is also the 4th worst in the league among qualified hitters and it’s down significantly from the 15% rate it’s been for his career.

    The power has also been down a little bit for Stewart. While he’s never been a big power guy in past seasons, he did show more power than he has this year where his isolated power (slugging minus average) is just .125. For context the Southern League average isolated power is not high, either – .115. So in that context, Stewart is hitting for a little more power than the average player in the league. And overall he’s hitting a lot better than the average player in the league where the OPS is .667 (Stewart’s is .828).

    With that said, Sal Stewart is a top prospect and not a light-hitting, defensive first player. Stewart’s value comes from what he can do at the plate and he plays positions where you expect some power. We’ve seen more from him in the past, and it’s still early in the season and he’s coming off of a wrist injury, too. Those have been known to delay the return of power in players well after they actually get back on the field.

    Connor Burns has a big week

    From the start of the season through May 9th, Connor Burns had played in 20 games with the Dayton Dragons and hit just .113/.177/.169. In 79 plate appearances he had just one double and one home run among his eight hits. To say he was struggling at the plate would be an understatement.

    But on May 10th and 11th against Great Lakes he went 3-7 with a double to wrap up the series. That carried over into the road trip to face Quad Cities. Burns opened up the road trip by going 2-5 with a home run. Two days later he went 2-4 with two home runs. The next day he went 2-4 with two doubles. And on Sunday he went 1-4 with a home run. Five games, seven hits, two doubles, four home runs, and an OPS during the series of 1.431. He turned his OPS of .346 through 20 games to an OPS of .618 in the span of seven games.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    13 Responses

    2. Maybe a Player of the Week for Burns?

      If I remember correctly, Burns was a defensive first catcher who was regarded as the best defensive catcher in his draft. IF (big IF) he starts hitting that would be huge for the Reds depth at the catcher position.

      1. Nope. The awards are out and he didn’t get it. I looked up the guy they gave it to and he did deserve it over Burns. Sometimes your big week just isn’t enough to top someone else’s big week.

      2. Burns is one of the best defensive catchers I have ever seen live, including big league games. The Reds will keep him in the system as long as he wants to be here because either he figures out hitting enough to be a valuable piece in the big leagues or he sticks around and mentors the other catchers in the org until he decides to hang em up.

    3. Just posted on Stewart in the previous article, only moments before this one hit. Err, thanks Doug.

      Makes sense to move the discussion forward.

      Given his size, 6’1, 225, and just average athleticism, I hope Stewart doesn’t have expectations put on him to be a huge power bat, at least not soon anyway. He really just seems to be who he is, hitting wise. Pre-draft, he had one of the best hit tools for both college and high school kids. He hasn’t deviated much from that at all. At the time, with both the system and all of baseball drowning in strikeouts, getting such a good “contact” hitter was pretty great. And still is, IMO.

      I’m still one to think he ends up at 1B in the ML’s, even though he might be able to play average defense at 3B. His arm is very good or better, his hands seem to be fine. My main concern is whether he is quick enough on his feet to handle the speed of the game up above the minors. I suppose the decision will be partly whether they elect to go with average vs stellar defense, or whether Marte or someone like Arroyo sticks at 3B, moving Stewart to 1B.

      Where this ties in for me is in what’s expected of Stewart offensively as a 3B vs as a 1B. Power can be part of that equation, right or wrong, fair or unfair. The prototype 1B still has expectations to hit for more power as they add less in defense. Given that Stewart seems very true to his hitting approach, it is probably best for him as a young guy to be played at 3B, where there is a bit less pressure to be a big HR power guy, for as long as possible. I wonder if the trials at 2B were as much a recognition of his hitting as they were for him to push his versatility and agility, as reported.

      Too many questions, not enough coffee.

    4. If he can hit 20 plus homers with minimum .800 ops and good defense he should be fine at 1B. But if he’s a 10-15 homerun guy annually that’s a little light for 1B imo.

        1. 3B might be better filled by one of Marte or Arroyo. Stewart, and Collier seem more like 1B/DH type of defenders imo.

    5. A difference between Stewart and many other top Reds prospects is Stewart is a baseball player who happens to be a good athlete many others are good athletes that play baseball. A major League comparison would be Spencer Steer.

        1. Arroyo hit 28 doubles, 11 triples and 13 HR’s as a 19 year old in Hi-A, slugging .433 (.435 career). He’s got solid line drive power and BA grades it out as average overall (50). So, when i say he could fit at 3B, it’d be as an excellent defender with enough of a bat to be a very good ML regular there, especially as MLB as well as the Reds are moving towards more speed and higher contact hitters. I also am willing to look at overall team power and not lock into which positions should have power and which ones shouldn’t necessarily. Plus i really like great defenders. So that’s how i get there, anyway. Food for thought.

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