Also Follow Reds on https://athlonsports.com/
Dateline: 1,209 Kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico
The Reds September call ups, Sal Stewart and Yosver Zulueta, came up to fill the expanded roster.
Zulueta has been up and down the last couple years and been in games at the Major League level but Stewart, 21, will be making his debut. Terry Francona put him in the lineup at first base, a fairly new position and put him in the six hole of the lineup.
Stewart impressed everyone with his bat in spring training. Brimming with confidence, Stewart dominated at Double A Chattanooga and was promoted right after the All-Star game was promoted to Triple A Louisville and continued to hit.
"He will be a good hitter one day," Francona said in spring training. "I don't know when. He doesn't look athletic but he can move and gets to all the plays that he's supposed to."
Stewart played mostly third base and second base in his pro career. The Bats played him at first base so it isn't completely new.
"I talked to them at Louisville and they told me he would be alright," Francona said. "I wouldn't put him out there."
"He (Steer) is so tough. He has been playing through it," Francona said.
Stewart made his Major League debut, becoming the seventh Red to debut in 2025.
Across 118 games with AA-Chattanooga and AAA-Louisville this season, Stewart slashed .309/.383/.524 (135-for-437) with 20 homers, 34 doubles, 78 runs, and 80 RBI.
During his 38-game stint with Louisville (7/18-8/30), led the International League in doubles (15), while also ranking in XBH (25, 2nd), total bases (90, 2nd), RBI (36, T2nd), hits (45, T2nd), SLG (.629, 4th), HR (10, 5th), and OPS (1.023, 7th).
Stewart is currently rated by both MLB.com (31) and Baseball America (86) as a top-100 prospect in baseball. Also he is ranked by both outlets as one of the top prospects in the Reds organization (#1 by MLB.com, #4 by Baseball America).
He represented the Reds organization in the 2025 All-Star Futures Game at Truist Park, along with C Alfredo Duno (Daytona)...honored as a Midwest League AllStar in 2024 and a Florida State League All-Star in 2023.
Stewart was named Southern League Player of the Week for the 5/19-5/25 and recognized as the Reds' Minor League Player of the Month for May. Stewart was selected by the Reds as a compensation pick in the 1st round (32nd overall) of the 2022 first-year player draft. wart is the seventh player this season to make his debut as a Red.
The Miami, Florida native attended Westminster Christian School in Miami. He works out with the San Diego Padres, Manny Machado and former Red, Yonder Alonso.
Stewart was informed by Louisville manager, Pat Kelly, that he got the call.
"He had done a little Canada thing for me there," Stewart said. "He had me read it off the phone. It was awesome. I called everybody, literally everybody, I could possibly think of . Oh definitely, I called Manny (Machado). He even did a video for me. It was one of the best moments, I ever had for sure."
Stewart singled in his first Major League at bat and scored on a double by Ke'Bryan Hayes.
No comments:
Post a Comment