DataBaseball
2026
Sal Stewart headshot

1B · 2026

Sal Stewart

Age
23
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 1"
Weight
224 lb
Number
#27
Born
December 7, 2003 in Miami, FL, USA
MLB debut
September 1, 2025
Drafted
2022, round 1C
High school
Westminster Christian
dbWAR
2.6
2 season(s)
PA
506
AVG
.255
OBP
.332
SLG
.475
wRC+
121
100 = avg

Sal Stewart is a first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds. In 2026 he hit 25 home runs and knocked in 87 RBIs, notching 113 hits across 506 plate appearances in 117 games. His batting average was .255, 4.4% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .332 clip and slugged .475, for an OPS of .807, 12.2% higher than the league mark of .719 — the third best on his team, and 68th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 90.4 mph off the bat, hit 40.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 13.4% of them and made contact on 73.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 121 wRC+ puts his offence 21% above average. That comes to 2.3 dbWAR — +12.1 runs with the bat, +0.1 on the bases, -6.3 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+121
wOBA.347
ISO.221
BB%10.3%
WAR2.3

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +22.7 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting+12.1Baserunning+0.1Position-6.3Replacement+16.9
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.31.10.02526

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP1231053061729.286.390.505.38223.6%
vs RHP38333983193583.245.313.466.33621.7%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 338 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 328 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
13.4%
44 barrels
Exit velocity
90.4
mph average
Max exit velo
111.4
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
40.9%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
35.1%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
13.4°
average
Barrel rate13.4%
Exit velocity90.4 mph
Hard hit rate40.9%
Contact rate73.4%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.091.258.120.128.31619 AB.34626 AB.22218 AB.39543 AB.41748 AB.25052 AB.32025 AB.22948 AB.17229 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Sal Stewart hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations506.255.332.475.347
Bases empty2682345813143164.248.343.466.355
Runner on first1131062315728.217.265.302.256
Runners on2382105512732148.262.319.486.339
RISP1251043211681420.308.368.673.415

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
202611750611325871252112.255.332.475.221.28010.3%22.1%.347+12.11212.3
2025185814580315.255.293.545.291.2575.2%25.9%.354+1.91270.3

Head to head

Put Sal Stewart beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Sal Stewart

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.