Sal Stewart never took a day off this season. He played all 162 games for the Cincinnati Reds, hit 32 homers and drove in 112 runs. No Reds rookie had ever driven in more.
Monday, it made him the National League Rookie of the Year.
"Man, relieved," Stewart said on MLB Network after winning the award. "I told myself I knew this award was going to find me, because that's how I was raised. I worked hard and I did what I could.
"I'm a kid from Miami. I worked hard for this moment. A lot of people doubted me."
The 22-year-old first baseman received 20 of 30 first-place votes and 170 points from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. New York Mets outfielder Carson Benge was second with seven first-place votes and St. Louis Cardinals second baseman JJ
Wetherholt was third with three.
Stewart is the ninth Reds player to win the award. Jonathan India was the last in 2021.
Cincinnati gets a draft pick out of it. MLB's Prospect Promotion Incentive rewards teams that give top prospects a full rookie season in the majors, and the NL winner earns his club an extra pick after the first round of the 2027 draft.
Stewart spent most of the summer as the best run producer in the sport. On Aug. 26, he became the first player in the majors to reach 100 RBIs. He finished third in baseball, behind Alec Burleson's 116 and Pete Alonso's 113.
How Sal Stewart won NL Rookie of the Year
By the end of April, Stewart had nine homers and 29 RBIs, was hitting .281 and had gone 7-for-7 stealing bases.
May and June were harder. He hit under .250 in both months.
He fixed it in July and was named an All-Star. In August, he won NL Rookie of the Month for the second time, the first Reds player to win it twice in one season.
The Reds kept finding spots to keep his bat and speed in the lineup. Stewart appeared in 117 games at first base, 45 at third, 11 as the designated hitter and eight at second base.
Sal Stewart stats and Reds rookie records
Jim Greengrass drove in 100 runs as a Reds rookie in 1953. His record held up for 73 years.
Stewart beat it by 12.
Frank Robinson hit 38 homers as a rookie in 1956. Until this year, he was the only Reds rookie with 30. Stewart is the first to do it with 100 RBIs. His 20 homers before the All-Star break were another franchise record.
He finished with 164 hits, tied for second in the NL, the most by a Reds rookie since Pete Rose had 170 in 1963. He led all NL rookies in homers, RBIs, extra-base hits (57) and total bases (285).
No Reds rookie had played every game since the NL moved to a 162-game schedule.
Only one other rookie has put up 30 homers, 100 RBIs and 15 steals in a season: Jose Canseco in 1986.
Reds Rookie of the Year winners
- Frank Robinson, outfielder, 1956
- Pete Rose, second baseman, 1963
- Tommy Helms, third baseman, 1966
- Johnny Bench, catcher, 1968
- Pat Zachry, pitcher, 1976 (shared with San Diego's Butch Metzger)
- Chris Sabo, third baseman, 1988
- Scott Williamson, pitcher, 1999
- Johnathan India, second baseman, 2021
- Sal Stewart, first baseman, 2026
Why Sal Stewart beat Carson Benge for NL Rookie of the Year
Not everyone thought Stewart was the best rookie in the league.
Stewart had the power numbers. Benge and Wetherholt had the better all-around seasons.
Benge hit .282 with 20 homers, 65 RBIs and 22 steals for the Mets. He was the better hitter for average, the faster runner and better fielder.
Wetherholt, the Cardinals' second baseman, didn't come close to Stewart at the plate. He hit .242 with 17 homers. But he was a Gold Glove finalist and one of the best defenders in the league.
That's why both rated well ahead of Stewart in WAR. FanGraphs had Benge at 4.3 and Stewart at 1.9. Baseball Reference had Wetherholt at 4.5 and Stewart at 1.8. Stewart's defense at first and third base cost him.
So did September.
Stewart hit .247 over his final 24 games, with one extra-base hit and six RBIs. Alec Burleson passed him for the NL lead in RBIs in the final week.
The voters still went with the homers, the RBIs and the 162 games.
NL Rookie of the Year winners, past 10 years
Asterisks denote a unanimous vote
- 2025: Drake Baldwin, catcher, Atlanta Braves
- 2024: Paul Skenes, pitcher, Pittsburgh Pirates
- 2023: Corbin Carroll, outfielder, Diamondbacks*
- 2022: Michael Harris II, outfielder, Atlanta Braves
- 2021: Jonathan India, second baseman, Cincinnati Reds
- 2020: Devin Williams, pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers
- 2019: Pete Alonso, first baseman, New York Mets
- 2018: Ronald Acuna Jr., outfielder, Atlanta Braves
- 2017: Cody Bellinger, first baseman, Los Angles Dodgers*
- 2016: Corey Seager, shortstop, Los Angeles Dodgers*
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Reds' Sal Stewart wins NL Rookie of the Year after 112 RBI season
