Sal Stewart had a big year in 2025. One of the Cincinnati Reds top prospects, Stewart began the year in Double-A and after leading the Southern League in average he moved up to Triple-A in the second half where he exploded at the plate and hit .315/.394/.629 in 38 games. That helped lead to a call up to the big leagues in the final month where he would hit .253/.293/.545 with five home runs – giving him 25 of them on the year in his 136 games between the minor leagues and the major leagues.
The rookie provided the team with power that they desperately needed late in the year. He didn’t quite hit for the same kind of average he had in the minor leagues, but it was also just 18 games and one good day would have changed that.
Still, with a huge season in the minor leagues that earned him Minor League Player of the Year in the organization and saw him make his big league debut, Stewart was not close to satisfied. While on the Reds Hot Stove League show this week he noted that he had lost 26 lbs. since the season ended.
“I had to look myself in the mirror and say what I needed to get better in,” Stewart said. “And I felt like losing some weight could not only help me but allow me to go play first and even second. Today I weighed in and I’m down 26 lbs from when I left in the offseason.”
It has been about two-and-a-half months since the season ended for Sal Stewart and he’s put in a lot of work to get his weight down by that much. He thinks that the benefits of it will help him out in a few ways.
“I really needed to make adjustments in my life, which I did. I feel like it’s going to better myself. My goal is to get down really low. It was somewhere in the ballpark of 25 – it bounces up and down – but I’m right around there. I feel really, really good. I feel lighter, I feel more agile so I’m super proud of where I’ve gotten but the job is not done. I want to continue to get better with my body. I want to be a superstar in this game and you don’t have to talk about it, you have to be about it. I’m super happy right now with where I’m at and I’m looking forward to getting to spring training.”
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