The NL Rookie of the Year race has narrowed to two names, but Sal Stewart is the one gaining steam.
With Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin on the injured list, the 2026 race has turned into a head-to-head fight between the Cincinnati Reds' All-Star and St. Louis Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt. Wetherholt still has the edge in the advanced numbers, but Stewart has started to chip away at the gap and, in a few key areas, has pulled clearly ahead.
That split is easiest to see in the stat line. Wetherholt leads in bWAR, 4.2 to 1.7, and fWAR, 4.0 to 1.9.
Outside of WAR, though, Stewart owns the stronger case. He’s ahead in hits, home runs, batting average, and OPS, and he has more than twice as many RBI, 85 to 41.
His slugging percentage, .738, also sits nearly 100 points above Wetherholt’s .479.
The momentum has shown up in league-wide perception too. MLB.com recently polled 30 beat writers and asked for top-five Rookie of the Year picks, and Stewart and Wetherholt ended up in a dead heat with identical scores.
Stewart’s surge over the last month has helped drive that shift. Since July 1, the Reds first baseman has hit .248/.314/.514 with eight home runs, 27 RBI, and a 114 wRC+. Over that same stretch, Wetherholt has posted a .211/.323/.333 line with four homers, seven RBI, and a 90 wRC+.
There’s still time for the race to swing again, and the schedule leaves room for one more direct showdown. The Reds and Cardinals will meet five more times before the season ends, including a makeup doubleheader and a Cardinals trip to Cincinnati later this month. That five-game set could go a long way in shaping how voters see the race.
If Stewart keeps rolling and finishes with 30-plus homers and 100-plus RBI, he’ll join a rare club. Only 10 rookies in MLB history have reached those numbers, and eight of them went on to win Rookie of the Year. The only two who didn’t did it before 1947, the first year the award was given, and one of them was Hall of Famer Ted Williams.
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