Sal, Fat, Acid, Heat
Sal Stewart (CIN): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 6 RBI.
Because Sal Stewart has been absolutely cooking at the plate to start the 2026 season. Stewart hit a three-run home run in each of the first two innings off Tyler Mahle. He later grounded out to third and struck out, but the damage was already done as the Reds beat the visiting Giants 8-3. Both of Stewart’s home runs were line drives that left the bat at 102+ MPH as he continues to carry the Reds offense with minimal assistance.
Stewart has been better than anyone could have reasonably hoped for to start the season. His two barrels last night increased his season total to 10; his 162-game pace of 90 barrels would have ranked third in MLB last year behind Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Stewart doesn’t have crazy bat speed, but he is excellent at avoiding soft contact. In general, Stewart shows a remarkably well-rounded set of skills. He doesn’t hit the ball as hard as an Ohtani or Judge, make contact like Freddie Freeman, or have the plate discipline of Juan Soto. Instead, he’s a little worse at each of these skills but still solid to great at all of them. He chases 30% of the time to Soto’s 17-20% of the time, but he’s also more aggressive in the zone and maintains the same 40% delta between in-zone swing rate and chase rate. He’s only a bit above average at avoiding whiffs, but he’s in the 86th percentile for hard contact. All of his skills combine to give Stewart a 130 PLV Process, a statistic that incorporates hitter decision-making, contact ability, and power.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Wednesday.
Nico Hoerner (CHC): 3-5, HR, 2 R, 5 RBI, SB.
Hoerner continues his hot start to the season. After lining out to short on a ball Trea Turner made a nice jumping grab on, Hoerner had a single in the third, a homer in the fifth, and another single in the 6th, before flying out in his last at-bat in the 8th inning. Four of his five batted balls were hit 90+ MPH, so he wasn’t getting on by placing weak contact against Jesus Luzardo and the Phillies bullpen. Hoerner benefited from a good day from Matt Shaw , who was hitting 9th, driving him in for 3 of his RBIs. Nothing much else to add about Hoerner’s performance here; he’s great.
Adrian Del Castillo (ARI): 2-5, 3B, HR, R, 5 RBI.
Del Castillo and the Diamondbacks were a bit fortunate in this one. After a first-inning pop-out vs Kyle Bradish, Del Castillo hit one to the warning track in left that glanced off the side of Weston Wilson’s glove. Wilson then ran into the wall and fell, allowing two runners to score and Del Castillo to get credit for a triple. After a couple of groundouts later in the game, Del Castillo came to the plate in the 10th with ghost runner Corbin Carroll on third and hit a go-ahead two-run homer to right-center. The surface level stats are good for Del Castillo in the early going (.346/.346/.577), but he’s running a .444 BABIP without the speed (28th percentile sprint speed) or contact quality (86.5 MPH average exit velo) that would support a high BABIP. If he’s catcher-eligible in your league, he’s worth considering, but the early production looks like a mirage.
Trevor Story (BOS): 2-4, 2B, HR, R, 5 RBI, BB.
Story and the struggling Red Sox offense needed this one. After Mick Abel shut the Red Sox down in the second game of the series, the Red Sox got to Simeon Woods-Richardson in the third for five runs. The rally was capped by Story pulling an 80 MPH curveball on the outside corner 411 feet to left-center for a three-run home run. Story had 4 batted balls between 96 and 102 MPH, dragging up his average exit velocity to 89 MPH, still below his career norms. Story is chasing an incredible 47% of the time so far this season after setting his previous career high in chase rate in 2025 (35.3%). Story has been a bit worse than league average at the plate since joining the Red Sox in 2022 (92 wRC+) while playing only a bit more than 2 seasons worth of games in the past 4+ years, but his overall game is much more fantasy-friendly than it is helpful in reality.
Luke Raley (SEA): 4-5, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
Raley and the Mariners offense got off to a hot start against Randy Vasquez. Raley had a soft single to center in the second and scored on a double by Dominic Canzone, then struck out in the 4th vs Vasquez. When Raley came back to the plate in the 5th, the Mariners were ahead 4-0 and Ron Marinaccio was pitching for the Padres. Marinaccio threw a 93 MPH fastball middle-middle and Raley crushed it 434 feet to right-center for a two-run homer. Raley then hit a 98 MPH single in the 7th and a 102 MPH double in the 9th that would have left 16 parks. Unfortunately for the Mariners, he was stranded both times, and Andres Munoz gave up 3 runs and 2 additional runners in a non-save situation in the 9th before Jose Ferrer let both inherited runners score. Raley has been really aggressive to start the season, leading to a 4.7% BB rate and a 35.9% K rate; his .339 average is almost entirely a product of a wildly unsustainable .500 BABIP.
Matt Shaw (CHC): 3-4, 3 2B, 3 R, 2 RBI.
Shaw was hitting 9th against the Phillies and had three doubles on 95+ MPH batted balls in his first three at-bats, including a season-high 107.9 MPH. There’s not much change in Shaw’s profile year-over-year except for an uptick in his chase rate. Still, Shaw put up a perfectly playable 13 HR/17 SB in 126 games last year. A small amount of growth or regression in his .262 BABIP, plus a full season of at-bats, and you’re looking at 17-20 homers and 20+ steals. That’s more than serviceable, especially for someone with dual third base and outfield eligibility. The main question is going to be playing time; Michael Conforto is not swinging much (57% of his plate appearances end in a walk or strikeout), and his line is carried by a .500 BABIP. Moises Ballesteros is off to an excellent start, though, and Alex Bregman and Seiya Suzuki will be in the lineup whenever healthy. Fortunately for Shaw, if not the Cubs, Bregman and Suzuki are often not healthy, but it’s not an ideal situation for Shaw’s volume.
Junior Caminero (TBR): 1-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB.
There’s nothing like some White Sox pitching to cure what ails you. Caminero has been off to a slow start to the season, slashing .234/.351/.406 through his first 17 games. He struck out in the first on an overturned ABS challenge, but crushed a hanging curve from Sean Burke 105 MPH straight down the line in left for a solo homer in the third. He hit a 100 MPH groundout in the 5th, a batted ball that is a hit 47 percent of the time, and walked in the 7th. Caminero has cut his chase rate every season he’s been in the majors, although this year it’s also coming at the cost of some aggression in the zone. His Statcast heart swing rate is down from 75.6% last year to 61.5% this year. The rest of his swing numbers look pretty stable, though, and he’s still hitting the ball hard, so I wouldn’t be too concerned.
Shea Langeliers (ATH): 2-5, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI.
Both of Langeliers’ hits were struck over 100 MPH; everything he hit was on the ground, except for his two-run homer in the sixth off Cole Winn. Langeliers hit a 94 MPH sinker that tailed over the heart of the plate 467 feet to left for the longest home run in the majors so far this year. On replay, I thought it might damage the HVAC systems on the roof across the street. Langeliers has six homers already and has been swinging nearly 1 MPH harder than he was last year. His average exit velo of 92.1 MPH would be a career high, and he’s barreling the ball 13% of the time. He’s swinging and chasing a bit more than in the past, but he’s maintained the same contact rates as before, while pitchers are in the zone a little less against him this year than in past years. All that is to say, while I might expect a tiny uptick in his K rate based on him swinging more outside the zone, nothing screams 31% K-rate in his profile instead of his career norms of closer to 26 or 27%.
Elly De La Cruz (CIN): 1-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB.
Elly is the other half of the pair of Reds who have been better than average at the plate. In a lot of ways, Elly is the polar opposite of Stewart. He struck out three times and walked once, but also crushed a 442 foot solo home run for the Reds final run of the game. In addition to his supernatural athletic abilities, Elly has also been making incremental improvements each year trying to address some of the weaknesses in his profile when he was first promoted. He’s now chasing only 26% of the time, less than two-thirds of other MLB hitters. This year, he’s swinging less overall; a drop in his zone swing percentage to 56% is contributing to a slight uptick in Ks. Perhaps most importantly, Elly is elevating the ball slightly more this year, running an average launch angle of 13.5 degrees (7.6 degrees in 2025, 9.7 in 2024). We all know he hits the ball harder than any human not named Giancarlo Stanton; getting the ball in the air more consistently could fuel a massive power spike.
Austin Martin (MIN): 2-4, HR, R, RBI, BB.
Martin hit a solo home run off Connelly Early in the Twins’ second at-bat of the game before Early shut down the Twins for another 5.2 innings. He also walked in the third inning, accounting for 2 of the 4 baserunners that reached against Early, before singling in the 8th. The shine has come off a bit on the one-time top prospect as he lacks some of the physicality necessary to be a star in today’s game. Martin does have one superpower, though – he currently leads MLB in PLV Decision Value, a measure of how well batters choose what to swing at. Martin is MLB average at picking his spots in the zone, but he’s the best in the league at choosing when to swing outside the zone (almost never – 9.6% chase rate). It’s an important skill to have if you’re not going to hit the ball particularly hard or contribute defensive excellence. Martin only has OF eligibility so far, which means he’s probably not your top choice for a high-average backup in deeper leagues a la Ernie Clement or the like.
Photo by Keith Gillett/Iconsportswire | Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Bluesky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)
