The Cincinnati Reds are thriving with one of the most imbalanced lineups in baseball.
Although they lost to the Rays on Wednesday, snapping their five-game winning streak, the Reds entered Thursday's off-day at 16-9. They're tied with the Cubs, who are hot themselves with nine straight wins, atop the surprisingly potent National League Central.
Cincinnati certainly owes some of its success to its solid pitching staff, including MLB’s best bullpen in terms of ERA, but you need to score runs to win. And while the Reds haven’t scored a lot of runs this season, they’ve scored enough to win nearly two-thirds of their games.
For that, two Reds hitters in particular deserve much of the credit: superstar shortstop Elly De La Cruz and rookie slugger Sal Stewart, who typically bat third and fourth in Cincinnati’s order.
How important have De La Cruz and Stewart been for the Reds? This should put it in perspective. (All stats below are through Wednesday.)
Lowest OPS from lineup spots 1 and 2:
- Red Sox: .504
- Reds: .566
- Mets: .568
De La Cruz // Stewart (typically third and fourth)
- De La Cruz: .879
- Stewart: 1.004
Lowest OPS from lineup spots 5 through 9:
- Reds: .541
- Phillies: .585
- White Sox: .610
In short, the Reds have gotten a combined .549 OPS from the seven lineup spots not typically occupied by De La Cruz or Stewart.
To put it another way, the Reds have scored 97 runs this season, and Stewart has either scored or driven in 34% of them. De La Cruz? He's produced 32%. The two rank first and second in MLB in that regard.
Highest percentage of a team’s runs produced by a single player, 2026
Accounts for runs scored and driven in, adjusted to avoid double-counting home runs
- Sal Stewart: 34%
- Elly De La Cruz: 32%
- Matt Chapman: 29.6%
- Drake Baldwin: 29.4%
- Brice Turang: 28.3%
De La Cruz’s resurgence at the plate is a great sign for the Reds after his power all but evaporated for a large portion of 2025 while he played through a partial tear in his left quad.
The 25-year-old hit just four home runs over his final 83 games last season, slugging .373 in that span, but he already has eight dingers with a .549 SLG through his first 25 games of ’26. His contact-quality metrics also have improved significantly from where he ended up in ’25.
De La Cruz hasn’t missed a game yet, either, extending his streak to 243 consecutive games played.
Stewart, meanwhile, has picked up where he left off in his brief debut last season. The 22-year-old ranks among the MLB leaders in homers (eight), RBIs (24), SLG (.615) and OPS (1.004) this year, continuing to barrel the ball at an elite rate like he did in the final month of 2025.
No MLB team has relied more on any two hitters than the Reds have on De La Cruz and Stewart for run production. Not even close.
The Giants’ Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos are the next closest pair of teammates on the list, accounting for 54.3% of San Francisco’s runs this year.
Highest percentage of a team’s runs produced by a duo, 2026
Accounts for runs scored and driven in, adjusted to avoid double-counting home runs
- Reds: Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz, 66%
- Giants: Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos, 54.3%
- Braves: Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson, 53.9%
- White Sox: Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas: 53%
- Tigers: Riley Greene and Kevin McGonigle, 52.3%
In terms of OPS, the Reds' third-best hitter this season has been center fielder Dane Myers (.750), who has started all of five games while tallying 38 plate appearances. Among regulars, it's first baseman/left fielder Spencer Steer (.732).
Ultimately, the Reds are likely going to need to get more production from the rest of their lineup to win their first division crown since 2012. But until someone else starts to heat up, De La Cruz and Stewart will have to keep picking up the slack.