FORT MYERS, Fla. — Christin Stewart, who signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in the offseason, brings big-time power to Polar Park this season.
The slugger tied the Georgia state record with 69 career high school homers.
He went on to the University of Tennessee where he crushed 15 homers and slugged .633 in 50 games his junior year. He has blasted 20 or more home runs in four different seasons in the minors, including 30 in 2016 and 28 in 2017.
He’s aware of how the ball flies at hitter-friendly Polar Park.
“I’ve heard,” Stewart said with a laugh. “Everyone talks about it. I was talking to Franchy (Cordero) about it the other day and everybody says it’s a fun park to play at, for sure.”
As a left-handed batter, expect Stewart to crush a lot of home runs over the short wall in right field.
“Everyone says that is pretty shallow, right field,” Stewart said. “But it’s probably the whole park, everywhere it flies pretty well most of the time. So I’m really excited.”
Stewart — an outfielder who played at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket but has never hit at Polar Park — is a slugger with big league experience. The 28-year-old former first-round pick (2015 with the Tigers) is someone to keep an eye on who could help in Boston during 2022 after an offseason dedicated to nutrition.
“The biggest thing is I invested a lot into my body,” Stewart said about his offseason.
His body began to break down toward the end of last season. It took him longer to get prepared for games every day. Stewart thought a change might help. So he worked with a nutritionist and dropped 3% of body fat.
“Kept my muscle and dropped about eight pounds from last season,” Stewart said. “So I feel really good on my feet. I’m moving really well.”
Stewart said he wasn’t eating poorly but the nutritionist gave him a little bit more structure.
“I was able to count my macros, weigh my food, be more specific in my diet,” he said. “I pretty much knew what the scales were going to be before I even stepped on it because I was so perfect with my macronutrients. So weighing your food, knowing the serving size you need. It also helped me be more consistent with my offseason every day. Have a little bit more structure. In the offseason, you can get out of a routine. So I liked having that structure and routine. And plus, day in, day out I felt great because I’m getting the nutrition that I need and eating the right foods.”
Stewart is 6 feet, 214 pounds. His body fat is down to 13%.
“Also knowing that I need to keep enough (body fat) to make it through a season,” Stewart said. “I knew it was definitely going to pay dividends for me, especially feeling lighter on my feet. Not feeling as heavy, especially when I’m in the outfield and on the bases.”
He appeared in 157 major league games for Detroit from 2018-20. He hit 10 homers, 25 doubles and one triple in 104 games for Detroit in 2019. He has a .225/.300/.376 line in the big leagues. What does he need to do to be more consistent?
“The biggest is when I had success early on in the big leagues, when I first got called up in ‘18, and then after that I just started to have to make adjustments on the spot when everybody had to start to pitch me different,” Stewart said. “Because once you’re in the big leagues, they have so much information on you. So the biggest thing is staying true to myself.”
He said he tried to make too many adjustments. He also was thinking about mechanics while taking at-bats instead of just focusing on hitting the baseball.
“And that’s never good when you’re doing that,” Stewart said. “So whenever that time comes, I just have to stay true to myself and know what I do best. Pretty much have fun and not think in the box and be in my own head thinking about mechanically different stuff in the box because that’s never good.
“The biggest thing is to just go out there and have fun and swing at pitches I know I can drive,” Stewart added.
He had a 24.9% strikeout percentage in the majors and a 23.9% strikeout percentage in the minors.
“In spring training, it’s always trying to get my eyes under me and pitch recognition,” he said. “As long as I know especially right now, I’m swinging at the right pitches — which I feel I am. I’m not really chasing out of the zone or anything like that. And with that, your power numbers will show through. If you take walks, you’re more inclined to get better pitches over a course of an at-bat. You always want to be aggressive in there. But being able to take that walk and see pitches, you just learn more about the pitcher for the next at-bat. And you also set yourself up to get better pitches and mistakes.”
GETTING TO KNOW STEWART
~ Stewart enjoys relaxing and watching movies.
“Even though there’s nothing really out that’s good, I’ve probably saw like six or seven movies while I was here so far.”
~ He said “Batman” is the best movie he has seen recently. He called it “a pretty solid action movie.” He said “Law Abiding Citizen” is probably his favorite movie ever. He also loves “Interstellar.”
~ Stewart enjoys bass fishing and deep sea fishing.
~ He and his wife, who just married Dec. 17, have a dog (a goldendoodle) and cat.
“We plan on getting another dog sometime this offseason,” he said.
~ Stewart played with Bobby Dalbec in the Cape Cod League. His stay there was short, only about two weeks because he finished out the summer playing for Team USA.
“He’s awesome. Asking him questions, especially here,” Stewart said about Dalbec.
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