MLB.com experts’ Rookie of the Year poll tightens in the National League, with Stewart up near the top

The National League Rookie of the Year race has tightened in a hurry, according to a new August 2026 update from. In the most recent vote by experts, the top of the NL leaderboard forms a two-man tie, compressing what had been a wider field into a near coin-flip situation. For fans following Stewart, the headline question is no longer whether he is in the conversation, but where he lands as the regular season moves toward its final stretch.

The poll update underscores a basic reality of Rookie of the Year voting: the closer teams get to September, the more voter attention tends to track momentum, late-season impact, and what each rookie has been able to sustain against major-league pitching. ’s experts cast votes that reflect their view of the candidates, and the publication’s latest standings suggest those judgments have converged sharply on two players at the top of the NL race.

Stewart’s position in that reshaped order is the key detail the poll aims to clarify. frames the NL race as being as tight “as it can possibly get” because the leaders are knotted together, meaning one more standout performance, or even a small shift in how voters weigh value, can swing the narrative from “debate” to “deciding” down the final weeks.

The update also puts the conversation in context for why a poll can matter, even without being the official end-of-season ballot. While the actual Rookie of the Year awards come from the official voters at season’s end, a widely followed expert poll can still influence how fans, broadcasters, and even front offices interpret the award picture. That is especially true when a race collapses into a tie at the top, because the margin for error on late performances becomes smaller.

For the Reds fan base, this kind of late-season award attention can sharpen focus on how the team’s young core is developing. ’s poll is not a substitute for the award vote, but it does serve as a barometer of which rookies are capturing attention across the league. When a rookie like Stewart appears near the top in August, it suggests his season has held up against the strongest scrutiny that typically arrives as September nears.

There is, however, an important caveat in any midstream poll: November’s hardware is decided by the official balloting, and those voters may value different factors than a media expert panel. The poll can tighten the storyline, but it cannot guarantee the outcome, because the final awards depend on how the complete season is measured, and how candidates finish when every team tightens rotations and plays with sharper urgency.

What to watch next is straightforward. With the NL leaders tied and Stewart positioned within that compressed race, the final regular-season window becomes a test of consistency and impact. If Stewart continues to perform in high-leverage moments, his standing in expert opinion is likely to remain strong. If the other tied leader pulls away in voters’ eyes, Stewart’s placement could shift even without a dramatic statistical swing, simply because the award narrative may increasingly favor a clear late-season edge.

In the end, the most notable development from is the collapse of the National League Rookie of the Year conversation into a two-player knot. For now, Stewart is part of the tightest version of the race, and the remaining weeks of the schedule could do more to define the award picture than any earlier stretch. The question becomes less “Is he real?” and more “Who finishes on top when the votes are counted?”