Tyler

Stephenson

This is like half an Ohtani and still a fantastic game. It’s Stephenson’s third career two-homer contest, with all of those coming since July. He drove in five runs for the second time. Stephenson finished at .243-13-56 while playing in 142 games last year. He’s at .265-20-64 in 131 games right now.

Stephenson’s home run was his 18th of the season. He hit a solo shot off J.T. Ginn in the fourth inning. Stephenson’s hot month of August continues. He’s 30-for-87 (.344) with seven home runs and 19 RBI in 23 games in August. Stephenson is hitting .265 with an .819 OPS and 55 RBI on the year.

Stephenson came into today enjoying a hot month of August, hitting .311 with six home runs, 15 runs scored, and 16 RBI in 20 games. The top of the Reds order didn’t do him any favors tonight so there were no RBIs to be had, but with how well Stephenson is swinging the bat, he should be added in all one-catcher formats.

Stephenson’s first inning homer was the start of a great first few innings for the Reds, before their huge lead evaporated. Still, Stephenson has put together a fantastic season with an already career-best 17 homers. Seven of those 17 have come in his last 30 games as he’s been red-hot since the All-Star break.

Stephenson has now started seven straight games behind the dish. That’s not seven games as a hitter; he has been the starting catcher for seven straight games for the Reds, which is almost unheard of in modern baseball, but Stephenson has earned it, going 14-for-49 (.286) in 13 games in August with five home runs and 11 RBI. Given his hot streak and his playing time, he deserves to be rostered in one-catcher formats right now.

Stephenson has 15 homers, nine of which have come in his last 26 games. He has two more homers in 99 games this year than he did in 142 games last season.

Stephenson’s home run was his 14th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Max Meyer in the second inning and later added an RBI single in the fourth inning. Stephenson has hits in three of his last four games. He’s hitting .243 with a .763 OPS and 42 RBI on the year.

Stephenson took Kyle Harrison deep in the second inning 387 feet and then topped that in the fourth inning with a 418-foot shot. He’s now up to 13 home runs and 40 RBI on the season and had been red hot at the start of July before cooling off over the last couple of weeks. Perhaps another hot streak is in store.

The home run was Stephenson’s 11th of the season. He’s been on a home run tear lately. Stephenson is 10-for-31 (.322) with five home runs and nine RBI in his last eight games. He’s certainly doing enough at the plate to be rostered in all two-catcher formats. Stephenson is hitting .243 with a .761 OPS and 35 RBI on the season.

Stephenson hit a three-run blast to give the Reds a 3-0 lead, and hit his second homer of the contest in the seventh with a runner on to extend the Cincinnati lead to 8-1. The 27-year-old backstop has had an uneven first half of the year, but he has procured 10 homers and 34 RBI. You can do better than Stephenson as your starting backstop in fantasy formats, but there’s enough upside to suggest he can be a solid option over the final two-plus months of 2024.