Stuart Fairchild grew up in Seattle, and played his collegiate ball at Wake Forrest. He had a big year his junior year in 2017, batting .360/.439/.636 with 17 home runs and 67 RBIs in 63 games, prompting the Cincinnati Reds to take him in the 2nd round with the 38th overall pick of that year’s draft.
Over the next two years his progress was slowed a bit by swing changes that took a while to pay off. But by 2019 he was posting very good numbers at A+ (130 wRC+) and AA (141 wRC+) .