Christian Encarnacion-Strand

Christian Encarnacion-Strand

25-Year-Old First Baseman1B
Cincinnati Reds
Day-To-Day
Injury Hand
2025 Fantasy Outlook
Encarnacion-Strand struggled to fill Joey Votto's shoes at first base in Cincinnati, slashing just .190/.220/.293 in 29 games before a fractured right wrist ended his season. When he first went down, Encarnacion-Strand was expected back in 4-to-6 weeks, but after receiving a second opinion, he opted for surgery. The Reds sent him to the Arizona Fall League for make-up at-bats, and those live reps should have given him some peace of mind and set him up for a relatively normal offseason heading into 2025. Part of the Reds' return for Tyler Mahle, Encarnacion-Strand still seems to be very much part of the organization's plans, though he won't be assured anything entering spring training. His power is off the charts, but he will likely struggle to find consistency until he refines his plate skills (28.5 K%, 3.3 BB% last season). Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season From Preseason
#227
ADP
$Signed a one-year contract with the Reds in March of 2025.
Sitting Tuesday
1BCincinnati Reds
Hand
April 1, 2025
Encarnacion-Strand (hand) is out of the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Rangers.
ANALYSIS
The 25-year-old departed Monday's series opener after being hit by a pitch on the right hand and will be absent from the starting nine for at least one game. Encarnacion-Strand already had X-rays come back negative and could be available off the bench, per Reds manager Terry Francona, Charlie Goldsmith of the Dayton Daily News reports. Jeimer Candelario is shifting to first base Tuesday while Santiago Espinal receives a start at the hot corner.
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Batting Stats
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2025
2024
2023
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2024 MLB Game Log
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
2
1
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
1
3/273/293/303/314/1987654321
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+39%
OPS vs RHP
2025
 
 
-100%
OPS vs RHP
2024
 
 
+39%
OPS vs RHP
2023
 
 
+23%
OPS vs RHP
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023vs Left .557 101 7 1 7 0 .215 .277 .280
Since 2023vs Right .772 279 37 15 47 2 .255 .301 .471
2025vs Left .000 3 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
2025vs Right 1.189 13 2 1 1 0 .364 .462 .727
2024vs Left .405 38 2 0 2 0 .167 .211 .194
2024vs Right .561 85 11 2 14 0 .200 .224 .338
2023vs Left .685 60 5 1 5 0 .259 .333 .352
2023vs Right .844 181 24 12 32 2 .274 .326 .518
More Splits View More Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+6%
OPS on Road
2025
 
 
-100%
OPS at Home
2024
 
 
+79%
OPS on Road
2023
 
 
+15%
OPS at Home
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023Home .696 218 26 10 27 1 .240 .284 .412
Since 2023Away .741 162 18 6 27 1 .250 .309 .432
2025Home .946 16 2 1 1 0 .286 .375 .571
2025Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2024Home .401 80 8 1 6 0 .147 .188 .213
2024Away .718 43 5 1 10 0 .268 .279 .439
2023Home .858 122 16 8 20 1 .296 .336 .522
2023Away .749 119 13 5 17 1 .243 .319 .430
More Splits View More Split Stats
Stat Review
How does Christian Encarnacion-Strand compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.25
 
BB Rate
6.3%
 
K Rate
25.0%
 
BABIP
.333
 
ISO
.286
 
AVG
.286
 
OBP
.375
 
SLG
.571
 
OPS
.946
 
wOBA
.410
 
Exit Velocity
93.3 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
40.0%
 
Barrels/PA
6.3%
 
Expected BA
.322
 
Expected SLG
.533
 
Sprint Speed
26.2 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
60.0%
 
Line Drive %
20.0%
 
Fly Ball %
20.0%
 
Prospect Rankings History
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Christian Encarnacion-Strand See More
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20 days ago
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Past Fantasy Outlooks
2024
2023
Encarnacion-Strand kicked the door down with a .331/.405/.637 line and 20 homers in 67 games with Triple-A Louisville to earn a promotion to Cincinnati just after the All-Star break. At 23 years old, he continued to hit for impressive power at the highest level, totaling 20 extra-base hits in his first 241 MLB plate appearances. He struck out at a 28.6% clip but still managed to bat .270 on the strength of a 10.5% barrel rate. In declining Joey Votto's option in November, the Reds said they could not commit to the playing time Votto deserves, an acknowledgment of the need to get Encarnacion-Strand and others more at-bats in 2024. Acquired from Minnesota in 2022 as part of the Tyler Mahle deal, Encarnacion-Strand will likely split time between first base and designated hitter after the Reds signed Jeimer Candelario to a multi-year deal.
Part of Cincinnati's return for Tyler Mahle from Minnesota, Encarnacion-Strand is a classic better-in-fantasy-than-reality prospect, and a future home in Great American Ball Park is an added bonus. There is also a much clearer path for Encarnacion-Strand, who currently spends most of his time at third base but may have to move to first base/designated hitter in the near future. Last season, he proved to be one of the preeminent sluggers in the minors, slashing .304/.368/.587 with an excellent 33.8 Hard% and 32 home runs in 122 games split almost evenly between High-A and Double-A. Prior to 2022, all we had to go on was that Encarnacion-Strand (a fourth-round pick in 2021) obliterated Single-A (175 wRC+) while being old for the level. However, he now has a pretty compelling track record of offensive dominance. His approach leaves something to be desired, as Encarnacion-Strand has never logged a walk rate over 9.1% in pro ball, which is unusual for a player his age (just turned 23) with 70-grade game power. It's possible his hit tool just doesn't translate at the highest level, but he should get a fair chance, given Cincinnati's lack of talent. We could see him in the majors in the second half.
More Fantasy News
Avoids significant injury
1BCincinnati Reds
Hand
March 31, 2025
The Reds announced that X-rays on Encarnacion-Strand's right hand came back negative after he exited Monday's game against the Rangers in the top of the seventh inning, Charlie Goldsmith of the Dayton Daily News reports.
ANALYSIS
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Exits following HBP
1BCincinnati Reds
Hand
March 31, 2025
Encarnacion-Strand left Monday's game against the Rangers after being hit by a pitch on his right hand, Charlie Goldsmith of the Dayton Daily News reports.
ANALYSIS
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Homers in win
1BCincinnati Reds
March 29, 2025
Encarnacion-Strand went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in Saturday's 3-2 win over the Giants.
ANALYSIS
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Pops two-run homer Saturday
1BCincinnati Reds
March 9, 2025
Encarnacion-Strand went 2-for-3 with a two-run home run in Saturday's Cactus League game against the Diamondbacks.
ANALYSIS
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Blasts second spring homer
1BCincinnati Reds
March 2, 2025
Encarnacion-Strand went 1-for-2 with a home run and two RBI in Saturday's spring game against the Padres.
ANALYSIS
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Latest Fantasy Rumors
Impressing during camp
1BCincinnati Reds
March 3, 2023
Encarnacion-Strand is impressing early on in camp, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports.
ANALYSIS
It's a sample of just eight at-bats, but Encarnacion-Strand is hitting .625 in the Cactus League and is coming off a season in which he homered 32 times while registering a .955 OPS between the High-A and Double-A levels. Acquired by the Reds from the Twins in last year's deal for Tyler Mahle, Encarnacion-Strand is playing first base more often this spring, and the 23-year-old is also capable of handling third. He'll likely open the year in the minors, but he could be one of the first players called up by Cincinnati over the summer.
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