The slugger was off to another frustrating start to a season.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand smacked a 2-run double in Wednesday’s game between the Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners, his first hit since April 8th. It marked his first double of the entire month of April and only his second extra-base hit of the month, precisely the opposite of the kind of power that’s been expected of him since he broke out with authority during the 2023 season.
Perhaps there’s a concrete reason behind that power outage.
The Reds placed CES on the 10-day injured list ahead of Thursday’s series finale against the Mariners, noting ‘low back inflammation’ as the reason.
The #Reds today recalled from Triple-A Louisville IF Noelvi Marte and placed on the 10-day injured list IF Christian Encarnacion-Strand (low back inflammation).
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 17, 2025
Infielder Noelvi Marte, who was only optioned back to AAA Louisville over the weekend, was recalled to take CES’ spot on the active roster for the time being, though he’s not in today’s starting lineup – Jeimer Candelario has slid over to 1B for today, and will likely be first in line to get starts at 1B while CES is out.
It’s the second straight ‘slow start -> IL with injury’ season for CES, who suffered through a similarly dismal April last year before finding out a nagging wrist injury was more severe than it was initially thought. It’s hard not to see a similar parallel here, though there’s no clear indication that this back issue is something he’s secretly been trying to play through in hopes it simply goes away.
Either way, it’s a frustrating development for a Reds club that only welcomed back Austin Hays and Matt McLain to their struggling offense earlier this week. They’re still down Tyler Stephenson, and the idea that the biggest, best bats this club can sport might all be healthy at the same time continues to confound.