Salt in Twins' wound: Christian Encarnacion-Strand's first MLB hit is mammoth homer
We hate to break it to Twins fans, but the Tyler Mahle trade is looking worse than ever after Christian Encarnacion-Strand burst onto the scene for the Reds with a pinch-hit, three-run homer on Tuesday night. Oh, it was his first MLB hit and it sailed into the upper deck to give the Reds an 8-7 lead over the Giants.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand's first career hit is a pinch-hit homer and gives the @Reds the lead! pic.twitter.com/DrGNvnX0yc
— MLB (@MLB) July 19, 2023
Mahle is currently in the early stages of recovering from Tommy John surgery. He made just four starts before an injury ended his 2022 season and his 2023 season was over after just five starts as a sore elbow led to season-ending surgery. Mahle will be a free agent this winter, so his time in Minnesota could be over.
Meanwhile, the Reds have Encarnacion-Strand, who killed opposing pitchers at Triple-A before getting called up to the big leagues this week. He went 0-for-3 in his first MLB game and then hit the gigantic homer in his second game that left his bat at 105.8 mph and traveled an estimated 426 feet.
The other guy the Twins gave up for Mahle is Spencer Steer, who has had an outstanding season for the Reds. Entering Tuesday's game, Steer was slashing .272/.363/.467 with 14 homers, 19 doubles, two triples, 43 walks and 51 RBIs.
Here's how Steer's stats would rank if he played for the Twins this season.
- Hits: 91 (1st)
- Doubles: 19 (2nd)
- Triples: 2 (T-1st)
- Homers: 14 (3rd)
- RBIs: 51 (1st)
- Walks: 43 (1st)
- OPS: .830 (2nd)
At Triple-A Louisville, Encarnacion-Strand had been dominant this season. In 67 games he slashed .331/.405/.637 (1.042 OPS) with 20 homers, 21 doubles and 62 RBIs.
The Mahle trade could very well go down as one of the worst in Twins history.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.