There was some hope that the Cincinnati Reds, long admirers or being patient with their top prospects, would decide to take a different path this spring with such a wealth of young talent in camp. They’d turned course in recent seasons with those types, breaking camp with the likes of Jonathan India two seasons ago and letting Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo loose early last season, but that just seemed unlikely in this, another deep rebuild of a season looming.
Despite Christian Encarnacion-Strand absolutely punishing baseballs all spring, he was reassigned to minor league camp by the Reds on Tuesday.