Absolutely. He has two options. Twins can make space on the 40. Is he on waivers or recently designated? They may need to make a minor trade.

I really liked CES, plus IMO we could possibly fit him on the 40 man, at least temporarily. There have also been 2 catchers who had been placed on waivers that I thought the Twins were crazy not to pick up. One is former Twin Ben Rortvedt, who went to TB last year as the primary catcher & started out great early but with primary catcher duties in hot summer Florida, it took a toll on him. He also had a great postseason with LAD subbing Smith. LAD liked him and was hoping he'd pass through waivers.

He's not a primary catcher (they are very hard to come by), but as a left-handed-hitting defensive catcher, he'd be very impactful for the Twins as a tandem duo. Yes, we already have 3 catchers, but I'd trade one or two for Rortvedt.

Here's the link to see more about the move:  https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/04/reds-designate-christian-encarnacion-strand-for-assignment.html 

12 hours ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Here's the link to see more about the move:  https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/04/reds-designate-christian-encarnacion-strand-for-assignment.html 

IMO, CES's slump is injury-related, so I think that when he finds himself again, he could be an affordable RH bat factor in the future.

While the Tyler Mahle trade was (in hindsight) regretable (but understandable), the return to the Reds doesn't look as great as once feared. Spencer Steer had a good first year with them but has been just an average (or less) MLB player since then, and now CES is on waivers.

Why not? He’s better than Wagaman 

1 hour ago, arby58 said:

While the Tyler Mahle trade was (in hindsight) regretable (but understandable), the return to the Reds doesn't look as great as once feared. Spencer Steer had a good first year with them but has been just an average (or less) MLB player since then, and now CES is on waivers.

Also helps that Steven Hajjar did diddly squat... trading from our pitching prospects hasn't burned us in a quite a while (helps that they rarely move them). Though randomly, I did notice that the Astros have a former farmhand in Kai-Wei Teng in their bullpen, who once upon a time was traded for Sam Dyson.

Problem is .... one more DH.

33 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Problem is .... one more DH

... who currently can not hit.