Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s glasses are a distinctive feature on a distinctive player

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Christian Encarnacion-Strand was surprised when he looked up at the videoboard recently and saw a flashing graphic that depicted one of his more distinctive features.

Behind an outline of a pair of sports glasses, the initials CES flashed, leading a chant at Camden Yards.

“It’s so sick,” Encarnacion-Strand said, laughing as he thought of the tribute ahead of one of his at-bats. “That’s sick. I’ve never seen anything like that. I thought it was cool.”

Consider it from his view. He’s a 26-year-old who found early success in his major league life with the Cincinnati Reds before injuries and a lack of playing time compounded into regression. He was dumped off the Reds’ 40-man roster in April and picked up by the Orioles in a cash trade. He spent months in the minor leagues before a callup in July.

Since his returning to the big leagues, the biggest change has not been his success — although he’s producing at career-best rates.

It’s those glasses. He’s wearing them for the first time in his career, having ditched contact lenses because his astigmatism made his low-level prescription challenging. Little did Encarnacion-Strand know, those glasses would become an endearing aspect of his persona, complementing his hard-nose playing style.

“I don’t have horrible eyes, but for baseball, you want really good eyes,” Encarnacion-Strand said.

It’s fitting that Encarnacion-Strand sets himself apart on the field with those glasses (Cam Sanders, a right-handed reliever, is the only other player on the Orioles who wears glasses). Encarnacion-Strand is unique in other ways.

For one, the Bay Area native isn’t like most in the Orioles’ clubhouse. He didn’t play baseball at a young age, instead starting at around 10 years old. Encarnacion-Strand preferred wrestling, and he maintains that competitive approach in baseball. Every at-bat is a one-on-one battle.

He doesn’t watch sports. While the rest of the Orioles clubhouse tuned in to an NFL Sunday, Encarnacion-Strand hardly offered a glance at the televisions.

He’d rather be fishing — a pastime he shares with many. Encarnacion-Strand now lives in Arizona, and when he’s not playing baseball, he has a pole in his hands. That isn’t new, either. When Encarnacion-Strand played his junior year of college at Oklahoma State, he went bass fishing in the lakes around Stillwater with a high school-aged Jackson Holliday, whose uncle coached the Cowboys.

That steady heartbeat is seen on the field for the Orioles — he’s used to maneuvering out of headlocks, doesn’t live and die by results and is content to wait for a nibble on his line.

“I’m competitive,” Encarnacion-Strand said. “I like to compete. I don’t really care to watch it, but I like to compete. That’s probably why I like it so much, because this game is really hard.”

The game was all the more difficult when Encarnacion-Strand dealt with injuries. In 2024, a hand fracture when he was hit by a pitch led to wrist surgery a few months later. He dealt with back inflammation in 2025. Both setbacks prevented Encarnacion-Strand from building off his strong 2023, when he hit .270 with an .805 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 63 games.

He only played a combined 65 games in the majors between 2024 and 2025. In those games, his OPS was .564.

“If you’re not playing every day, if you’re not getting regular at-bats, it’s hard to hit,” Encarnacion-Strand said. “It doesn’t matter what level you’re at.”

That has been the largest difference maker this season. Encarnacion-Strand said he didn’t change anything about his approach upon arriving in the Orioles’ minor league system. Instead, he could play every day, and that rhythm allowed him to excel in Triple-A.

It has continued in the majors. Entering Tuesday, Encarnacion-Strand is hitting .268 with 10 homers and an .817 OPS.

“I’m not 100% sure what my stat line was in ’23, but I think in ’23 and this year, they’re very similar, and I was healthy both of those years,” Encarnacion-Strand said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily changing anything. I think it’s just being healthy and playing consistently.”

It probably doesn’t hurt to have better vision, either.

His emergence has come as a surprise to some, but not to Holliday.

“I’ve gotten to watch Christian since college do this,” Holliday said. “His demeanor and approach have always been very steady and very professional. When you have the ability to hit the ball all over the field like him, it opens up a lot of room for error.”

And it has moved Encarnacion-Strand into consideration for a large role in 2027, although how exactly that shakes out remains to be seen. Jordan Westburg will return from elbow surgery, Coby Mayo is burgeoning into a force and Blaze Alexander has been one of Baltimore’s best producers. Finding starts for them all at third base will be a challenge.

That’s an offseason question, though. For now, Encarnacion-Strand’s performances are making him a fascinating player to watch — and glasses make him quite distinctive when he’s out there.