3B · 2026

Christian Encarnacion-Strand

Baltimore Orioles American League East3B

Age: 27
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 224 lb
Number: #32

Born: December 1, 1999 in Walnut Creek, CA, USA
MLB debut: July 17, 2023
Drafted: 2019, round 34
College: Oklahoma State

dbWAR: -1.0
PA: 60
AVG: .241
OBP: .305
SLG: .463
wRC+: 107

Christian Encarnacion-Strand is a third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles. In 2026 he hit 3 home runs and knocked in 11 RBIs, notching 13 hits across 60 plate appearances in 17 games. His batting average was .241, 1.2% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .305 clip and slugged .463, for an OPS of .768, 6.8% higher than the league mark of .719. He averaged 92.3 mph off the bat, hit 41.5% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 14.6% of them and made contact on 77.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 107 wRC+ puts his offence 7% above average. That comes to 0.3 dbWAR — +0.4 runs with the bat, -0.1 on the bases, +0.2 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+107

wOBA.327

ISO.222

BB%6.7%

WAR.3

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +2.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	25	21	8	3	3	8	.381	.458	.857	.535	32.0%
vs RHP	35	33	5	0	1	6	.152	.200	.212	.190	17.1%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 40 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 41 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 14.6%
Exit velocity: 92.3
Max exit velo: 111.0
Hard hit: 41.5%
Sweet spot: 41.5%
Launch angle: 19.5°

Barrel rate14.6%

Exit velocity92.3 mph

Hard hit rate41.5%

Contact rate77.4%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Christian Encarnacion-Strand hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	60	—	—	—	—	—	—	.241	.305	.463	.327
Bases empty	28	27	7	2	2	1	8	.259	.286	.519	.342
Runner on first · thin	10	9	1	1	2	0	3	.111	.111	.444	.224
Runners on	32	27	6	1	9	3	6	.222	.323	.407	.313
RISP · thin	22	18	5	0	7	3	3	.278	.409	.389	.352

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2026	17	60	13	3	11	4	14	.241	.305	.463	.222	.270	6.7%	23.3%	.327	+0.4	107	0.3
2025	36	137	27	6	19	3	32	.208	.234	.377	.169	.223	2.2%	23.4%	.261	-6.1	62	-0.5
2024	29	123	22	2	16	4	35	.190	.220	.293	.103	.247	3.3%	28.5%	.224	-8.9	36	-0.8

Head to head

Put Christian Encarnacion-Strand beside up to three others.

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Christian Encarnacion-Strand

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.