Reds make bizarre 40-man roster move and place Encarnacion-Strand on 60-day IL

Normally, when a team selects a player to the major league roster from the minors, it is with the purpose of giving that player an opportunity to help the big league team or at least to give the club a back-up plan if something happens. However, the Cincinnati Reds made a different sort of roster move on Monday that requires a bit more digging to understand.

In addition to putting Christian Encarnacion-Strand to the 60-day IL due to his broken hand after an HBP that threatens to keep him out all season, the Reds then selected reliever Brooks Kriske and immediately optioned him back to the minor leagues.

Why select Kriske only to immediately send him back where he came from? Well, that requires some educated guessing.

Reds News: Cincinnati selects Brooks Kriske only to immediately send him back to the minors

We'll start with Kriske as that move requires the most explanation. Teams use their 40-man roster for a lot of things, including protecting guys from the Rule 5 Draft. However, that is more of an offseason play and doesn't explain shuffling Kriske around in the middle of June. The best guess we have at the moment is that Kriske had a provision in his contract where he had to be added to the team's 40-man roster by X date (presumably Monday or at least close to it) or he could opt out and become a free agent, and the Reds decided that he was worth keeping around, but not good enough to be on the active roster.

While Kriske's pure stuff is intriguing enough to keep him around, it is unclear if he will ever develop the command needed in the majors even as a bullpen arm where the bar is lower. While the strikeouts have been there at 12.1 K/9 in Triple-A, he is also walking 5.2 batters per nine, which is sadly right in line with his limited experience in MLB. This move buys the Reds some time to fix him without occuping a bullpen spot just yet.

As for Encarnacion-Strand, moving him to the 60-day injured list was largely procedural. It had already been reported that he was seeking a second opinion on his broken hand, which almost always means a player got bad news from the first doctor they talked to. He was going to be out for a long time regardless, so shifting him to the 60-day IL gave the Reds the roster flexibility to keep Kriske around for a little while longer.

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