This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- When it comes to anticipated key prospect arrivals, the Reds have had a whirlwind of big league debuts over the past month. 

• Matt McLain  ✅

• Brandon Williamson  ✅

• Andrew Abbott ✅

• Elly De La Cruz ✅✅✅✅

Now, we're almost at the next big one.

Corner infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand would appear to be on the clock.

Ranked No. 7 in the organization by MLB Pipeline, Encarnacion-Strand wowed in Spring Training with his power. Although somewhat overshadowed by De La Cruz's jaw-dropping highlights this season until last week's promotion, the 23-year-old has been quite impressive in his own right. 

Overall, in 43 games for Triple-A Louisville, Encarnacion-Strand is batting .361/.431/.733 with 17 home runs and 46 RBIs. On Monday, he was named the International League's Player of the Week.

“I think the biggest key is the quality of at-bats. We challenged him, just like we did with Elly. We wanted to make sure he’s improving the quality of the at-bats," Reds general manager Nick Krall told MLB.com on Monday.

Encarnacion-Strand heeded the request.

Over his first 18 games and 84 plate appearances, Encarnacion-Strand had one walk with 23 strikeouts and nine homers. In his last 25 games and 120 plate appearances, he's nearly even, with 20 walks and 22 strikeouts while also slugging eight homers.

"That’s a pretty incredible cut," Krall said of the strikeout rate. "Those are the things that need to continue to happen. He’s been really good in the zone. Obviously, he’s hit a handful of home runs. But you’ve got to improve the quality of at-bats. Big league pitching is different than Triple-A pitching. It’s something he’s been working on.”

Encarnacion-Strand is a natural third baseman, but he is more likely to fit as a first baseman in the big leagues for the Reds. With only 31 games there before this season, he was given lots of exposure at the position during Spring Training. He's played 24 more games at first base this season for Louisville. 

“That was the other thing we talked about with him, improving [his] defense," Krall said. “He’s still learning to play first base. Everybody sees the home runs. Everybody sees the at-bats getting better. But defense really does matter. A couple of weeks ago, we had the worst batting average of balls in play [BABIP] against. That’s because we didn’t make as many plays. Over the last few weeks, our defense has really improved. It needs to continue to improve because that’s going to help our pitching staff. That’s going to help us win games at the end of the day too.”

The Reds acquired Encarnacion-Strand, Spencer Steer and the since traded Minor Leaguer Steven Hajjar from the Twins at last year's Trade Deadline for pitcher Tyler Mahle. 

Fans will no doubt be clamoring loudly for Encarnacion-Strand's promotion as he continues to produce results for Louisville. But remember, he is only in his third professional season after he was a 2021 fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma State, and he has only 187 games played. 

Be patient, for now. 

"It’s just continuing to make those improvements to get to where he needs to get to," Krall said.