Phillies prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. impresses with his regained power: ‘He’s a gamer’

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Outfield prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. stayed on the field long after the final out in the Phillies’ 7-3 loss to the Orioles on Sunday, signing autographs for the fans still crowded along the third base line.

The 23-year-old had turned some heads — including Phillies manager Rob Thomson’s — with the 391-foot, 107.1 mph home run he blasted over the right field wall earlier that day.

“It was a missile,” Thomson said. “He’s a really impressive guy. Very strong, great body, hit the ball all over the place. Can hit it out of any part of the ballpark. Play solid defense. He’s a gamer. He plays every pitch.”

Rincones didn’t always have that kind of power. He did, however, always have the same love for baseball.

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That’s what kept Rincones playing for the six years he spent growing up in Scotland, a place where baseball diamonds are few and far between. His father, Gabriel Rincones Sr., was a minor leaguer in the Seattle Mariners organization and took a job there as an offshore safety adviser after his playing career ended. Every Sunday on the weeks when his dad wasn’t offshore, Rincones played in an adult baseball league against older men. He would set his clothes out the night before and be up at 6 in the morning, ready to play.

“It was more keeping my love for the game alive, rather than just forgetting about it,” Rincones said.

When Rincones was 12, his parents sent him to live with his aunt in Venezuela to hone his baseball skills for a year. Then, he moved to Tampa, Fla., to stay with another aunt and uncle to play high school baseball. But Rincones didn’t make the team at Plant High School, which has produced MLB players like Kyle Tucker, Preston Tucker, and Pete Alonso, until his junior year.

“You should have seen how I was hitting back then,” he said.

The power didn’t come overnight. But after two years at junior college, Rincones had 19 home runs and a 1.110 OPS in 58 games for Florida Atlantic University. The Phillies drafted him in the third round in 2022.

Even then, his journey wasn’t linear. Rincones missed his first minor league season with a shoulder injury. Last year, he started the season on a roll in double-A Reading, with a .600 slugging percentage through his first 13 games. Then, he tore a ligament in his right thumb.

Rincones tried to play through it — “it only hurt to swing and miss,” he said — but eventually underwent surgery and missed two months of the season. And when he returned, he struggled at first.

“I was trying to hit the same way before I got hurt, and I was just forcing something that was no longer natural to me,” Rincones said. “I thought I was going to get to the big leagues that year with what I had earlier in the year. So I was just really trying to force something that I no longer felt, so I kind of got put in desperation mode. Had to tweak a couple things.”

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He feels like his strength and his range of motion is back to normal now. Rincones finished last season with a stint in the Arizona Fall League, where he slashed .273/.367/.403 over 22 games with Glendale.

Rincones has appeared in Grapefruit League games as a minor league call-up before, but this year marks his first nonroster invite to big-league camp. He’s taking full advantage of the access to the veterans around him. Rincones, who bats left-handed, struggled against left-handers last season, slashing .189/.250/.243 in 40 plate appearances. So this spring, he’s been taking notes from Kyle Schwarber, who raised his .188 batting average against lefties to .300 last season.

Schwarber advised him to “shift his sights” and use both eyes to pick up the arm angles from the lefty straight on. Rincones put the advice into practice during a live at-bat against Cristopher Sánchez last week.

“I saw the ball pretty well,” Rincones said. “I didn’t barrel anything. But especially in live ABs, usually it’s ‘Are you seeing it good,’ and ‘How do you feel? You feel confident? Or do you feel up against the ropes?’”

Rincones’ home run on Sunday was off a right-hander. But he’s looking forward to putting into practice what he’s been working on against lefties in an actual game.

It may not work the first time. But Rincones knows that better than anyone.