Gabriel Rincones Jr.

Role: Average Regular
Risk: High – Rincones is going to need to put up plus offensive numbers to have value, and he still isn’t turning his plus raw power into extra base hits at a high rate. He is never going to have a plus hit tool, and while patient, he swung and missed at a high rate against all pitch types.
Summary: Rincones didn’t make his pro debut until 2023, after an injury ended his 2022 season early. The Phillies quickly promoted him to Jersey Shore, where he struggled for much of his first month, before getting his feet under him. Rincones played both corner outfield positions pretty evenly and he is fine, but not great in either. He stole 47 bases in 142 games at pretty good efficiency (just 8 caught stealing), but he isn’t a particularly fast runner, just an opportunistic runner with good reads. All of that means that his value is going to come from his offense. Rincones hits the ball hard. He was only in the FSL for a month and a half, but his average exit velocity was 89.4mph, which is solid, but not MLB standout, however he led the Phillies minor league statcast hitters in 90th percentile exit velocity in that time at 107.2 mph with a max exit velocity of 113.3mph. He struggled to consistently get the ball out of the ballpark, as he ran a high ground ball rate in Clearwater and a high popup rate at both levels. Rincones is a patient hitter, and he will need to draw walks because his swing has a lot of miss in it. He is a bit stiff and he does not always engage his lower half to get loft. He does have a bunch of strength in his wrists, and he can drive the ball with only his upper half. Rincones did come from a small school and did not make his pro debut until 2023, so it is fair to think that he has a bit more improvement potential than your average college hitter. Something to watch is that Rincones really struggled vs LHPs, and there is a chance he trends more towards a platoon bat, but as a left handed hitter, there is a real major league role for that.
2024 Outlook: Rincones logged 72 games and 319 plate appearances for the BlueClaws before going to the Arizona Fall League. Unless he has a poor camp, he has a chance to break camp with Reading.

Role: Everyday Corner Outfielder or First Baseman
Risk: High – Rincones has some underlying stats that look good and a year in a non-major college conference. It isn’t nothing, but it is not enough to build a picture of a safe prospect. Regardless of which defensive position he ends up at, his bat will need to carry his future value.
Summary: Under Brian Barber, the Phillies have been all about drafting big tools. On the hitting side that has meant speed and exit velocity. Rincones was an exit velocity monster at Florida Atlantic last season, hitting .346/.451/.658 on the year. He has the frame and strength to back up the power numbers. Rincones was a junior college transfer, so he does not have much track record hitting against top end pitchers, and even his college experience wasn’t in a big conference. He had an injury this summer that the Phillies were cautious with, holding him out of professional games. A hurricane washed out most of the observable parts of Fall Instructs, so Rincones remains mostly a mystery. In the field, the Phillies and Rincones say he moves better than the reports, and that he should stay in an outfield corner, but there are some that look at his frame and athleticism and see first base or designated hitter as his final position.

Rincones is not Casey Martin or Baron Radcliff at the plate, but he does have some hit tool questions. The Phillies have historically not been great at identifying and then improving players like Rincones, which brings some major worries about the Phillies ability to maximize his potential. If the new Phillies development team can help him develop, he has the raw power to be a middle of the order masher that will make his final defensive position ultimately irrelevant.
2023 Outlook: Given that he played in Instructs and High Performance Camp, Rincones appears to be healthy and ready to go for the season. Unless he crashes and burns in the spring, he likely goes north to Jersey Shore where he should spend most of the season. Given his lack of experience vs top pitchers there is a chance there are struggles in his future.