It’s not hard to picture Gabriel Rincones Jr. crushing long balls for the Philadelphia Phillies at some point this season. What is more difficult to imagine is that Rincones Jr. was cut from his high school team his first two years.
But it turns out that Rincones Jr., now a 6-foot-3, 230-pound slugging prospect in the Philadelphia Phillies system, just wasn’t growing up in the right place to make his Major League dreams come true.
Though he was born in Boynton, Florida, Rincones Jr. lived in Venezuela for much of his early life. When Rincones Jr. was 6 years old, his family moved from Florida to Scotland. His father, Gabriel Rincones Sr., was a minor league pitcher for the Seattle Mariners in the mid-to-late 1990s. When his playing days ended, Rincones Sr. got a job as an offshore safety adviser in the oil industry, which meant moving the family to Glenrothes, just north of Edinburgh.
It’s a place about as void of baseball as any in the world.
“I played soccer, I did boxing, judo, swimming, everything but baseball [in Scotland],” Rincones Jr. said. “Baseball came from my admiration for my dad.”
And Rincones Jr. was determined to pursue his own career in the sport, even if it meant living apart from his parents for several years. When he was 12, Rincones Jr. moved back to the Tampa area to live with an aunt and uncle so he could attend an American high school.
“My parents made the sacrifice to send me over here to at least have the chance to play professional baseball,” he said.
Gabriel Rincones Jr. Moved Back From Scotland to Pursue MLB Dream
But things didn’t go well at first. Competing against kids who had grown up playing baseball all year round, Rincones Jr. didn’t make the team at H.B. Plant High School as a freshman or sophomore.
“I would come back from school and everybody is going to practice. I come back, in my room, and I am crying out of frustration and anger in the dark,” he said. “In my head, I should be playing. My parents sent me here to play baseball.”
Rincones Jr. kept working at it, and he made the high school team as a junior. Rincones Jr. went on to play two seasons at St. Petersburg Junior College, eventually catching the eye of the San Diego Padres, who drafted him in the 19th round of the 2021 Draft.
But Rincones Jr., growing more confident in his abilities, chose to transfer to Florida Atlantic University (FAU), which would turn out to be a very wise decision. In one season at FAU, Rincones Jr. produced a slash line of .346/.451/.658 and a 1.110 OPS, getting 82 hits – including 17 doubles, 19 home runs, and 69 RBIs – in 58 games. He was named the 2022 Conference USA Newcomer of the Year, and in the 2022 MLB Draft, the Phillies selected Rincones Jr. with a third-round pick.
“I’m very stubborn,” Rincones Jr. said. “You tell me I can’t do something, I guarantee you I’m going to eventually do it.”
Gabriel Rincones Jr. Turns Heads With Power Display in Spring Training
A lingering shoulder injury from college kept Rincones Jr. off the field the summer after he was drafted, but he would hit the ground running.
Debuting in April 2023 with Low-A Clearwater, the left-handed hitting outfielder earned the Phillies’ Minor League Player of the Month award for that first month, after he hit .268/.409/.521 with 19 hits, six doubles, four homers, 10 RBIs, 14 walks, and 13 stolen bases. Rincones Jr. was promoted to High-A Jersey Shore in mid-June, and he finished that first pro season among the Phillies minor league leaders in several categories, including doubles (31, tied for first), runs (81, second), stolen bases (32, tied for third), walks (61, seventh), and RBIs (60, 10th). Rincones Jr. also hit 15 home runs.
A torn ligament in Rincones Jr.’s right thumb would disrupt what was a hot start to his 2024 season in Double A-Reading, but in 68 games, he slashed 252/.347/.453 with 11 home runs, 16 doubles, 41 runs, 32 RBIs and 23 stolen bases.
This spring, Rincones Jr. has turned a lot of heads with his power at the plate. He has three home runs, tying Alec Bohm for the team lead, and his BP displays definitely caught the attention of another lefty slugger, Kyle Schwarber.
“I was like, ‘Who is this big donkey out here taking hacks?’” Schwarber said. “He was hitting balls out to left like a righty would.”
Schwarber would give Rincones Jr. a nickname that could very well stick: Uncle Rico, based off the character from the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite who famously said he could “throw a football over them mountains.”
“I call him Uncle Rico because he can hit the ball over the mountains,” Schwarber clarified.
More importantly for Rincones Jr., Schwarber also passed along some tips that helped him improve against left-handed pitching. Schwarber said Rincones Jr. has been soaking in as much information as he can.
“He’s been great,” Schwarber said. “The way he’s been able to hit the baseball and stay on the barrel and take his at-bats. He wants to learn. He wants to get better. And that’s all you can ask for with the young guys, right?”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see Rincones Jr. in the Major League clubhouse pretty soon.
“He’s a really impressive guy,” Thomson said. “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.”
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