The Philadelphia Phillies will have tough decisions to make after the season.
J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Ranger Suarez are the three headliners set to hit free agency, and with a ton of money on the books already, deciding who to bring back will be difficult.
Conventional wisdom would suggest Realmuto and Schwarber get brought back.
While Suarez is a homegrown player and has performed well during his time with the Phillies, pitching is an area where the organization is loaded, unlike at catcher where they don’t have an immediate replacement for their star backstop.
Schwarber is his own case.
He’s been one of the best power hitters in Major League Baseball since coming to Philadelphia, and the leadership he provides in the clubhouse has become a staple of the winning culture that’s been established during the last three years.
The Phillies don’t want to lose him, but it’s going to come down to price.
At some point in the future, whether it be after this season or down the line, Schwarber will no longer be with Philadelphia and they’ll have to find a replacement for the slugging lefty.
Could that player already be within the organization?
There’s a chance star prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. can become that guy.
Ranked 10th in the Phillies’ pipeline, he has turned heads during spring training this year with a slash line of .250/.348/.700, three homers, seven RBI and just six strikeouts compared to three walks in his 11 games and 23 plate appearances.
Rincones has already caught the eye of manager Rob Thomson, and it’s actually been Schwarber himself who has taken the 24-year-old under his wing during camp.
“I was like, ‘Who is this big donkey out here taking hacks?’” Schwarber said per Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer when he first saw the star prospect. “He was hitting balls out to left like a righty would.”
Hitting coach Kevin Long prompted the slugger to go over and talk to Rincones, and that sparked a nickname that could stick with the youngster for a while.
“I call him Uncle Rico because he can hit the ball over the mountains,” Schwarber told Coffey, a nod to the character from the movie Napoleon Dynamite.
The mentorship on the field is where there could be a lasting impact.
Rincones has struggled against left-handed pitching during the early stages of his career, something Schwarber also dealt with until he figured something out last season that allowed him to slash .300/.407/.490 against lefties.
The veteran has taught the youngster about sight lines when left-handers are throwing so he can better see the pitches that are coming out of their hands, also telling him where to place his feet in the batter’s box.
Rincones will take that advice with him to the minors.
While he’s impressed during camp, the 2022 third-round pick only has one-and-a-half professional seasons to his name after tearing his thumb ligament during the early part of last year following a hot start to the campaign.
That has him behind in his development with just 58 Double-A games of experience thus far.
But if Rincones can put everything together, he has the hitting profile that matches up with Schwarber.
Schwarber is 6-foot and 230 pounds. Rincones is a bit taller at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, but the eye-popping power is what both lefty sluggers have in common.
“He’s been great. 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?” Schwarber said to Coffey.
All eyes will be on how Rincones performs this year.
He’s going to be a featured player for the Phillies at some point in his career, and there’s a chance he could be the next power-hitting star who follows in the footsteps of Schwarber.
