Elite Defensive Phillies Prospect Turning Heads With His Bat Lately

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Many of the Phillies' hitters seem to be finding their timing after a slow first few days of camp, with all of Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm, Adolis Garcia, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott and Edmundo Sosa having productive offensive days since Wednesday.

For the established veterans, spring training results are a much lower priority than seeing pitches, finding a rhythm at the plate and getting the body into shape for the rigors of a 162-game season.

For the less established guys in big-league camp, every day is pivotal, an opportunity to show the coaching staff and front office what they've got.

The Phillies have several top prospects in spring training like Andrew Painter, Justin Crawford and Aidan Miller. Painter and Crawford will break camp with the team, barring injury, and Miller could contribute in 2026 as well, so long as his lower back soreness subsides and he continues to rake as he did in the second half last season at Double A and Triple A.

One of the many lesser-known prospects in camp is 22-year-old shortstop Bryan Rincon, who has long been billed for his defense but is finally starting to show a little something with the bat.

Hot start

Rincon went 2-for-2 in Friday's win in Clearwater over the Marlins, doubling and pulling a line-drive homer over the right-field wall at BayCare Ballpark.

Four nights earlier, he had the biggest hit in a 5-5 tie against the Nationals in West Palm Beach, an opposite-field three-run double.

"If this kid can hit — I mean, he can play in the big leagues right now at shortstop, he's that good of a defender — so if he can hit a little bit, we've got something here," manager Rob Thomson said Friday.

"(The Nationals game), he started barreling up balls and he's been doing it ever since. They're trying to get him more aggressive at the plate and he has been, he's starting to swing the bat. They're trying to get him a little bit flatter through the zone and he's doing that."

From selective to aggressive

The shift in approach is a major focus for Rincon. He's taken his walks in the lower levels of the minors with 68 in 2023 and 50 last season. He's hit just .206 in 974 minor-league plate appearances but the selectivity led to a respectable .337 on-base percentage.

Nowadays, the focus is not letting a hittable pitch pass him by.

"Definitely. Just trying to end my at-bat early in the count," he said at his locker Saturday morning. "Looking for the fastball early in the count pretty much. Be aggressive and just attack."

Rincon was not aware of the comment Thomson made the previous day and was excited to hear it.

"It's pretty cool. Listening to him saying stuff like that gets me fired up," he said. "I've just got to keep working and doing my thing."

Rincon was ranked by Baseball America after last season as the best defensive infielder and infield arm in the Phillies' minor-league system. That side of the ball has always been natural for him and still represents his best path to the major leagues.

"I always took a lot of groundballs as a kid and it just came," he said. "I work at it but it just took to me."

Baseball history, of course, is littered with players who excelled with the glove but never had enough bat to stick. That's why Thomson and Rincon are excited by the progress he's shown early in camp and hope he can carry it over to Double A this season. Even if he doesn't begin with Reading, the Phillies will hope to have him there early after 576 plate appearances the last two years with High A Jersey Shore.

"For this camp, just learn as much as I can from these big-leaguers, we have guys who have been playing for a long time," Rincon said. "For this season, stay healthy, have fun and just play."