If you followed the Phillies’ social media pages during Spring Training, you’d know that Gabriel Rincones Jr. is a strong human being.
In late February, the team posted a video that featured different Phillies testing their grip strength with a device that measures isometric force in the hand and forearm muscles.
No one notched a number above 160 until Kyle Schwarber was shown gripping 186.3 pounds.
Then the now-rookie Rincones stepped up.
He pulled a 205, then a 200.
The 25-year-old Florida native with Venezuelan and Scottish roots showcased that strength Monday in South Philadelphia, powering the Phillies to a 7-0 victory over the Marlins in the first game of a three-game set.
It was a straight road here, though.
A couple of weeks after that video was published, Rincones was put on the shelf because of a sore knee. He never appeared in Grapefruit League play and was optioned to minor league camp on March 7.
During his 2026 return, Rincones had struggled. He hit .215 over 96 plate appearances between a rehab assignment at Single-A and High-A before returning to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
But buried in that assignment was a 496-foot homer by the left-handed hitter for Clearwater.
Incredible power.
Rincones earned his promotion to The Show when right fielder Adolis García hit the 60-day injured list Friday. He’ll be in a straight platoon in right field, giving him an opportunity to display that strength against right-handed pitching.
Monday was Exhibit A.
Numero uno.
In the bottom half of the second in a scoreless tie, Rincones was working down Marlins righty Ryan Gusto, a much different matchup than Jacob Misiorowski from Friday, whom he had strong at-bats against.
The 6-foot-4 right-hander got the 6-foot-3 right fielder down in the count 1-2. He went fastball away, fouled off. Sinker away, fouled off. Changeup low and in, fouled off.
Then Gusto hung a breaker on the seventh pitch.
An 82 mph sweeper that stayed up and in.
With a one-handed swing, Rincones turned on it, hitting a skyscraping shot and hooking it down the right-field line. His first big-league homer. His first at Citizens Bank Park. His first hit in the big leagues. The 26th Phillie to touch ’em all for his first knock, and the second this year, joining Felix Reyes.
“Well, it was obviously good for him. Good for us,” Don Mattingly said. “To see the kid get his first hit, get that out of the way, you don’t want to see that ever get extended where it lengthens out. So that was obviously huge.”
Rincones did not think the moment had fully hit him yet.
“Still settling in,” Rincones said after the game with a smile. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
He thought about this kind of moment before.
“You dream about that,” Rincones said. “I tried to think about what it would feel like, what would I see, smell, and it was very similar. I had a whole routine in my head of what I could possibly do, and thank God that I was able to do that.”
He’d later knock in another run on a groundout. Not a half-bad start to his major league experience.
Rincones has long had success against right-handers in the minors. In his 329 career games in the Phillies’ system, 43 of his 45 homers have come in those matchups. Entering this year, he had posted an OPS north of .800 in each season since 2023, the year after the club selected him 93rd overall in the 2022 draft.
The Phillies would love more of that kind of success as they still look for more thump in the middle to bottom of their order.
Rincones said his goal in the bigs is simple.
“Setting the table for those big guys and putting together great at-bats against great competition,” Rincones said. “It’s the big leagues now. I’m the new guy around, and I want to supplement these guys.”
J.T. Realmuto has seen enough in a short window to understand why the Phillies wanted to see what Rincones could give them.
“He’s been good,” Realmuto said. “He’s put together good at-bats, had a big swing tonight. He’s a professional. He goes about his business the right way. I’m excited for his future. He’s going to be here for a while.”
It wasn’t just Rincones.
The other rookie, Justin Crawford, had a three-hit day. Brandon Marsh collected two hits. So did Edmundo Sosa. And Realmuto pummeled his second homer in the last few days.
That was plenty for Zack Wheeler, who toed the slab for his 10th start of the season.
Are you still wondering if Wheeler would return to form after his thoracic outlet decompression surgery?
Understandably, that was one of the most exhausted topics of the Phillies’ offseason. Their 36-year-old right-hander has calmed any worries, and then some.
Wheeler dazzled the pesky Marlins. He allowed just two hits over six scoreless innings, which was even more impressive because he did not have his best command. He surrendered three free passes, but still racked up nine strikeouts.
Despite throwing up six zeroes, Wheeler was not thrilled with how it looked.
“Just inconsistent,” Wheeler said. “I’m happy I got through it the way I did, but just kind of a few inconsistent starts in a row, command-wise. Not as sharp as what I’m used to. As long as I keep getting decent results, we’re on a good road, but just sharpen it up a little bit.”
The results?
He lowered his ERA to 2.01 on Monday.
That looks almost unfair next to Cristopher Sánchez at 1.82.
Mattingly has watched Wheeler from the other side plenty. He prefers this view.
“I’ve seen it from the other side a lot,” Mattingly said. “It’s never been that much fun to see it. But what he does every time out, I’m not sure he always feels like he has his best stuff or best location, but he just doesn’t give in, keeps making pitches and keeps getting into the game. It’s pretty amazing, really, what he does.”
Realmuto said that standard is part of what makes Wheeler different.
“I think that’s something that makes him so special,” Realmuto said. “He has very high standards for himself. When he doesn’t feel like he’s perfect, he feels like it’s not his best stuff, but he continues to go out and just get his calling. He’s going to give us a chance to win.”
Wheeler credited Realmuto for helping him get through a night when the command was not crisp.
“JT really knows how to navigate a game, especially with me,” Wheeler said. “We threw a lot more splits today and a lot more backdoor cutters. I think those are probably the two pitches that kind of saved me today.”
Wheeler continues to slide closer and closer to the Cy Young conversation as Misiorowski separates himself from the elite National League class. If Wheeler qualified, he’d have the fourth-lowest ERA in the sport. His 0.85 WHIP would be the third lowest in baseball and a career-low mark.
Award talk or not, the Phillies have one thing for sure: a great chance to win 40 percent of each five-game turn.
And you can make that 60 percent when Jesús Luzardo is on his game.
There are still a couple of glaring needs on this 2026 Phillies club. But if they hit the ball out of the ballpark, now with the help of Rincones, get pitching performances like they’ve seen from Sánchez and Wheeler and lock things down with Jhoan Duran in the ninth, they could certainly make some noise down the stretch.
TURNER LEAVES
The Phillies’ shortstop was hit by a 96.9 mph heater in the bottom of the sixth inning. When they took the field in the eighth, Turner had left the game.
The club says it is a right wrist contusion. X-rays were negative.
“He’s probably going to be sore,” Mattingly said. “So we’ll see where that goes tomorrow.”
Turner ended his night 0-for-3, lowering his season average to .216.
