CLEARWATER, Fla. — Former Plant High School baseball standout Gabriel Rincones Jr.’s road to professional baseball took him across the Atlantic Ocean only to return to Florida.
“I remember being at the airport and my mom is crying because she understands what I am going to try to do,” Rincones Jr. said.
Rincones Jr. was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the third round of the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft. The outfielder was assigned to the Single-A Clearwater Threshers before being promoted to High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws on June 13.
Rising so fast in the Phillies’ farm system did not come without sacrifice. He was six years old when his father, a former pro baseball pitcher, moved the family to Scotland, where he found work as a safety advisor on an oil rig.
“I played soccer, I did boxing, judo, swimming, everything but baseball [in Scotland],” Rincones Jr. said. “Baseball came from my admiration for my dad. He played with the Mariners.”
He was steadfast on a big league baseball career. So much so that at 12 years old, his parents put him back on a plane back to Florida to live with a family member.
“My parents made the sacrifice to send me over here to at least have the chance to play professional baseball,” he said.
Rincones Jr. moved to Tampa to play high school baseball as a freshman under Coach Dennis Braun at Plant High School. Instead, he would get cut.
“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.”
His parents offered to fly him back to Scotland, but Rincones Jr. stuck with it.
“I say, ‘I don’t want to go back. I’m here. I need to do this. I know I can play,’” he said.
He made the varsity team his junior year, then went on to play at St. Petersburg College and eventually to FAU—all while locked in on his big league dreams.
“I didn’t want to go to FAU. I didn’t want to go back to school,” he said. “I wanted to be in the big leagues by freaking tomorrow.”
In 54 games across two levels, Rincones Jr. is batting .252 with five home runs and 24 runs batted in.
