With the Rule 5 Draft looming, the Philadelphia Phillies are being forced into a decision they don’t want to make. The draft would typically occur during the MLB Winter Meetings, scheduled at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California, between December 11 and 14.
But those meetings will likely be canceled due to the impending lockout expected to start at midnight on December 2. And as we’ve already discussed, since the Rule 5 Draft likely won’t take place, the Phillies can probably avoid adding top prospects to the 40-man roster, meaning they’ll be able to compete in minor league action this summer.
But that’s an awful risk for a relatively small reward. Imagine if the Phillies decided not to protect 2026 Paul Owens Award winner Bryan Rincon and the lockout ended early. What would happen if the Rule 5 Draft were rescheduled and Rincon were snatched by another team?
The deadline to protect players for the Draft is approaching on November 17, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is well aware of the predicament, though he wouldn’t get into specifics.
“I do know there’s one player we’re for sure going to protect, and I would not risk losing him under any scenario,” Dombrowski told Philadelphia Inquirer writer Lochlahn March.
The Phillies may be more inclined to risk someone less valuable like Wen-Hui Pan, Aroon Escobar, or Keaton Anthony, so the only player it makes sense for Dombrowski to be referring to is Rincon.
“That one player, I would not want to gamble on,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t think it’s worth it from what I hear, because I would not feel very good with myself at all, as others wouldn’t be, if something happened and there was a draft and we lost that guy. I’d be saying, ‘Oh my goodness gracious, I can’t believe that.’ Because he might play on our big league club next year, too.”
Former Phillies slugger Tommy Joseph inks coaching deal with Texas Rangers
There was a moment when Tommy Joseph looked like the heir apparent to Ryan Howard. When he debuted in 2016, the former top-catching prospect who came over from the San Francisco Giants in the Hunter Pence trade absolutely raked.
Through his first 21 big-league games, Joseph slashed .323/.333/.677 with seven home runs. His two walks and 18 strikeouts, though, would portend things to come.
Joseph never again reached the heights that he did in his first year in the Majors, playing only one more season in MLB for the Phillies in 2017 before shipping off to South Korea’s KBO in 2019, but now he’s back.
After serving as a hitting coach in the New York Mets’ and Giants’ minor league systems, and as assistant hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles in 2024 and 2025, respectively, Joseph has hopped aboard the Texas Rangers as their assistant hitting coach for 2027, per a report from The Dallas Morning News’ Shawn McFarland.
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