The Phillies added three prospects to their 40-man roster on Rule 5 protection day: pitchers Andrew Painter and Alex McFarlane and outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. Their roster count sits at 33.
Painter, 23 in April, was one of the most obvious calls to be kept out of the Rule 5 draft. The 6’7″ right-hander was arguably the best pitching prospect in MLB a couple seasons ago. Painter’s stock has dropped over the last two and a half seasons because of injuries and an underwhelming performance at Triple-A. The Phillies were never going to let an arm as talented as Painter go in the Rule 5 draft, though.
A first-round pick out of high school in 2021, Painter turned in a 1.56 earned run average over 22 starts during his first full professional season. Painter reached Double-A in his age-19 season. The Phillies were open to him pitching his way to the big leagues by the end of the ’23 campaign, but an elbow injury intervened. Painter eventually required Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2024 minor league campaign (though he returned to get 15 2/3 innings of Arizona Fall League action).
Painter’s first season at the Triple-A level didn’t go well. He was tagged for a 5.40 ERA while walking almost 10% of batters faced. Painter gave up more than 1.5 home runs per nine innings. It wasn’t enough to earn a late-season debut, but he still sits around 97 MPH on his fastball and struck out a solid 23.4% of Triple-A opponents. He’s one of the better pitching prospects in the game and should debut next season. Baseball America ranks him the #2 prospect in the Philly system.
Rincones, 25 in March, is seventh on that list. He’s a left-handed hitting outfielder who turned in a .240/.370/.430 line across 506 Triple-A plate appearances. Rincones is a limited defender with concerns about his ability to hit lefty pitching, but he has big power in a 6’3″ frame and is clearly willing to wait until pitchers come into the zone.
McFarlane, a 24-year-old righty, is a former fourth-round pick out of the University of Miami. He spent much of the season in High-A, where he struggled to a 4.72 ERA through 74 1/3 frames. The minor league numbers aren’t encouraging, but the Phils still clearly like McFarlane as a developmental play and had plenty of roster space with which to work.
Everything is coming. Wonder if more Astros stuff is coming
Do you think Griff Mcgarry will be selected in the rule 5 draft? He had a pretty strong finish in 2025.
Strange they left McGarry off given the number of openings and that he was named their minor league player of the year. You’d think some team would at least give him a shot.
Mistake to leave Griff off because it looks like he finally figured something out and when you throw 100 miles an hour you give the guy a chance especially when there’s seven spots remaining on the 40
Yes, sadly I think he’s gone. I think it was a mistake to leave him off.
McGarry is a 2.5 A player. If he goes, he’ll probably be back. If he’s gone, whatever.
I would have protected Griff, but they do have much more information than we do.
Remember that they still have at least 5 spots open from 26 man losses that need to be replaced, and Justin Crawford will be added when they break camp. Perhaps they feel as if the easiest way for them to slide Griff through is during the Rule 5 rather than later in the offseason.