The Phillies can’t afford to be patient with Adolis García (or Justin Crawford). Gabriel Rincones needs a chance soon.

A lot of what you’ve heard is wrong regarding the Phillies’ vestibular dysfunction. Their biggest issue isn’t that their righties can’t hit lefties. It’s that their righties can’t hit anybody.

The lack of lineup balance is a problem, yes. The Phillies aren’t just the worst team in the majors from the right-side of the plate this season. Their .586 OPS would be the lowest by a National League team since 1986, per FanGraphs data.

And yet …

What the Phillies might really need is another left-handed bat. For now, at least.

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With outfield prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. finally back in the lineup at triple-A Lehigh Valley, Dave Dombrowski shouldn’t need to see much before he gives the 25-year-old a shot as Adolis García’s strong-side platoon partner. Rincones has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, so a lot depends on his health. He is 4-for-10 with a double in two games at triple A since completing his return from a bout with knee soreness that shut him down early in big league camp. All the more reason to avoid dilly-dallying.

Rincones’ absence from Grapefruit League play was a setback for the organization, especially when coupled with top prospect Aidan Miller’s back problems (Miller has yet to take a minor league at-bat this season). Dombrowski had consistently mentioned Rincones’ name along with Miller’s when talking about young players who could help the Phillies in 2026. A third-round pick out of Florida Atlantic in 2022, he immediately put himself on the organization’s radar with his blend of power, patience and running ability and a prototypical 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame. Rincones spent all of last season at Lehigh Valley, hitting 18 home runs with 21 steals and a .799 OPS in 506 plate appearances.

Rincones probably won’t help much with the Phillies’ struggles against lefties. He hasn’t had an extra-base hit against a southpaw since 2024 and is just 15-for-102 against them over his last three seasons. That said, he has an awfully low bar to clear to be better than García against righties.

The righty-on-lefty thing has always been a bit of a red herring. Dombrowski has alluded to it at previous trade deadlines and also with regard to signing Max Kepler last season. Balance is important, but, all things being equal, a lefty who exclusively hits righties is going to help you more often than a righty who exclusively hits lefties. The real dilemma is finding a righty who can hit lefties while also hitting righties, who represent about two-thirds of the matchups a team will face.

» READ MORE: Is it time to talk about Trea Turner? Do the Phillies have a Brandon Marsh trade deadline decision? Big questions!

Here’s a fun little game. Try to guess the following three players, each of whom is a right-handed hitter with at least 50 plate appearances against lefties this season.

The first two are Alec Bohm and García. The third is Byron Buxton.

García and Bohm have been fine against lefties, both better than league average. The issue with both of them is that most of their at-bats come against righties. There, they both rank among the bottom 12% of hitters, García with a .534 OPS and Bohm at .521. To put that in perspective, both have a lower OPS against righties this season than Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott do against lefties in their careers.

Think about that. Stott and Marsh are supposedly so bad against lefties that they routinely get a day off with a southpaw on the mound. Yet the Phillies have two of those matchups in the lineup every time they face a righty.

The main point is that fixing the Phillies’ struggles is more complex than simply finding another right-handed hitter. Those are easy to find. The Phillies got one cheap in Harrison Bader last trade deadline. The real gig is finding a right-handed hitter who can balance your lineup against lefties without being a black hole whenever a lefty isn’t on the mound. And, well, here we are.

We mentioned Buxton earlier. The Twins center fielder was a hot name at least year’s trade deadline. He’ll be a hot name again, assuming he is healthy. His .996 OPS against righties ranks second out of 89 big-league hitters with at least 100 PAs. Mike Trout ranks seventh, with an .862 OPS. The Phillies will need to be thinking big a couple of months from now. But they’ll need to get there, first.

At 29-27, the Phillies can’t afford to drink their own Kool-Aid about Don Mattingly’s impact. There are two main reasons they’ve won 20 of 28 games since firing Rob Thomson. Neither of those two reasons is the manager.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Orion Kerkering trying to ‘build off of a bad memory’ as he returns to Dodger Stadium

Reason No. 1: The pitching staff has a 2.83 ERA in 28 games.

Reason No. 2: The Phillies have played exactly six games against teams with a positive run differential, two of which they lost, and a third in which they won in extra innings.

Dombrowski shouldn’t fool himself. Thomson’s last 18 games came against three of the top nine teams in the majors in terms of run differential. The Phillies faced a lefty starter in a whopping 13 of the 28 games Thomson managed this season. Since then, they’ve faced one in seven of 28 games. This was a self-fulfilling managerial change.

The reality is that the Phillies are the same exact team they were before. They can beat anybody when Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo are at the top of their game. Anything less than that and they can lose to anybody. They’ve scored 53 runs in their last 15 games. They scored 56 in their last 15 under Thomson.

Rincones might not prove to be a savior. But what, exactly, is the downside? The Phillies are carrying three catchers right now, one of them a lefty. García would be a valuable late-game option to have on the bench against righty starters, both from a matchup perspective and as a defensive replacement. On days that Mattingly thinks he needs García’s right-handed bat in the lineup, he can sit Justin Crawford, who has a .538 OPS since mid-April and is 5-for-47 in his last 17 games.

None of this precludes a trade deadline pursuit of Trout or Buxton or some other right-handed option. Right now, the Phillies are two hitters shy of a functional outfield. There is plenty of room at the inn.

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As the Phillies continue to seek more production out of the cleanup spot, Rhys Hoskins was back in town with the Cleveland Guardians. Hoskins sat down with "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss his role with the first-place Guardians, his legacy with the Phillies, and more. Watch here.

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