The Phillies are staring at a Rule 5 Draft decision they’d rather not have to make, and Dave Dombrowski is already signaling that at least one player is off limits.
With the draft tied to the MLB Winter Meetings - scheduled for December 11-14 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego - the looming lockout expected to begin at midnight on December 2 could wipe the whole thing out. If that happens, Philadelphia may get a break: no Rule 5 Draft means no need to crowd the 40-man roster just to guard against a selection that might never come.
But that kind of relief comes with a catch. If the lockout ends early and the draft is rescheduled, the Phillies could be exposed if they leave the wrong prospect unprotected. That’s why the November 17 protection deadline matters, and why Dombrowski’s comments stood out.
“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 could choose to gamble with players such as Wen-Hui Pan, Aroon Escobar, or Keaton Anthony. But the way Dombrowski talked, the only name that really fits is 2026 Paul Owens Award winner Bryan 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.”
While the Phillies sort through that uncertainty, one familiar name from the organization has landed elsewhere. Former Phillies slugger Tommy Joseph has agreed to join the Texas Rangers as assistant hitting coach for 2027, according to Shawn McFarland.
Joseph’s career once pointed toward a much bigger role in Philadelphia. When he debuted in 2016, the former top-catching prospect acquired from the San Francisco Giants in the Hunter Pence trade came out swinging. In his first 21 major league games, he hit .323/.333/.677 with seven home runs.
The power was real, but so were the strikeouts and the lack of walks, and Joseph never quite got back to that opening burst. He played one more season in the majors for the Phillies in 2017 before heading to South Korea’s KBO in 2019.
Since then, he’s stayed in the coaching lane. Joseph worked as a hitting coach in the minor league systems of the Mets and Giants, then served as assistant hitting coach for the Mariners in 2024 and the Orioles in 2025 before moving on to Texas.
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