(Left to right): Gabriel Rincones Jr.’s wife, Courtney; mother, Rosi; sister, Camila; and sister’s boyfriend, Sam; watch Rincones Jr.’s MLB debut in Milwaukee with a Scottish flag. (Photo by Nathan Ackerman / Phillies Nation)

MILWAUKEE — Camila Rincones thought it was a dream. Not figuratively: a literal dream. When her mom told her that her brother, Gabriel Rincones Jr., was going to the big leagues, Camila was asleep.

Once she realized it was real, the arguments commenced. Rather, the one six-hour argument, about how best to get themselves, along with Camila’s boyfriend Sam, to the debut, commenced. So the winning plan was not complex for lack of consideration: They would get to Milwaukee from Minneapolis, to Minneapolis from Amsterdam, to Amsterdam from Scotland, home, where the journey began at 5:45 a.m. local time on Friday.

Ever since Gabriel told them this day would come eventually, they knew this day would come. Still, they wouldn’t miss it.

“It feels amazing,” his mother, Rosi, told Phillies Nation on Friday.

But getting from Scotland to Milwaukee on such short notice is far from the hardest part of this whole journey for the Rincones family.

Gabriel’s path here has been well-documented: He moved from Scotland to Venezuela for a year, then to the United States, to expose himself to a higher level of competition and development.

But Rosi is quick to note that what shaped Rincones in his professional baseball pursuit dates back much further than that. The family moved from Venezuela to Scotland when Gabriel was just six. Scotland is not exactly known for its baseball scene, so between that move and the one back to Venezuela, at age 12, Gabriel didn’t have much to work with.

Around age 10 and 11, already clearly full of talent, he would play in adult leagues in Scotland. Around then is when Rosi and her husband, Gabriel Sr., knew things would have to change.

“Sometimes they’d say, ‘OK, you can go and play second base,’” Rosi said. “And he was like, ‘I’m gonna be a big-leaguer. I’m gonna be a big-leaguer.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god. If he stays here, he’s not gonna make it.’” 

The family pulled the levers they needed to pull in order to make that a possibility. It was a leap of faith, but Gabriel Jr.’s personality gave them plenty of reason to believe it’d work out alright.

“He is the most motivated person,” Camila said. “He’s just the most driven person I know, or that any one of us know. It’s insane … I think because of his personality, we’ve always known that a day like this would come.”

None of it was a surprise to Courtney, his wife of a little over half a year, either. 

“I’ve always known, since Gabe and I have been together, when he says he’s gonna do something, he’s gonna do it,” she said on the heels of a travel day that was not quite international but hectic in its own right: She made the two-plus-hour drive from Scranton to Philadelphia and hopped right on a plane.

“I thought I would feel nervous,” she said. “I haven’t felt nervous. If anything, I felt like God has put him exactly where he wants him to be and given him the skills and ability to do exactly what he needs to do to be here. And so I know that he’s here for a reason, and it’s just easy to kinda sit back and watch him do his thing.”

Rosi and Gabriel Sr. would take the proclamation one step further. They’d talked, Rosi said, before the season about when their son would get his big-league chance, and they both had a feeling: This was going to be the year. They stuck with that belief even when Gabriel battled injuries that sidelined him for all of spring training and the first month of the regular season.

Rosi reads what people say about her son. His scouting report, his alleged shortcomings as a player. She sees the comments and messages from “not nice” people on the internet. 

She thinks back on everything that got him here.

For her, all of that backstory is relevant. The move to Scotland at six. The lack of baseball nurturing during those formative early years. The epiphany that kickstarted his baseball tour of the Americas.

“That’s why when people make these comments, like, ‘Ah, he can’t hit lefties,’ or, you know — come on,” she starts. “You have to — I mean, I can’t.” 

She leans back in her seat in American Family Field’s section 120 and throws her hands up in exasperation: “I can’t.”

That’s fine. She doesn’t have to. She looks out at her son, some 2,500 miles from Venezuela and 3,600 miles from Scotland, roaming right field as the 23,673rd player in the history of Major League Baseball.

“That guy is amazing. He’s amazing,” Rosi said. “He said ‘I want to be a big leaguer,’ and he did it. So proud.”