It was supposed to be the year of Andrew Painter — the year the Phillies’ pitching prodigy would arrive in Philadelphia with a wicked arsenal that includes a 100-mph fastball.
Ain’t happened yet.
The “July-ish” target for Painter’s major league debut has vaporized, and it’s looking more and more likely that Philly won’t see Painter at all in 2025.
Phillies pitching prospect Andrew Painter has struggled at Triple-A this season. (Photo by Olivia Damato/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images)
Minor League Baseball via Getty Images
The 22-year-old right-hander has struggled since getting promoted to triple-A Lehigh Valley in early May. His 5.24 ERA is the clearest proof of those struggles. He’s also given up too much loud contact with opposing hitters slugging .493 against him, including 14 home runs.
But the most worrisome part to Painter’s season is this: He’s getting worse, not better, with an astronomical 12.96 ERA over two starts in August.
“Command again,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said via The Inquirer of a recent Painter start. “You know, I watched every pitch, and the stuff’s there, and I thought actually (Sunday’s) command was better than the time before. He just got hit a little bit more, that’s all. But the stuff is definitely there.”
Here’s a look at said stuff that still excites Thomson:
It can take some time for pitchers to regain their command following Tommy John surgery, which Painter underwent in July 2023 to reconstruct the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Thomson said Painter’s “velocity was there from the get-go” but said he could be battling “some fatigue” because of increased workload, which is up to 87⅔ innings this year.
Painter missed the 2024 regular season and then threw only 15⅔ in the Arizona Fall League. He missed all of 2023 after tossing 103⅔ inning in 2022, when he dominated three minor-league levels and became the Phillies most buzzy prospect since Cole Hamels two decades earlier.
The clearest indication that the Phillies still envision Painter as a true ace — the rarest commodity in baseball — is that they refused to include him in a deal that would have scored them stud closer Mason Miller at this year’s trade deadline, as reported by Ken Rosenthal.
“I think (Painter) is a premier starting pitcher… is what he projects to be,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “Again, he’s coming off of basically missing two years. Tommy John surgery, a lot of times after you throw like he has, it even takes another year to get back to where you were.”
And, although it looks like a long shot that Painter will pitch in Philly this season, it’s still not an impossibility. “I wouldn’t close the door on it, because anything can happen,” Thomson said. “I mean, all of a sudden he catches his second wind, we have some injuries here, and then, you know? I wouldn’t close the door on it.”