How Andrew Painter Is Handling Nerves Ahead of Highly Anticipated Phillies Debut

It's been a big week for Phillies rookie right-hander Andrew Painter. His much-anticipated major-league debut will finally come Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park against the Nationals, but before dealing with those nerves, he got some out of the way by proposing to his girlfriend, Shelby.

"I'm not sure," he said with a laugh Monday afternoon in the Phillies' clubhouse when asked which situation was more stressful. "We'll revisit that, we'll revisit that."

Even though Painter is still just 22 years old, Phillies fans have waited more than three seasons for his big-league debut. He was part of their rotation plans in 2023 as a 19-year-old but suffered an elbow injury in his only spring training start, required Tommy John surgery and missed two full seasons.

He pitched all year in 2025 at Triple A and set a career-high with 118 innings, but he struggled with command and never received the promotion to the majors most expected. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski put an initial timetable of "July-ish" for Painter's call-up last season but the team's top pitching prospect didn't execute well enough to earn it.

It further delayed a winding journey for Painter, but he's happy to have experienced the lows as well as the highs.

"It's definitely been a long road," he said Monday. "I'm grateful for it, grateful for the failure. Last year was a tough one but I think I've learned a lot from it. It's been a long journey but I'm super grateful for all the people that have been a part of it.

"I think Triple-A was a good place to get the failure out and really experience it there. If you go through and don't have any failure and then hit it in the big leagues, I think that's really tough. Being able to get that first little bit of failure in my career out of the way not on the biggest stage was a good thing."

What kind of failure?

For Painter, the 2025 failure was mostly a result of falling behind in counts and having to come over the middle. It doesn't matter if you throw 97 when a hitter knows he'll be getting it in a prime location on a 2-0 or 3-1 count.

"There's a couple things," Painter said. "The biggest thing is establishing the fastball. Falling behind in counts, that's what I did a lot, getting into hitters' counts and at that point, they're in the driver's seat. You want to get ahead and force their hand."

Andrew Painter on his struggles in Triple-A last season and his journey to the MLB:

"Being able to get that first little bit of failure not on the biggest stage was a good thing." pic.twitter.com/M45b2ehq6d
— PHLY Phillies (@PHLY_Phillies) March 30, 2026

The goal for Tuesday

Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he'd be very happy if the team gets six innings out of Painter on Tuesday, but it's not like that's their expectation. Two runs over five innings would be a job well done, too. Really, the most important thing is that Painter settles in, doesn't overthrow, looks the part and builds confidence that he can bring into subsequent outings.

"Definitely soak it all in, take a deep breath, take a look around, just try to keep everything slow," he said. "Don't let the game speed up on you, keep it at your pace and stay in control of it."

Settling in

Painter threw a simulated game last week to stay sharp when the Phillies worked out at CBP. He's fifth in the rotation, which adds more time to feel anxious or nervous leading into the first start, but it also enabled him to plant his feet.

"Definitely good to get settled in a little bit, get the lay of the land up here, just kind've the everyday scheduling, the ins and outs of it," he said. "Just getting my feet wet has been great these last couple days."

Painter will have 30 to 40 family and friends in attendance Tuesday, same as fellow rookie Justin Crawford in his MLB debut Thursday. Crawford had an encouraging first weekend as a Phillie with two line drive singles up the middle, an infield single to break up Sunday's no-hitter and a tremendous leaping catch at the wall in left-center field.

There is no shortage of veteran presence in the Phillies' clubhouse for guys like Crawford and Painter to lean on. Back in 2019, it was important for them to situate Painter in the spring training clubhouse next to Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Taijuan Walker, same as it was this year to place top prospect Aidan Miller next to Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm.

"It's a great rotation. There's a lot of information, a lot of things you can kind've pick and take away from each of them," Painter said. "I've tried to be a sponge, listen to the conversations, get the advice and see what ways I can apply it to myself."

His debut, three years in the making, is finally almost here.