The Good and Bad of Andrew Painter’s Longest Spring Start Yet for Phillies

The Orioles swung at 33 pitches from Andrew Painter and whiffed at 11.

Andrew Painter was an out away from finishing up his third straight scoreless start of the spring. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Andrew Painter's third start of spring training was a mixture of good and bad, with a long but scoreless opening frame, three strikeouts in the second inning and then loud contact in the third.

The bad

Painter retired the first two Orioles hitters he faced in his final inning but then gave up a 106 mph line drive single to center to Pete Alonso on a full-count fastball right down the middle, a two-run homer to left-handed-hitting Samuel Basallo on a full-count fastball on the inner half, and then after a mound visit, a 108 mph double to Bryan Ramos.

Samuel Basallo crushes his first home run of #SpringTraining 💥 pic.twitter.com/PYdzYEDDYV

— MLB (@MLB) March 13, 2026

Painter was pulled at that point after 60 pitches. He was one out away from completing his third straight scoreless outing, but he might be better off from Friday's experience. Not that he feels he's even close to a finished product, but it's a reminder that there's still so far to go. One more well-executed pitch to Alonso or Basallo could have changed his afternoon. That's often the case in a big-league game: one or two pitches can make all the difference.

The good

On the positive end, Painter struck out four hitters, including the side in the top of the second.

Lefty Heston Kjerstad whiffed on a 97 mph, 3-2 fastball low in the zone.

Painter struck out lefty Leody Taveras with an 0-2 changeup just below the zone.

He set down right-handed Jeremiah Jackson on a 1-2 high heater, perfectly executed a tick above the zone on the outside corner.

And his last strikeout was of righty Jose Barrero. Painter fell behind Barrero 2-0 with a pair of fastballs way above the zone, then struck him out on a low-and-away changeup after four straight foul balls.

The changeup was particularly impressive, one of so many weapons in Painter's arsenal.

Andrew Painter's 3Ks in the 2nd. 🧑‍🎨🖌️ pic.twitter.com/B2hryrj7yP

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 13, 2026

The repertoire

The Orioles swung at 33 of Painter's 60 pitches and whiffed at 11. They swung through all four sliders they offered at.

Painter threw all six of his pitches — four-seam fastball, slider, sweeper, changeup, sinker, curveball — and missed bats with everything but the sinker.

At times in these three spring starts, Painter has shown command of every one of his pitches. He won't have all six each start, but the numerous ways he can manipulate a baseball will serve him well.

Fastball command is paramount, though. Painter is not throwing 99 mph as he was three springs ago, pre-Tommy John surgery, when he was vying for the No. 5 spot in the Phillies' rotation as a 19-year-old. His fastball averaged 95.7 mph on Friday and maxed out at 97.9. Still, that's more than enough velo if the pitch is commanded well and has the late life we've seen at times this month, particularly in his first start against the Yankees.

What's next

Painter figures to make one more start this spring. The only way he could make two more is if the Phillies put him on four days' rest and he pitches next Wednesday, then on the final day of camp on March 23.

That seems a bit unlikely because no member of the Phillies' rotation has been on four days' rest yet this spring, and it would be using up four or five more Painter innings that could be preserved for when the games actually count. The logic to giving him two more Grapefruit League starts would be that if Painter starts only once more in camp next Thursday or Friday, he would then face a 10-day layoff before his MLB debut.

The way around that long layoff would be throwing live batting practice or a simulated game between March 19-20 and March 30-31. And, obviously, Painter would be throwing his regularly scheduled bullpen session between starts. He figures to pitch the fourth or fifth game of the regular season for the Phillies at home against the Nationals.

The Phillies will start Bryse Wilson on Saturday in Clearwater against the Braves and Taijuan Walker on Sunday in Lakeland against the Tigers. Walker just returned from the World Baseball Classic, where he made a scoreless start for Team Mexico for the second straight tournament.