Philadelphia Phillies Provide Update on Top Prospect's Rehab Assignment Timeline

The Philadelphia Phillies have multiple injury updates coming out today, including a timeline for their top prospect and his rehab assignments.

Feb 12, 2025; Clearwater, FL, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter (76) throws a football during a spring training workout at Carpenter Complex | Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies have been on a somewhat odd trajectory to start the 2025 season, with injuries piling up a bit early on, and they have been led to a 15-13 record through the first few weeks of the year. This has put them behind where they likely would have wanted to be early on, but ultimately, it is not a major concern yet, as they continue to get players back from injury.

One of the players who has been most notably making rehab starts is top prospect Andrew Painter, who missed substantial time due to Tommy John Surgery back in 2023. This has been a long road to recovery for the exceptional talent, and he has finally started to find his groove once again.

In three starts so far at Single-A Clearwater, he has a 2.45 ERA, 1.091 WHIP, 10 striekeouts to one walk, and no home runs allowed in 7.1 innings. While the workload has remained relatively small, he has done well, and is showing signs of improvement considering how substantial this injury was.

The unfortunate news is that he will remain in Clearwater a little longer, as Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports his next rehab start will be Thursday. The positive is that this outing will have him pitch four innings, a rather large sample compared to previous chances. Gelb also notes that Painter could be moved up in the farm system in May to a higher-level affiliate.

This is a net-positive overall, as despite him sticking around with a lower affiliate team for at least one more start, the hope would be that this could be his last there before working his way up to a new opportunity. Hopefully these four innings on Thursday are as good as his previous ones this year, and he can find his stride ahead of a potential promotion.