What Phillies Need to See From Andrew Painter This Spring

It feels like ancient history with all the team has gone through since, but three springs ago, Andrew Painter was in a similar spot to the one he's in now, battling for the final spot in the Phillies' season-opening rotation.

In 2023, the Phillies brought a then-19-year-old Painter to big-league camp to compete primarily with Bailey Falter for the fifth starter's job. It was apparent that Painter initially had the leg up and the Phillies were excited about his readiness even at that age. He was about 6-foot-5 (now 6-7) and already had the build of a potential workhorse. Phillies fans were through the roof at the idea of a top prospect coming up so early.

Painter's injury

Then disaster struck. Painter went to Fort Myers to face the Minnesota Twins in his only big-league spring training start, flashed 99 mph against a lineup including big-hitters like Carlos Correa, Ryan Jeffers, Joey Gallo, Max Kepler and Christian Vasquez, but came away from it with elbow soreness that eventually required Tommy John surgery.

Painter missed all of 2023. He missed all of 2024 but did make it out to the Arizona Fall League, where he dazzled and won the league's Pitcher of the Year award.

That led into last season, when the Phillies' plan all along was to handle Painter delicately in his first full year back from reconstructive elbow surgery. Last spring, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the team planned to bring Painter up in "July-ish" so long as he showed at Triple A that he was ready.

A full year at Triple A

The Phillies never ended up promoting Painter to the majors in 2025. They never felt quite strongly enough about his performance.

In 22 starts with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Painter pitched to a 5.40 ERA in 106⅔, striking out 111 but with too many walks (3.9 per nine innings) and more hits than he'd ever allowed in his life (.281 opponents' batting average).

His focus in Clearwater

Barring another injury, Painter is almost certain to make his MLB debut in 2026. The question is whether it will come in the first turn through the Phillies' rotation or if they'll deem by the end of camp that he still needs more Triple A seasoning.

"He had stuff last year, he still threw hard last year. I'm looking for him to command his pitches better," Dombrowski said Monday. "He told me he had a regular wintertime this year. He's gone back to long-tossing which he hadn't always done in the past. He's got his arm angle up a tick more which we think it will help him back to where he was before."

Last year was Painter's first experience starting games so regularly. On June 15, he started on four days' rest for the first time. It went well with five scoreless innings.

He appeared to wear down, performance-wise, as the season continued but most importantly, he made every start. At least eight of his 18 with Lehigh Valley were laborious, an experience the Phillies are hoping he grew from.

"I saw him (Monday) for the first time, he looks in really good shape," Dombrowski said. "Just following through with the command and consistency of his pitches would be something that we want to see, and them of course being the same quality of pitches as what we saw in the past."

That's the hope, because now Painter is no longer a potential luxury on the Phillies' starting staff, he's closer to a necessity.