SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Everything had gone according to plan for Andrew Painter, who at age 19 appeared on the cusp of the majors. The Philadelphia Phillies’ 2021 first-round draft pick quickly rose through the ranks of their farm system with a chance to make his MLB debut in 2023. Then Tommy John came calling.
For the first time in 591 days, Painter pitched in a Phillies uniform Saturday. His two-inning debut at the Arizona Fall League opened with an extreme high and ended with an equally severe low.
Painter’s first inning for the Glendale Desert Dogs ended in short order. He touched 100 mph in three of his nine pitches. He forced New York Mets starting second baseman Jeff McNeil to fly out and also struck out Bryce Eldridge, MLB.com’s No. 35 prospect and the San Francisco Giants’ top prospect.
Andrew Painter has hit 99 three times and struck out Bryce Eldridge to end his first inning back. pic.twitter.com/sYIYRUD7UR
— Geoff Pontes (@GeoffPontesBA) October 12, 2024
But trouble found him in the second, which started with a 446-foot leadoff home run by Detroit Tigers prospect Josue Briceño and altogether saw Painter allow three hits, two earned runs and one walk to the Scottsdale Scorpions. Painter hung an 89 mph slider on the Briceño homer. Those kinds of misses aren’t historically treated too kindly at the Arizona Fall League’s warm-weather ballparks. Entering Saturday, the league saw 26 home runs hit across a dozen games.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said earlier this week that he expects Painter to pitch up to 20 innings this fall. The idea was to get him game reps before opportunities to do so subside for several months leading up to spring training.
The Phillies planned for Painter to pitch in the big leagues in April 2023. Where he will be this coming April is unclear. But it seems more likely than not the Phillies’ top pitching prospect will don the blue stars sometime in 2025 — this time, in The Show.
“Our people feel that it would help him mentally knowing that he’s OK to go out there and pitch and compete,” Dombrowski said Monday. “And he wants to do that, too. He’s got three and a half months or so that he’ll be off from pitching again. So they think it would be very beneficial for him to go out there and compete at this point rather than just throw a couple of things down in Clearwater.”
(Photo of Andrew Painter from March 1, 2023: Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)
