Andrew Painter's season hasn't gone as expected. (Cheryl Pursell)
What's been a frustrating season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley for Andrew Painter continued Thursday, and cast further doubt on whether the No. 1 prospect will debut for the Phillies this year.
Across six innings Thursday for the IronPigs, Painter gave up nine hits and six earned runs, while walking three against the Omaha Storm Chasers. He now has a 5.36 ERA in 19 starts at Lehigh Valley.
Ahead of Friday evening's game against the Atlanta Braves, Phillies' manager Rob Thomson offered a pretty candid assessment of the 22-year-old's most recent start.
"Yeah, I watched it," Thomson said of Painter's outing. "It's really the same story. The stuff is excellent. The changeup was excellent. I think I counted seven lefties in the lineup against him — they didn't hit him. It was more the right-handers. So it's just fastball command, is really what it comes down to. The stuff's there."
“Andy is one of the best prospects in baseball as far as pitching.”
Andrew Painter continues to make progress as he eyes the big leagues, says Luke Murton. pic.twitter.com/ikwvqdekho
On Sept. 1, the Phillies will get two additional spots on their roster, one of which can be used on a pitcher. Is there any thought that Painter could be that guy?
"We'll see," Thomson said. "I mean, everybody's in consideration. We want to really get the best guy."
Realistically, the most useful piece available to be called up on Monday would probably be Alan Rangel. The 28-year-old righty has impressed over 11 innings in the majors this season with a 2.45 ERA. His full-season minor-league stats aren't great — he has a 4.45 ERA over 20 starts — but he "threw the ball pretty well the other day," according to Thomson. Rangel could be a long man out of the bullpen and/or make spot starts for the Phillies down the stretch.
At some point, Max Lazar will likely be back. He has a 4.78 ERA over 28 games for the Phillies this year, but nine of his 17 earned runs have come across just two appearances. He can't come up on Sept. 1 because he was optioned on Aug. 18 and needs to remain in the minors for 15 days following the option. But a return to the Phillies at some point — especially in the postseason when José Alvarado will be ineligible — seems likely.
José Alvarado and Jurickson Profar are both ineligible for the postseason after serving 80-game PED suspensions, but eligible for this weekend’s series. @TimKellySports says that doesn’t make sense on the latest episode of Phillies Stoplight🚦 pic.twitter.com/019n87QImK
Seth Johnson is another option at Triple-A with a live arm that's on the 40-man roster, although he hasn't consistently gotten strong results. He has a 4.26 ERA in 10 games for the Phillies this season, and 5.01 ERA in 31 appearances for the IronPigs.
Still, to be well past the "July-ish" timeline that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski put on when Painter could debut at the majors this season and talking about some of these other arms being better candidates than the No. 1 prospect in the organization is disappointing.
Maybe expectations weren't managed well enough with Painter, who is still only 22 years old and is pitching in 2025 after Tommy John surgery essentially robbed him of two years. But you would have been hard-pressed to find someone entering the season that didn't believe Painter would be taking down major innings right now for the Phillies.
In case you're wondering, Thomson essentially squashed any idea of Painter being used as a reliever late in the season or in the playoffs.
"I don't think so, no," Thomson said.
Because the Phillies traded Mick Abel to the Minnesota Twins to acquire Jhoan Duran and then lost Zack Wheeler for the season, they are thin on starting pitching depth. They probably need to keep Painter active in the case that one or two more arms go down. But given that he's logged 103 2/3 innings after missing two whole years, his performance normally would lead you to be talking about a September shutdown, not a call-up.
It increasingly feels like the next time Painter will be wearing a Phillies uniform will be in Clearwater next February. It's not the end of the world, the Phillies still have a strong starting staff and Painter has, most importantly, stayed healthy. But it's fair to be underwhelmed by how 2025 has played out for him, even if the long-term outlook still seems very good.
