Starting to get sick of the same old Phillies? Want someone to get excited about?
Let us re-introduce you to Andrew Painter, the highly-touted prospect who was poised to win a job in the Phillies' starting rotation as a teenager in 2023.
Painter, who goes by Andy, threw three scoreless innings in his third start of the Arizona Fall League (AFL) on Thursday. He allowed one hit, striking out three and walking none.
Painter pounded the zone relentlessly. 26 of his 32 pitches were strikes.
Here he his getting through the first inning with just five pitches:
Andrew Painter just threw a 5-pitch first inning, including a strikeout.
Reached 98mph.
All 5 pitches: pic.twitter.com/zQZRSLhXlH
Painter's recovery from Tommy John surgery (performed in July 2023) seems to be going as well as anyone could have hoped. He hit 99.2 mph with his fastball on Thursday and reached 100 mph in a previous AFL start.
"Obviously, baseball's been my thing growing up," said Painter in an interview earlier this month. "So getting that taken away from me, I think it made me appreciate the game so much more."
Similarly, getting Painter taken away may make the rest of us appreciate him so much more.
The young pitcher is expected to throw 20 total innings in the AFL before the Phillies organization decides on next steps.
"The main thing is that we want to make sure that he's healthy and that he's ready to go into spring training," said Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in mid-October. "What I don't know is how many innings we feel comfortable for him to pitch next year. And then we need to have a plan in that regard.
"Does he pitch at the minor league level for a while and then come up? Does he pitch two or three innings in the beginning and add more innings at the back end of the year? Does he have a consistent number of innings all year long?"
The club will figure out the details soon enough. But it's a solid bet that you'll see Andy Painter pitching at Citizens Bank Park in 2025.
