Phillies prospect Andrew Painter is learning from Triple-A ‘rollercoaster' post-Tommy John

New York Times

06-08-2025

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — He turned to face the outfield from the mound and adjusted his sleeves, waiting as the batter reached for his gear and placed it on the ground before heading to first base.
Andrew Painter had just issued a four-pitch walk, with none of his offerings near the zone. He seemed unruffled. As J.C. Escarra made his way to first, Painter was looking at the defensive alignment behind him and getting ready to do it all over again. More pitches. More chances for redemption.
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Such has been life for Painter, the Philadelphia Phillies' top prospect riding the ups and downs of returning from Tommy John surgery with Triple-A Lehigh Valley this season.
'Part of the fun of this year has been, when I've gotten knocked down, it's like — you still have another start,' Painter told The Athletic. '(It's) not confirmed when my next start is, but if I do go Sunday, that's another time against the same lineup. I can't do anything about what happened tonight. That's in the past. But what are the adjustments I need to make and how can I overcome that in my next start?'
Painter, against the New York Yankees' Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, went four innings with five hits, five earned runs, four walks and four strikeouts at Coca-Cola Park on Tuesday. He had limited feel for the zone, throwing 90 pitches and 47 for strikes. He struggled to make adjustments. Two years removed from surgery, the right-hander is struggling the most he has, on the greatest stage he's played on.
Painter had excelled at each stop before now. He finished his senior year of high school in 2021 with a 0.31 ERA in 45 1/3 innings. He sailed from Low-A Clearwater to High-A Jersey Shore to Double-A Reading in 2022, ending with a combined ERA of 1.56 and 155 strikeouts in 103 2/3 innings.
His was on a seemingly straightforward, lightning-fast path to the majors until he was diagnosed with a UCL sprain in March 2023. Then came the operation in July, leading to a shutdown of more than a year.
Now, Painter owns a 4.88 ERA across 72 innings pitched with Lehigh Valley this season. He has struck out 71 and walked 29. Struggles have come in waves: giving up six runs then going scoreless, a 100-pitch outing with one run on July 30 before a four-run first inning on Tuesday.
It took Andrew Painter 34 pitches to get through the first inning. The fastball location was unideal. 4-0, RailRiders. pic.twitter.com/fth6EuIvLh
— Charlotte Varnes (@charlottevarnes) August 5, 2025
'It's been a rollercoaster this year,' Painter said. 'There's times where I feel great, and I can't miss the strike zone. There's other times where I don't know where the ball is going.'
Tuesday was one of those nights. The RailRiders loaded up on lefties, playing eight against Painter. They are among his biggest problems; entering Tuesday, lefties batted .311 with an .881 OPS against him.
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The pitches Painter trusts against lefties did not deliver. He could not locate his fastball, which spun arm-side up. The changeup, he thought, wasn't competitive. The curveball was off.
Painter had multiple four-pitch walks where his fastball was not near the zone. He threw 11 first-pitch strikes while facing 21 batters, an advantage he could not build on. But, for the most part, he lived in hitter's counts.
'First inning, four (runs) came through,' Painter said. 'Two of them were from walks. At that point, you're just kind of handing it to them. Being in the zone — that's something I usually pride myself on, is the command, and being in the zone early. I just kind of didn't have it tonight.'
Command can sometimes take the longest to return after Tommy John surgery. And recovery from the procedure, of course, is not linear. That is reality, one that does not square neatly with the 'July-ish' timeline the Phillies initially set for Painter's MLB debut.
When the calendar flipped to July and Painter struggled, the tone changed.
'Will we see him (within a month)?' president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said last Thursday. 'I'm not really sure what's going to happen.'
The Phillies knew he would struggle at points. They're impressed with what he's done — throwing 100 pitches, how he's handled adversity.
But the club has backed away from its previous timeline for MLB arrival. There are logistics involved. Should Painter debut this season, it would most likely be after Aaron Nola's return to the rotation and Taijuan Walker's to the bullpen. That would mean the Phillies would have to utilize a six-man rotation. Adding a sixth man is not a conversation the Phillies are having now, manager Rob Thomson said Sunday, but one they could have with a long stretch of games without a day off coming up. But Walker, who pitched six scoreless innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, could be a better fit for a sixth spot given Painter's progression.
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Still, Painter's stuff is solid. The fastball averages 95 mph and is strong when located. His curveball has a whiff rate of 28.6 percent. There has been work on his slider, catcher Garrett Stubbs said, because the previous version wasn't the 'wipeout pitch' Painter wanted it to be.
But there is still much to learn about pitching. He often comes up to coaches during games, manager Anthony Contreras said, asking questions about what to do and when.
One conversation in early June entailed how to pitch with the infield in, depending on whether he wanted a strikeout, lazy pop-up or a ground ball.
'We start talking about like, 'Hey, what pitches and what sequence would get those results?'' Contreras said. 'Things like that — controlling the running game, understanding what the game and the score is telling us. Because when you have a good understanding of what the game is telling you to do, you can slow a lot of things down.'
Pitching coach Matt Ellmyer said he and colleague Phil Cundari brainstorm what to talk about with Painter, whether it's a specific fastball location or executing a slider or changeup.
'And he'll beat us to the jump,' Ellmyer said, 'Because he's thinking about it himself. He's thinking with us. He's very curious. I think he's doing a great job, narrowing those blinders when he needs to, but he's also very open to finding out what we can do to get him to the next place that he needs to be to continue to be successful.'
Command has been the pitching core's biggest focus since Painter arrived in Allentown, Ellmyer said. Even the conversations have taken a step forward since then, he said, going from Painter 'kind of having an idea of how he wants to attack guys and where he wants to go with it, to really owning that process.'
Being competitive has been an emphasis, too, especially when things spiral like they did on Tuesday. There have been flashes of a competitive pitcher on the mound, Painter said. Other times, he said, 'stuff goes downhill, and it goes downhill quick.'
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'So, just trying to figure out how to make those adjustments and prevent that from happening, and pick up on it earlier,' he said.
Painter left the mound after four innings on Tuesday, his teammates high-fiving him as he walked back into the dugout. He was done pitching around 8:15. About two hours later, after the 7-1 Lehigh Valley loss, Painter and his coaches huddled to review the performance.
There was a lot to talk about.
There will continue to be ups and downs for Painter as the recovery process continues. He is working hard to figure out what's next, what he can do to become better. Each start is an opportunity.
'He's getting wrapped up in the game,' Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said.
(Photo of Painter in May: Olivia Damato / MLB Photos via Getty Images)