Phillies transfer top prospect Painter's rehab to Triple-A
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PHILADELPHIA -- Beginning next week, Andrew Painter will be a 90-minute drive from the big leagues.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said before Friday’s series opener against Arizona that Painter’s next start will be next Thursday with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, giving him a short drive from Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pa., to Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies have said since the offseason that Painter could join them by “July-ish.”
That timetable has not changed.
Painter, 22, is baseball’s No. 6 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. The organization’s most highly touted homegrown pitching prospect since Cole Hamels went 0-2 with a 3.97 ERA in four starts with Single-A Clearwater. They were his first four in the Phillies’ farm system since 2022.
Painter suffered an elbow injury in March 2023 that required Tommy John surgery.
But the Phillies believe now is the time for him to face stiffer competition.
The Phillies are building up Painter slowly. He pitched four innings on Thursday in his final start with Clearwater. He is expected to pitch four innings again next week for the IronPigs.
“We could go quicker,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told MLB.com last month. “I think all of us feel from a health perspective that he could go quicker than that. But we’re also trying to combine coming back [from his injury] with trying to preserve innings for later in the season. If you go too quickly then you’re going to burn the innings that you would want to use later. That’s why we’re going slower.
“We hope that he’s capable of being added to help us. But we have a good pitching staff, too. So he has to earn it. He has to go out and do it.”
If you’re wondering, the Phillies said Painter is not a candidate to help the bullpen.
“Painter is not going to pitch out of the bullpen,” Dombrowski said. “He’s not built to do that. He’s a young pitcher, a starting pitcher. There’s also an adjustment phase to doing something like that. We’re building him up. He’s just too good of a prospect.”