The Philadelphia Phillies took the fields in Clearwater today as pitchers and catchers reported. The reigning NL East Division winners’ southern home welcomed some of the club’s top stars as they prepare for the 2025 season.
Nine pitchers took the mound today with the biggest emphasis on Taijuan Walker. Walker looks to bounce back after a disappointing season last year and will fight for the fifth and final spot in the starting rotation with newcomer Jesus Luzardo.
Both Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thompson spoke to the media Wednesday afternoon.
Painter’s Plan
The hype around Painter is certainly warranted as the club and fans are excited to finally see the 13th overall pick in in 2021 make significant strides to becoming a big league pitcher as he comes off Tommy John surgery. The 21-year-old currently ranks as the top prospect in the organization and the 8th-best prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, behind Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki (#1) and Tigers’ Jackson Jobe (#5).
“We think he’s one of the best young pitchers in baseball,” Dombrowski said. ” I think he’s going to be a tremendous MLB pitcher. When I say that, I’m not worried about him hearing that and not working hard, he works extremely hard. He has the potential to be an exceptional starting pitcher and potential to be a number one type of starter in major league baseball. He might not be ours right away, but he has that potential long term.”
Coming back from Tommy John certainly requires hard work, although the recouperation has been significantly easier on pitchers with modern medicine compared to the earlier days when the surgery was first introduced. Yet, Dombrowski says the plan for Painter is driven heavily by the team’s medical staff.
“When I say that, we have an outstanding trainer in Paul Buchheit, Dr. Cohen, and Dr. (Neil) ElAttrache who performed the surgery. Over last couple of years, even last year, when are we going to bring him up, I would say let’s ask the doctors,” Dombrowski explained.
On when he might make his MLB debut, Dombrowski did not sway from his previous estimate.
“I said all along July-ish. I don’t know if that means June or August. He has to perform and stay healthy and hopefully we have good five starting pitchers to make it tough for him to break into. That’s when I think we will turn him loose more because if you look at innings limitation, we want to end up building him up and not burning him up too early in the year.”
Walker Impresses on Day One
After a tumultuous season last year where Walker went 3-7 with a 7.10 ERA and lost his starting spot in the rotation, the 32-year-old has something to prove this season while patience from fans have run thin with the right-hander. Although very early, both Dombrowski and Thomson were impressed with what they saw from the veteran on Wednesday.
“I think his offseason plan worked very well. He looked really good, very athletic and smooth,” the Phillies manager said. “His arm looked great. Don’t know exact velo but looked like it was up from where he was last year. He had command on both sides of the plate, spun it well and he looks like he is on a mission.”
Dombrowski noted that it would be a good problem to have if Walker regains his confidence and ability with already a stacked starting rotation.
“I hope he pitches like Taijuan Walker in the past because we will have great problems and great convos. You can never have too much pitching and we would somehow figure it out. It was a good first day, but it is the first day of Spring Training.”
Other Dombrowski/Thomson Notes
It was noticed that reliever Jose Alvarado arrived at Clearwater in much better shape as he looks to be more of a consistent arm to rely on in the backend of the bullpen after a rollercoaster season last year.
“He took it upon himself to lean up. It looks like he’s lost a lot more weight than he has. He’s probably lost about 6-7 pounds but it’s pretty distributed and he looks really good,” Thomson said. “He went through some tough times last year but other times where he pitched really well. It’ll be nice if he gives us that consistent performance.”
Aidan Miller earned high praise from Dombrowski during the press conference when asked why the young shortstop earned an invite to Spring Training.
“We think he’s a very good player and it might come to him very quickly, so we want him to have that exposure in big league camp,” Dombrowski said on the infield prospect. “Our people think he can handle it from a player development standpoint, and he has a great makeup, so he won’t be intimidated.”
Dombrowski said Miller will stay at shortstop during the spring, but said he can’t say for certain that Miller won’t ever take a groundball at third base, but the plan is to keep him at shortstop.
Thomson and the Phillies recognized that catcher JT Realmuto needs to stay healthy and to be able to help lead this talented starting rotation from behind the plate. It sounds like the backstop will see more games at designated hitter in 2025.
“He realizes he needs to have a good year and stay healthy,” the skipper said. “So, we need to do a better job managing his games. Do I know exactly how many games he will play? No, but you gauge that as season goes on. I told him about some DH days and he was all in on that and maybe some other ways we will do it.”
The Phillies open up their Spring Training schedule on Saturday, February 22nd when they visit the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland, FL at 1:05 p.m.
Photo credit: Alec Kostival
