On Tuesday, the Phillies officially promoted the organization’s top prospect in Andrew Painter to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Painter is scheduled to make his first start with the IronPigs on Thursday against the Worcester WooSox (Boston) at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown.
Andrew Painter
Painter will join an already loaded Lehigh Valley roster that features a plethora of the team’s Top 25 prospects according to MLB Pipeline and tied for the best record in the International League at 23-11.
It is expected that he will throw roughly four innings and/or 60-65 pitches in his first start with the IronPigs. This season is his first back from recovering from Tommy John surgery which he had back in 2023. He was worked back slowly during Spring Training before making four starts with Low-A Clearwater where he posted a 3.97 ERA with 12 strikeouts and just one walk across 11.1 innings of work. In each of those four outings, he threw 37, 49, 43 and 42 pitches.
Painter, 22, is a premier talent across baseball ranking as the fifth-best prospect in all of baseball and his highly anticipated arrival to the big leagues has been one of the most among prospects for the organization in quite some time. Getting the bump up to Triple-A keeps Painter on track for a potential debut in the summer, in line with what the organization as outlined since the start of Spring Training.
Armed with a blazing fastball lighting up radar guns to go with plus secondary pitches, Painter has the makings of becoming a bonafide ace for the Phillies in the future. It has been a tumultuous road for the talented hurler since being selected as the 13th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft.
Painter is just one step away from toeing the rubber at Citizens Bank Park. It will be interesting how the team handles the rotation once the flamethrowing Painter joins that likes of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Jesus Luzardo, Ranger Suarez, and Cristopher Sanchez. Taijuan Walker has been moved to the bullpen. It would make sense to move Suarez to the pen as well, but one thing is for certain, Painter is knocking on the door.
Photo By: TMB/Icon Sportswire
