Five Facts about Phillies’ First-Round Pick, Andrew Painter

The Philadelphia Phillies selected RHP Andrew Painter as their first-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft.

How long until the Philadelphia Phillies make a joke about ‘Painting the corners?’

On Sunday, the Phillies selected Andrew Painter as the 13th overall pick in the first round of the MLB Draft.

Painter’s high school numbers are impressive; he posted a 0.38 ERA with 93 strikeouts across 47 innings in his final season. His coach said Painter throws “the easiest 98 [mph] I’ve ever seen.”

The high-school right-handed pitcher is the fifth arm the Phils have drafted in the last decade. They drafted Mick Abel in 2020, making this the first time the Phillies have taken pitchers in the first round in back-to-back seasons since Gavin Floyd in 2001 and Cole Hamels in 2002.

Here are some baseball and totally random facts to know about the Phillies first-round pick:

1. Painter already had quite a few trophies in his case before the Phillies drafted him.

Painter won the Gatorade High School Player of the Year in Florida for 2020-2021, the Miami Herald‘s All-Broward County Pitcher of the Year for Classes 4A-2A, and MaxPreps named him a first-team All-American.

The Phillies haven’t won their division since 2011, and haven’t finished a season above .500 since. Hopefully, Painter will be a part of a brighter future.

2. Painter wasn’t projected to be drafted so high.

Prior to the actual draft, the mock drafts had Painter going much lower. FanGraphs predicted that Painter would go to the Cincinnati Reds at #35. Of course, their entire morning-of mock draft went out the window when the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t take Marcelo Mayer first overall.

Painter is the first HS pitcher from the Broward/Palm Beach area to be drafted in the first round since the Red Sox selected Triston Casas in 2018.

3. Painter likes Chipotle

Painter doesn’t seem to use Twitter much; his mostly consists of retweeting and liking articles and posts about his pitching, but he did retweet Chipotle once, way back in 2019. In fairness, who among us doesn’t love Chipotle?

https://twitter.com/ChipotleTweets/status/1110959382232088576?s=20

4. The Phillies chose Painter over top prospect Khalil Watson

Khalil Watson was projected to be a top-ten or even top-five pick in Sunday’s draft, but he was still available when it was the Phillies turn to pick at thirteen. Watson, a shortstop from Wake Forest, wasn’t picked until the Marlins took him 16th overall, a move being called the “steal” of the draft.

With the Phillies’ history of struggling to develop pitching prospects, Painter is a risk. But whether or not passing on Watson was a mistake won’t be determined until much further down the road.

5. Pedro Martinez is already impressed with the Phillies’ first-round pick

Former Phillie (though most people don’t think of him as such) Pedro Martinez called Painter “a really exciting young man in this year’s draft.” He was impressed with how Painter elevates his fastball, and says overall, the young righty is “really poised on the mound.”

If you’re already getting praised by one of the greatest pitchers of all time, you’re doing something right.