Philadelphia Phillies rookie right-hander Andrew Painter was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after his latest dud on the mound on Thursday. 14 games into his MLB career, Painter has stumbled to a 1-8 record and a 7.06 ERA. Painter was expected to be a mainstay in the Phillies starting rotation, but his continuous blowups have only raised more questions on whether it should have even happened in the first place. It's easier said than done.
Painter doesn't have enough innings to qualify, but would represent the worst ERA among all starting pitchers in MLB. The experiment hasn't worked out as of now, but that didn't appear to be the case early on. Because of Painter's makeup as a flamethrower, he'd been brought up in trade discussions as a 'what if' to lead a package worthy of a massive haul. Instead, Painter's worth changed early on in his MLB career, and Phillies fans have to face that reality now.
Andrew Painter's stumble gives more questions than answers on whether the Phillies should have dealt him
Painter was selected 13th overall in the 2021 MLB Draft out of high school. He burst onto the scene in 2022 with a 1.56 ERA and 155 strikeouts in 103 2/3 innings at Double-A Reading. He was rocking a 38.7 strikeout rate at the time. Not only that, but he was just 19 years old. Painter perhaps was at the height of his value before he went down in 2023 with Tommy John surgery, followed by his return to the minors in 2025. The script has significantly flipped with his abysmal 2026 season, featuring only a 17.7 strikeout percentage.
Big market teams trade prospects to help out immediately, either for rentals or for a player with remaining club control. When Painter was rising through the ranks, he was the Phillies' most highly-touted pitching prospect, worthy of opening a door to any big trade. The Phillies instead opted to wait it out and make Painter a face of the reinvention of the Phillies rotation. They were right to keep him and watch him develop into a potential ace. Surgery forced Painter and the Phillies to go a different direction, one that has yielded little in return.
Tommy John surgery is as common in the baseball vocabulary as any other word affiliated with the sport. It's all too common, and pitchers typically can come back from the procedure at full strength. Painter seemed like just the most recent example of a pitcher on his way to scaling that mountain back up ... until we actually saw him. There's still time, but the Phillies will now be forced to stick with him and hope he turns it around.
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