It has been a long time coming, but the Philadelphia Phillies could have some greatness joining the ballclub in the not-so-distant future. For the past couple of seasons, Phillies fans have desperately anticipated the arrival of top pitching prospect Andrew Painter. After all, as one of the top prospects in the entire league, many believe he will become the next big thing for the Phillies.
Well, that wait could be coming to an end soon as it has been announced that Painter’s next rehab start will come next Thursday for the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate Lehigh Valley IronPigs, as per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.
Andrew Painter’s MLB debut gets tantalizingly closer after Phillies’ latest announcement
The move to Triple-A puts Painter just one step away from the majors. While it would be nice to wish that we will see him after a couple of strong starts with Lehigh Valley, the Phillies have previously stated that their No. 1 prospect won’t come to Philadelphia until July-ish.
As much as most have expected this to happen finally this season, Painter was actually on track to debut for the Phillies a couple of years ago. That was because he made tremendous progress during his 2022 season in which he traversed three minor league levels to reach Double-A by the end of the year. More importantly, the promising right-hander did it in impressive fashion, compiling a 6-2 record with a sparkling 1.56 ERA and 0.89 WHIP, along with a whopping 155 strikeouts in just 103 2/3 innings pitched over 22 starts.
In fact, Painter was believed to have a fair shot at making the Phillies’ big league club as early as 2023. However, his unfortunate encounter with Tommy John surgery as a result of an elbow injury during spring training that year ended up holding off his dream for at least a couple of more seasons. Painter finally returned to action towards the end of 2024 where he appeared in six Arizona Fall League games and posted a strong 2.30 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, together with 18 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings of work.
This season, the 22-year-old phenom has started the year with the Phillies’ Single-A affiliate Clearwater Threshers. In four starts, Painter has amassed a 3.97 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, along with just one walk and 12 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings pitched. Those numbers might not be as tantalizing as his previous campaigns, but he has certainly shown enough to give the Phillies’ brass the confidence to promote him to the Triple-A level already.
To show how much promise and potential many believed that Painter has, he somehow remained among the MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline despite being sidelined for almost two years. As a result, as Painter aims to make his first start with the IronPigs soon, Phillies fans everywhere can begin to get exuberantly excited as perhaps their best pitching prospect in quite some time is right on the doorstep of his MLB debut..