The Philadelphia Phillies may be off to a shaky start, but Andrew Painter’s Major League Baseball debut could be the turning point the team needs to restore the good vibes.
Painter, the Phillies’ consensus No. 1 prospect, will start Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Nationals after a journey to the majors that was full of highs and lows. He looked like an all-world prospect in his teens before undergoing Tommy John surgery at the end of the 2023 spring, costing him two regular seasons and possibly delaying his debut by close to three years.
The 22-year-old Painter also wasn’t dominant last season when he returned to make his Triple-A debut, but his reflection on some of the struggles he dealt with could be reason for more confidence as he gets set to take the hill.
“I think Triple-A was a good place to get that failure and really experience it there,” Painter said on Monday, per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. “If you go through and if you don’t have any failure and you hit it at the big leagues, I think that’s really tough. So being able to get that first little bit of failure in my career, not on the biggest stage, was a good thing.”
The 5.26 ERA Painter put up in 118 innings last season for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs is wiped clean as soon as he delivers his first pitch at Citizens Bank Park. He allowed just three earned runs and nine baserunners in his 11 2/3 spring training innings, another good sign.
But as much as there’s pressure on a No. 1 prospect to produce right off the bat, Painter also realizes that Tuesday is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, and he did well to put that into perspective on Monday.
“Definitely soak it all in,” Painter said, per Zolecki. “You know, take a deep breath. Look around. I think just try to keep everything slow. Don’t let the game speed up on you. Just try to keep it at your pace and keep in control of it.”
