The Real Benefit of Andrew Painter’s Struggles in 2025
A perfect sky over BayCare Ballpark drew crowds of Philadelphia Phillies fans for the tail end of a popular spring training vacation weekend. The New York Yankees inevitably drew the…
A perfect sky over BayCare Ballpark drew crowds of Philadelphia Phillies fans for the tail end of a popular spring training vacation weekend. The New York Yankees inevitably drew the crowds from the Tampa area to see two high-profile MLB teams.
Andrew Painter, however, was the most consequential storyline of Sunday’s Grapefruit League matchup. The highly-touted pitching prospect threw two scoreless innings to reinspire hope after a season of serious growing pains in 2025.
A key piece of an organization’s future struggling is never a good sign. However, Ricky Bottalico believes Painter will come out stronger after down season.
Ricky Bo Breaks Down Andrew Painter
Painter progressed well through the Arizona Fall League and Single-A ball after Tommy John Surgery. He stayed on track early last season for Dave Dombrowski’s “July-ish” estimated timeline to reach the big leagues. Then, the adversity came.
Andrew Painter hit major speed bumps in Triple A that spoiled the optimism for his major league debut in 2025. He posted a 5-6 record with a 5.40 ERA in 22 starts with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
Former Phillies reliever Ricky Bottalico began the conversation on Unfiltered about Painter's spring training debut with a look backwards.
“I also think that failure is a big thing in life, in general, in baseball, in sports. If you’ve never failed, how do you react when you do fail? Well, it was a learning experience for him last year... Do you think that Andrew Painter failed at all, ever, pitching until last year? I would probably say no.”
MLB scouts judge pitchers based on their velocity, their command, and their pitch mixes. They also evaluate a prospect’s mental makeup in handling the inevitable struggles of baseball, the sport mislabeled as a game of failure when it’s actually a game of recovery from failure.
“You get your head beat in a little bit. So what does it force you to do? It forces you to become better, to figure out what you were doing wrong.”
When Andrew Painter continued to struggle in Triple A as the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline came around, reality seeped in for the Phillies and for their top minor-league pitcher. He wouldn’t make his major league debut until 2026.
Did the late summer realization mean the season was a waste of time? No. The Phillies didn't change course to a more delicate approach for a pitcher not far removed from a major procedure. They allowed Painter to face the adversity on the mound just like every other pitcher, top prospect or not.
Spring Training Debut
A pitcher once considered the dealbreaker in a trade for Garrett Crochet faces the challenge of rebounding from the failure Bottalico was talking about.
He certainly showed encouraging signs of a strong mental makeup on Sunday.
Painter retired all six Yankees hitters he faced in the two scoreless frames in Clearwater. He painted the corners with fastball, his most effective pitch that sat around 97 miles per hour.
He mixed in offspeed pitches with less impressive command. Jasson Domínguez, the only hitter who struck out against Painter, swung through a slider over the middle of the plate for strike three in the first inning. Painter will continue to concentrate on using his slider and curveball more deliberately in key situations after the two pitches blended somewhat unexpectedly at times last season.
The promising first start increases the (already strong) likelihood that Painter will begin the 2026 season in the five-man starting rotation.
Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, and Aaron Nola, assuming health, will begin as key cogs of the starting staff. The Phillies will likely begin the season using Taijuan Walker as a starting pitcher before Zack Wheeler is healthy enough to rejoin the rotation.
