Andrew Painter returned to the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday, marking his first Grapefruit League start since undergoing Tommy John surgery. The 22-year-old right-hander pitched two perfect innings in a 5-3 loss to the New York Yankees at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida.
Painter made his initial Grapefruit League appearance as a 19-year-old three years ago. That debut was expected to launch him into the Phillies’ rotation as a rare teenage starter, but injury delayed his progress until now.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Painter said after the game. “I’m still just trying to take it one day at a time and look forward to each start.”
Despite anticipating nerves ahead of his outing, Painter reported feeling calm once he took the mound. “I felt pretty comfortable out there,” he said. “Right when I toed the rubber, I felt like I was in control of the game. It didn’t speed up on me. That’s the big thing. It’s taking deep breaths and not allowing the game to speed up on you.”
Painter, ranked by MLB Pipeline as baseball’s No. 28 overall prospect, opened with a fastball clocked at 96.6 mph against Trent Grisham and recorded one strikeout during his brief outing.
Reflecting on an eight-pitch duel with Jasson Domínguez that ended with a swinging strikeout on a slider, Painter explained: “That one was a little over the plate, but you have the intentionality with it and the conviction with it, you’ve got to be confident in what you’re throwing.”
Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto praised Painter’s approach: “It caught too much plate, but it was a really sharp slider and that’s why you get the swing-and-miss on a pitch that you would think location-wise is going to get hit,” Realmuto said. “That’s just his ability to mix pitches. That was the first slider [Domínguez] saw that at-bat. He saw three or four different types of pitches.
“The fact that he can already do that at that age and throw a lefty five different pitches is impressive.”
Painter completed his second inning using only six pitches and touched 97.8 mph with his fastball.
“Today got my attention,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone commented.
Realmuto added: “He beat a lot of really good fastball-hitters in the zone with his fastball.”
Last season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Painter struggled with command due to changes in arm slot but made adjustments during the offseason.
“He’s been able to work both sides of the plate, and also work up and down, as well, which is something our starters do a good job with and why they’re so successful,” Realmuto said.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson shared his assessment: “I was very encouraged,” Thomson said. “I thought it was great.”
Painter is scheduled for another spring start Saturday against Toronto before preparing for Opening Day alongside Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Taijuan Walker; Zack Wheeler may return in April.
“He’ll be good for us,” Realmuto said. “I think it’ll do more good for him being the young arm in that veteran rotation.”
Realmuto emphasized expectations: “We’ve talked about that before,” he said. “He doesn’t have to come in and light the world on fire, which I know the Philly media at times or even just the fan base, that’s what they expect. But this game is really hard. We’re not asking you to come in and be our ace and win the Cy Young. Not that he can’t do that.”
Sunday marked an important step for Painter as he looks ahead toward contributing regularly for Philadelphia—a team recognized as part of Major League Baseball’s National League since its inception (official website). The franchise represents Philadelphia fans regionally and nationally through games held at Citizens Bank Park since 2004 (official website).
Summing up his performance Sunday: “The sample size is small,” Painter said, “but you can’t complain about a zero.”
