Andrew Painter: Top Phillies Prospect

Look out!

For these past few months I have been researching articles and websites and thinking about prospects for the coming baseball seasons. After a lot of thought, the first person I am going to present to you is Andrew Painter (there will be more to follow). Painter is a dominant pitcher and the top Phillies prospect right now. I have chosen him because I liked what I read about him, and his impressive talent as a pitcher.

First of all, Painter has dominated all three levels of the minor leagues and has won an important award: MLB Pipeline Pitching Prospect of the Year (2022). He is a surprising 6’7” (which is currently one of the tallest active pitchers in the U.S.), and therefore he can whip his arm around faster than smaller pitchers. In addition to his height, his combination of pitches makes him great. He has such a wide variety of pitches he can easily fool batters. To start, he has a fastball that can reach 100 mph and it regularly tops 96 mph. He also has a sinking two-seamer that’s hard to hit, along with his slider which, next to his fastball, is the second best pitch according to my research. It spins fast and breaks dramatically and can reach the low 80s. Along with that, he has a curveball and a changeup that he has improved in the past season.

Even though his pitching is excellent he has experienced some struggles. In 2023 he suffered an elbow injury in spring training for which he got surgery in that July. It is not clear when he will start playing again but my sources report that he will be back hopefully in 2025.