Phillies' top prospect reflects on poor 2025 season, not getting called up

The Philadelphia Phillies were hoping to have the best pitching prospect in Major League Baseball, and it's not unfair to suggest that Andrew Painter can be that. At 6-foot-7 and a fastball that reaches over 100 mph, there’s still a very good chance that Painter could be that guy in the future. 

Unfortunately, dealing with a tough injury over the past few years, Painter now has more questions about himself than ever before. 

The expectation was for him to throw the baseball at a high level throughout the 2025 season in Triple-A, but that simply hasn’t been the case, posting a 5.40 ERA. 

Can Andrew Painter bounce back?

He ended up only striking out 111 hitters in 106.2 innings, showing that he doesn't have the swing and miss stuff that he did in lower levels.

More importantly for Painter, the idea was for him to eventually be on the Phillies' big league roster this year. Considering how poorly he threw the baseball, that obviously wasn't the case. 

When speaking about his year, he said that he wasn't exactly happy with how he threw this year, but that he sets expectations for himself and doesn't let others influence that.

“I’ll set expectations for myself and critique the ways I’m pitching and everything,” said Painter, this week’s guest on Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. “So, from that aspect, no, I didn’t do everything I wanted to this year.”

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On the one hand, Painter didn't pitch well, but he also had other things he had to work on. 

He understood that his injury would be difficult, so instead of focusing on that, he was trying to build off each start and get better for the future. At only 22 years old, there's still plenty of time for the Florida native to become what he was expected to be eventually. 

"No, I mean, this year, this whole thing has been kind of just building off of each start and really just learning the game," Painter told Scott Lauber. "The big thing was just finding ways that I could be better and make myself better that next week."