All of a sudden, the Phillies’ pitching depth is going to be tested.

A day after the good news of Bryce Harper taking the next step in his recovery from offseason Tommy John surgery by hitting balls off of a tee, the Phillies gave two updates on two starting pitchers, neither of which were devastating, but neither of which were incredibly positive.

First was Ranger Suarez, who made a surprising appearance in the Phillies clubhouse this morning. Suarez was with Venezuela at the World Baseball Classic and returned after experiencing forearm tightness in his throwing arm.

Second was the long-awaited update on Andrew Painter, who has a partial tear of his UCL, but will not need Tommy John surgery.

Suarez said the plan is for him to take “a few days off” and then get back on schedule. He still plans to be ready for the start of the season, although that was accompanied with a caveat of “we’ll see where things are in a few days.”

He did not have to undergo an MRI, so the Phillies don’t think it’s serious – but it’s something they do have to keep an eye on and see how it responds.

If he can’t be ready for the start of the season at the end of the month, the Phillies will need one of their depth options – likely Michael Plassmeyer, although Christopher Sanchez or Nick Nelson could jump into the No. 5 spot while Bailey Falter moves into Suarez’s spot in the rotation.

As for Painter, the news is better than expected, but don’t expect to see him until later this summer.

Painter will be shut down for four weeks to rest, then he will start a throwing program. It likely will take at least another 4-6 weeks after that to be in game-shape, and then you have to assume some rehab assignments, so consider him not in the plans until June-ish.

But that’s better then having to get Tommy John surgery and missing all of 2023 and likely the start of 2024.

Both Painter and the Phillies are confident this plan will work because they sought a second opinion from Neal ElAttrache, the noted surgeon in California who handles many Tommy John surgeries and, in fact, performed the surgery on Harper.

ElAttrache agreed with the Phillies doctors, and the belief is Painter will heal quicker, because of his age, and that he’ll still be able to pitch competitively this season.

“That guy’s one of the best at what he does,” Painter said. “For him to come out and say, after getting a good look at it, ‘we’re going to rest it’ – he’s dealt with stuff like this before. I don’t think he would recommend that if he wasn’t confident it was going to work.”

Painter has spent a lot of time speaking with veteran pitchers this spring and has been hanging on every word. He’s especially been talking to both Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, both of whom experienced the same injury when they were young.

Wheeler’s required Tommy John surgery, so he missed significant time, but Nola’s was basically identical.

It was his rookie season in 2016. The only difference is Nola’s injury occurred at the end of the season and not in Spring Training, so he had more time to rest it than what Painter is facing now.

Still, Nola said he rested it for a month, and then started a throwing program which he finished in November of that year and then took two months off before ramping up for Spring Training in 2017.

The interesting thing for Nola though, was that there turned out to be a change in his delivery as a result, and he admitted that was “a blessing in disguise.”

“My first day (of Spring Training in 2017) I started throwing lightly and my stride lengthened by about a foot,” Nola said. “Then I started throwing harder. That Spring training was kind of a new pitching form and that was cool. I learned how to use my legs. I didn’t want to get hurt, but it taught me some things.”

Nola said he had a platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection as part of his recovery. Painter said that wasn’t part of his plan at the moment. Nola was also 23. Painter doesn’t turn 20 until next month, so there is some physical differences as well.

So, while the injury is identical, every person’s body heals differently and therefore no two processes will be identical.

Still, if a mechanics change is what helped Nola be able to be durable since, it could be something Painter considers before we ever see him in a Phillies uniform in the regular season.

Here’s his delivery in 2016:

Now, here’s his delivery in 2017. You can see how it got longer and how he changed to pitch more with his lower half:

This isn’t to say Painter is going to have to make the same changes. But Wheeler added that there were some changes he had to make as well, although his were different because he actually had the surgery.

“When I was with the Mets we had a handful of guys who already had (Tommy John surgery),” Wheeler said. “I talked with (Jacob) deGrom because we had similar styles and similar body types. He said he had to protect his arm path to put less stress on the elbow. It’s always going to take a toll when you throw so hard, because your body isn’t supposed to do that – which is why everyone is getting Tommy John these days because everyone throws harder – but it’s just about getting the body in the right arm path and the rest of your body in the right position to keep yourself healthy.”

Either way, the Phillies are going to be extremely cautious and patient with Painter to ensure that he can have the same kind of durability Nola has had for the past six years.

A Song for tomorrow?

Noah Song, the pitcher claimed by the Phillies form the Boston Red Sox in the Rule 5 Draft, who was serving in the U.S. Navy but was granted reserve status to return to baseball, was supposed to throw a bullpen session Friday.

He didn’t.

When Phillies manager Rob Thomson was asked about that following their 10-4 win over Pittsburgh Friday, all he said was, “I’ll speak on that tomorrow.”

Guess two pitcher injuries were enough for one day, eh?

Song either has to remain on the Phillies major league roster all season or he has to be returned to the Red Sox. If, however, Song is injured, he wouldn’t have to be on the Phillies roster until he is healthy so…

We’ll see.