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Andrew Painter Shines in 2026 Spring Training Debut
By Luke Arcaini
Published:
Andrew Painter pitched in a Grapefruit League game on Sunday for the first time in exactly three years, and it was an encouraging outing.
Painter is set to slot into the 4/5 spot of the starting rotation on Opening Day. The Phillies wanted to see a couple of things from him on Sunday, such as fastball command, arm slot, and the ability to work through at-bats, and he showed all three of those things.
Painter ran his typical four-pitch mix (along with a couple flash pitches), heavily favoring his fastball, which is the pitch he worked on this offseason the most. Painter’s arm slot fell during his Triple-A season last year, but with the young pitcher dealing with so much already in his rehab process, the Phillies elected to fix it in the offseason rather than the middle of the year.
Sunday, it looked like it was back to pre-surgery height. The fastball didn’t look flat, which was the biggest thing to watch. It had life to it, averaging 96.8 mph, and topping out at 97.8.
His best pitch of the day was his put-away pitch on Jasson Dominguez to win an 8-pitch battle, a nasty slider that fooled the Yankees outfielder:
Pitch Breakdown
- 13 Four-Seam Fastballs
- 2 Changeups
- 2 Curveballs
- 1 Slider
- 1 Sweeper
- 1 Sinker
I’ll have to do some digging into the sweeper and sinker, because we haven’t seen a ton of those from Painter. The 22-year-old got three swing-and-misses, and even with some off-speed pitches that hung a little out of the zone, those high-ball off-speed pitches just felt like some early jitters and not fully executing them.
Painter allowed soft contact the entire time, and it felt like he was always ahead, even when he wasn’t. I thought it was good that JT Realmuto kept him fastball heavy. It’s been the biggest focus of Painter’s offseason, and the pitch that everybody wanted to see looked as alive as ever.
A really encouraging outing for Painter.
2 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 20 pitches, 14 strikes
Luke Arcaini writes about the Phillies for Crossing Broad, covers the Phillies for FOX Sports The Gambler, and co-hosts "Phillies Digest" on YouTube. The wave is the worst thing in all of sports. Contact: lukearcaini8@gmail.com