March 03, 2023
This is the type of Friday afternoon news dump that Phillies fans don't want to hear. Right-hander Andrew Painter, Major League Baseball's top pitching prospect in the entire sport, has a tender elbow, manager Rob Thomson announced to the media on Friday.
Testing is underway for the 19-year-old hurler:
Thomson said that Andrew Painter came in with a little tender elbow yesterday. They sent him out for some tests and don’t have results yet. Phillies will have more info for us tomorrow.
— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) March 3, 2023
Painter made his spring debut on Wednesday, allowing a run and three hits while striking out one batter in two innings of work. He brought the heat, as his four-seam fastball topped out at 99 miles per hour. Here's his cutter at work:
19-year-old Andrew Painter picks up his first K on a cutter in his Spring Training debut for the @Phillies.
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 1, 2023
MLB's No. 1 pitching prospect averaged 96.8 mph on his 19 fastballs, topping out at 99. pic.twitter.com/WPdmjWuRqO
While nothing can concretely be known about how much this will affect Painter just yet, I'd have to imagine this hurts his shot at being in the big league rotation to start the 2023 season.
Painter, the Phillies' first-overall pick in 2021, had a minuscule 1.56 ERA in 103.2 innings of work in 2022 across three separate minor league levels: A Clearwater, A+ Jersey Shore and AA Reading.
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