Phillies prospect watch: Andrew Painter promoted to high-A Jersey Shore

Top pitching prospect Andrew Painter has been dominating low-A ball and now he's moving up — literally and figuratively.

The 19-year-old righthander, who the Phillies took 13th overall in last summer's draft, was promoted to high-A Jersey Shore on Monday, where he will be joining promising hurlers Mick Abel, Griff McGarry and Ben Brown after a lights-out run down in Clearwater.

He's expected to debut for the BlueClaws later this week during the team's road trip to Hudson Valley, New York.

In nine starts and 38.2 innings pitched, the 6'7" Painter went 1-1 with 69 strikeouts and a minuscule 1.40 ERA and 0.85 WHIP. His low-A stint was highlighted by his April 23 start against the Yankee-affiliated Tampa Tarpons, when Painter threw five innings of shutout ball, striking out 14 and allowing only a single hit.

The Threshers won 3-0. Painter wasn't credited with the win but FanGraphs did capture video of his performance, which you can check out below.

Painter usually went 3-4 innings per start down in Clearwater but threw six in his final two on May 28 and June 4, giving up just an earned run in each and striking out 16 across both outings. 

Now that he is heading up to Jersey Shore, the BlueClaws will have the Phillies' No. 1 (Painter), No. 2 (Abel), and No. 8 (McGarry) prospects all pitching for them, along with Brown, who went on a tear last month (2-1 with a 0.98 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, and 30 Ks through four starts and 18.1 innings pitched). All four are righthanders.

Abel, 20, was the Phillies' 15th-overall selection in the 2020 draft; McGarry, 22, got picked up in the fifth round (145th overall) last summer; and Brown, 22, was a 33rd-round pick in 2017 (983rd overall).

When we last checked in on the Phillies' farm system a couple of weeks ago, Abel wasn't exactly wowing anyone and McGarry was struggling to get adjusted to high-A ball.

Wrote our own Evan Macy on each:

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"Abel isn't really hot or not hot, he's floating somewhere in the middle with a 4.15 ERA so far in April. So far in Jersey Shore, the former first rounder has been fine, but not as impressive as Painter. He's shown some growing pains allowing 12 runs in 27 innings pitched. The sample size is small, and the numbers don't tell the full story — but the expectations are certainly higher for the 20-year-old.

...

"McGarry was Philly's fifth-round pick last draft and has not had the best go of it during his second year of professional baseball. In his most recent start last week he was roughed up for six runs in three frames. He has a 6.91 ERA this season."

Not too much has changed for Abel since then. He made two more starts on May 28 and June 3, going five innings and surrendering two runs in each, though he did strike out seven and then eight, respectively.

McGarry, meanwhile, threw four shutout innings in his May 25 start, striking out seven, walking three and giving up just a hit. Things came back around a bit in his last outing on June 1, however, when he was tagged for four earned runs through five innings. 

Here's where all four prospects stand right now as of Monday. 

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