Injured Phillies Prospect Ranks In MLB Poll

The Philadelphia Phillies won’t have their top prospect, Andrew Painter, pitching in a live game in 2024. But that doesn’t mean that MLB executives have forgotten just how good he is.

Recently, MLB.com polled executives and asked them about pitching prospects. The questions were simple — who has the best fastball, who has the best secondary pitch and who has the best pitchability?

Painter came up in all three polls.

When it came to fastballs, 45% of the executives picked Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Paul Skenes as having the best. He was drafted in the first round out of LSU and he’s on a fast track to the Majors.

As for Painter, he was part of a large group of players that received votes.

Next was the best secondary pitch. Skenes came up once again, as he led with 20% of the vote for his slider. But Painter’s slider drew 4% of the vote as did the slider of Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering, who played the final month of the regular season and the postseason with the Phillies.

Finally, there was pitchability, which the writers at MLB.com said was hard to define. This is about command, control and feel for how to pitch.

Well, Painter ranked high here. He was tied for third with Skenes, as Cincinnati’s Rhett Lowder led the way with 17 percent.

The Phillies had hoped that Painter would already be with the club and not on a prospect list. But a ligament injury early last year kept him from being ready for the start of the season and eventually led to Tommy John surgery, after the injury didn’t respond to non-surgical treatments.

Still, expectations are high for Painter. The first-round pick in 2021 is 6-2 in the minors with a 1.48 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 109.2 innings. He’s walked just 25. He will continue injury rehab with an eye on vying for a rotation spot sometime in 2025.