Andrew Painter to undergo testing for elbow discomfort

If you were hoping that rookie pitcher Andrew Painter was going to join the Phillies’ rotation and provide a boost for the stretch run...you might want to delay that hope to 2024, if not longer. The 20-year-old righty who was shut down due to arm soreness in the Spring has been shut down once again.

Well, that doesn’t sound ominous at all.

The team has been very tight-lipped when it comes to Painter and his injury, so the vagueness of this statement is not surprising. When he first felt soreness in his elbow this Spring, it took several days before the team revealed the diagnosis of a UCL sprain. On Tuesday, he was scheduled to face live hitters for the first time since the injury, but that session was postponed due to “stiffness.” He threw a bullpen session on Wednesday, but the team didn’t reveal much about it afterwards.

It seems almost impossible at this point to expect Painter to pitch for the Phillies in 2023, and with every setback, the threat of Tommy John surgery looms larger. The situation is complicated by his agent Scott Boras who has not seemed to be on the same page as the Phillies when it comes to the accelerated time schedule they set for him before the season.

It will be interesting to see if this affects the Phillies’ trade plans. Despite the strong recent performance of Cristopher Sanchez, not having Painter as a fallback might prompt them to pursue additional help for the rotation before the deadline.