replace<\/a> Painter. The Philadelphia reliever then immediately gave up a single hit to right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda, who allowed Abrams to score after throwing the ball into the stands while trying to get him out at third base. Regardless, this was an impressive outing from Painter in his major league debut. <\/p>\nWhat’s next for Andrew Painter with Zack Wheeler’s return looming?![\"Philadelphia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kn3dsz5ng6x89978f1.jpg\" "\\"Philadelphia")
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Aug 10, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler (45) throws during the third inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
As things stand, Painter is likely expected to make at least a few more starts for the Phillies. Injured ace Zack Wheeler is on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, though, and he threw three innings last Saturday in his first appearance on the mound since undergoing season-ending thoracic outlet decompression surgery last fall. <\/p>\n
While it’s unclear exactly when Wheeler will rejoin the Phillies’ rotation, Painter could be the odd man out of the big league starting pitching staff. But if the hard-throwing righty continues to pitch the way he did in his major league debut, he could make that decision much more difficult for Philadelphia. <\/p>\n
The only other realistic option to be replaced by Wheeler when he’s healthy would be Taijuan Walker, who got roughed up in his first start of 2026, giving up seven runs and 10 hits to the same Nationals team that Painter mostly kept in check. Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, Jes\u00fas Luzardo, and Aaron Nola aren’t going anywhere, so unless one of them gets injured or Philadelphia elects to go with a six-man rotation, Painter and Walker could be in a battle to remain in the starting pitching staff once Wheeler is ready to return. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Phillies are relying on a couple of up-and-coming talents to make an impact at the big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-577830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}