{"id":511131,"date":"2026-03-08T12:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/511131\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T12:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:31:13","slug":"phillies-notes-painters-pickup-game-with-scherzer-crawfords-improved-defense-miller-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/511131\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies notes: Painter\u2019s pickup game with Scherzer, Crawford\u2019s improved defense, Miller update"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 Three years ago, Andrew Painter and a group of other professional baseball players gathered at Santaluces Community High School in South Florida for a relaxed game of pickup basketball.<\/p>\n

They called out whom they were defending. Max Scherzer yelled, \u201cAll right, I\u2019ve got Painter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was 38,\u201d Painter said. \u201cI was 19. I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know what to do here. This guy\u2019s making $43 million this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to mention Painter is about 4 inches taller than Scherzer. There were no injuries to report, and the pair faced off again three years later Saturday \u2014 this time, on the mound. Both were effective in the exhibition game, though Painter\u2019s fastball command dipped somewhat from his first spring outing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair met at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, where Painter has worked out since he was 14. It\u2019s a favorite workout facility of many MLB pitchers \u2014 including Painter\u2019s teammate Jesus Luzardo \u2014 and provided Painter the opportunity to pick the brains of top talent from a young age. Miles Mikolas spent time around the younger players at Cressey, allowing Painter to ask questions and better understand the game.<\/p>\n

Scherzer was another who talked shop with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always a good conversation,\u201d Painter said. \u201cHe likes pitching. He likes talking about the game \u2014 all that sort of stuff. He talks about offseason and prep, timing of bullpens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of ramping up, Painter said, was what they discussed the most \u2014 how to best find the middle point so it\u2019s not too quick or too slow.<\/p>\n

Throughout the winter, they ribbed each other \u2014 \u201cWe going to play again this year?\u201d It didn\u2019t come to fruition, though. Scherzer was a longtime fan of playing basketball because of how the jumping and running translated to his game, even though some players avoid basketball because of injury risk. He gave up basketball after back surgery in December 2023, saying it would put him at high risk of re-herniating his disk.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell me it\u2019s against the rules all you want,\u201d Scherzer said, \u201cbut it makes me a better pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Crawford\u2019s work pays off in center<\/p>\n

Justin Crawford entered the offseason intent on becoming a better center fielder. So, he worked <\/a>with former Gold Glover and All-Star Eric Davis over two weeks in Arizona.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a notable difference in Crawford\u2019s play halfway through spring training. His reads have been better, including in Saturday\u2019s third inning when he tracked Josh Kasevich\u2019s 100 mph batted ball heading toward the center-field wall. He\u2019s been communicative, and it looks like he\u2019s fully taken charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel pretty good,\u201d Crawford said before Saturday\u2019s game. \u201cI feel like my routes have been more efficient, and my reads have been a little bit better. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve got to continue to do every single day, make sure I stay on top of it. But so far, early in camp, it\u2019s noticeably better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford, who sometimes struggled with routes and reads with Triple-A Lehigh Valley last year, looks as though he\u2019s coming into his own defensively. That is all the Philadelphia Phillies could hope for after essentially handing him the keys to the position in the offseason, which was somewhat of a gamble given the lack of depth options and Crawford\u2019s body of work.<\/p>\n

Davis and Crawford remain in touch, with Crawford trying to send him as much film as possible. Davis watches games when he gets a chance, though he\u2019s given Crawford no additional feedback. This early in spring training, Crawford said, Davis just wants to let him play.<\/p>\n

Aidan Miller update<\/p>\n

The Phillies sent Aidan Miller, the organization\u2019s top prospect, to visit with their medical staff in Philadelphia on Friday, and he returned to Clearwater on Saturday. He has been sidelined for more than two weeks because of lower-back pain, an issue he played through last season.<\/p>\n

Miller tracked pitches in the cage and ran in the pool last week, but he has not picked up a bat in about two weeks. It was unlikely he would contribute at the major-league level early in the season, but it was still to be an important camp for one of the sport\u2019s top prospects. Given his progress, it seems unlikely Miller will be available for any Grapefruit League games or for Triple-A Opening Day on March 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a timeline,\u201d Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cI mean, he hasn\u2019t swung a bat in two weeks. So, we just want to get him healthy, where there\u2019s no pain, and get him back playing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomson added his concern level is \u201cnone\u201d because he knows the team\u2019s medical staff will take care of Miller.<\/p>\n

The infield prospect also dealt with back pain toward the end of last season, choosing to keep playing because of how well he was performing. He told The Athletic<\/a> he played through it for about two months, as it only became much worse toward the end of his season in Triple A. He said the flare-up that started in February was less painful than what he experienced in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes at the end of the year when his back was bothering him maybe a little bit more, he performed better,\u201d director of player development Luke Murton said Friday. \u201cWe\u2019re glad he\u2019s getting healthy. We\u2019re glad he\u2019s figuring out exactly what\u2019s going on. We\u2019re looking forward to getting him back on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Phillies and Miller have expressed a lack of concern. The visit with the Phillies staff, Thomson said, was to \u201cclose the loop\u201d on the medical side of things. Still, it is obviously worth monitoring given the recurrence and Miller\u2019s importance to the club\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 Three years ago, Andrew Painter and a group of other professional baseball players gathered at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,480,99],"class_list":["post-511131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}