{"id":795300,"date":"2026-07-31T11:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795300\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:31:14","slug":"what-phillies-pitcher-andrew-painter-is-working-on-after-demotion-to-triple-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795300\/","title":{"rendered":"What Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter is working on after demotion to Triple A"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 In the aftermath of a seven-run outing in Triple A, Andrew Painter looked at his metrics. He was surprised by what he saw: His fastball, which opponents had a .583 average against that game, had produced its best underlying numbers since he underwent Tommy John surgery three years prior.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was getting hit,\u201d Painter said of his July 10 outing for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. \u201cI go back and look, and I wasn\u2019t throwing sweepers in-zone. I wasn\u2019t throwing a changeup in-zone. My sliders were down for chase, so there was no threat of anything outside of the fastball to be in-zone. Guys were just sitting on it. \u2026 It\u2019s really (important) just establishing some sort of off-speed or different offering that you can throw in-zone whenever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Painter has the latitude to learn these types of lessons in Triple A, where he will make his sixth start this season on Friday. After a disastrous beginning to his major-league career<\/a>, Painter finally is without the noise, the fanfare that has followed him much of his professional baseball life \u2014 from throwing an electric fastball in 2022 to Tommy John surgery to a roller-coaster 2025 in the minors. Producing a 7.06 ERA in 14 games in the majors will do that.<\/p>\n

Two of Painter\u2019s best Triple-A starts have come back-to-back, as he allowed three runs and struck out 14 across 11 innings in his last two outings. Yes, it is a two-game sample in the minor leagues that was preceded by a seven-run outing in which he didn\u2019t make it through three innings.<\/p>\n

There is no rush to get Painter back to the big leagues, particularly given the Phillies\u2019 pursuit of a fifth starter before the trade deadline. They might even pursue a playoff-caliber starter<\/a>; Painter, 23, is not that. But if he pitches well consistently, or if an injury occurs, he could earn another call-up this season.<\/p>\n

So many Phillies personnel are devoted to getting Painter right \u2014 the major-league and Triple-A pitching coaches, the strength and conditioning staff. Many of them spent time poring over data during Painter\u2019s first few days back in Allentown.<\/p>\n

They identified a few problem areas. He was not moving on the mound as he did before surgery, falling toward the first-base side on his delivery. So much about the fastball \u2014 the movement, location, velocity \u2014 was off. His changeup wasn\u2019t moving as consistently. His numbers against lefties were poor. Coaches went back and forth with Painter as they worked through it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just \u2026 \u2018Here\u2019s what Andy needs to do,\u2019\u201d said Casey Weathers, the Phillies\u2019 director of pitching development. \u201cIt\u2019s, \u2018Hey, Andy, what are you feeling about this stuff?\u2019 It\u2019s that bigger conversation, and he was awesome through it all. Very open, very engaged, asking intentional questions about how to accomplish everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

\n Andrew Painter has a 4.56 ERA in five starts at Triple A. He has struck out 25 and walked eight in 23 2\/3 innings. (Dan Squicciarini \/ NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In five starts in Triple A, some of the issues have been addressed, the Phillies say. Painter\u2019s velocity and command have improved. His fastball velocity was 96.5 mph in the majors, and he threw one pitch above 99; his velocity in Triple A has averaged 97.2 mph, and he has touched 99 six times.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest difference-maker was addressing his delivery. When Painter pitched in the majors, his delivery typically involved multiple, slower steps rather than fluid movement. It wasn\u2019t repeatable. So, his delivery has been reworked to preload his back leg, trying to keep his movement compact and powerful. He pointed to Milwaukee Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski as one pitcher who is preloading his back leg out of the stretch, giving him better command.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more drive down the mound,\u201d Painter said, \u201crather than letting the slope of the mound take you down it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pounding the strike zone, Painter said, has also helped the fastball\u2019s performance. He knows he needs to throw strikes early. He knows he needs to earn chase. None of this is a cure-all; his fastball was hit hard in the majors, largely because of poor location and movement. If it carries better \u2014 and he utilizes his secondary pitches better \u2014 perhaps this all will fall into place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s a lot easier said than done,\u201d Painter said, \u201cbut pitching is a lot easier when you\u2019re not walking guys. So (I want to) continue to establish that brand and be super aggressive in the zone early. Because then the hitters respond to that, the hitters notice that and the hitters become more aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has walked one batter over his last two starts. The trend represents a win for Painter and his coaches. But it is still a work in progress; Painter walked four in the start before those two.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

\n Andrew Painter was optioned to Triple A in mid-June after 14 inconsistent outings with the Phillies. (Emilee Chinn \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As they\u2019ve worked through changes, Phillies coaches have been impressed by Painter\u2019s positivity. Lehigh Valley pitching coach Phil Cundari said he operates by one rule: \u201cPerformance is the truth.\u201d He has seen a new maturity, a better energy with Painter in each start.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could look at a lot of the body language, whether it\u2019s early in the game or first and third and one out,\u201d Cundari said. \u201cHe\u2019s had that situation a few times. It\u2019s very different body language (from) last year. \u2026 He\u2019s going on the attack, and I think you continue to attack when you really trust your stuff and you trust yourself. I would love to see more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Howell, a pitching development coordinator hired last season, had not spent much time with Painter before his demotion, but the righty quickly made an impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis aptitude to pick stuff up is pretty uncommon,\u201d Howell said. \u201cThat\u2019s what floored me the most. He\u2019s a really good athlete who makes adjustments like it\u2019s nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been typical adjustments as any pitcher makes on the fly: figuring out how to establish his fastball against lefties, then freezing them with a backdoor slider. And there have been bigger ones, like addressing his changeup. Painter also adjusted his split-change, adopting a circle-change grip \u2014 something he threw in 2022. His splitter grew inconsistent during his time in the majors, cutting more often than he would like. He could throw pitches back-to-back and the ball flight might be entirely different.<\/p>\n

Painter, baseball in hand, demonstrated the evolution of his grips this week to The Athletic. One had the flight of a BP fastball. Another was good in bullpens but didn\u2019t perform in a game. The grip he has settled on gives him a little more depth.<\/p>\n

He has been forced to adapt after a brutal 14-game run in the majors. If anything, his last time in Lehigh Valley, in 2025, may have prepared him for it. Over 22 Triple-A starts that season, Painter often did not have his best stuff. Blisters affected his changeup. He was hit hard, especially by lefties. But he kept going, and he will keep going now.<\/p>\n

Whatever Painter does from here in the minors, questions will remain until he consistently performs in the majors. The Phillies feel confident in his ability to be a good major-league pitcher. Whether he returns to the majors anytime soon is out of his control, especially as the trade deadline approaches.<\/p>\n

So much was weighing on Painter when he was demoted<\/a>. Poor outings piled up. Innings spiraled. Here in Allentown, in a minor-league ballpark patrolled by the Pork Racers and populated by children from summer camps screaming their lungs out, the external noise has quieted.<\/p>\n

While pitching during that run, he might have thought, \u201cI\u2019m trying to go glove side with a fastball. Let me get it there.\u201d Now, the inner monologue has changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s a fastball,\u201d Painter said. \u201cI\u2019m going to try to get it in that lane, and I\u2019m just going to rip it. I\u2019m going to throw it as hard as I can. If you get beat, tip your cap. But if you\u2019re going to go down, you want to go down with your best stuff. And do you want to look back on that pitch and be like, \u2018Could I have thrown that with a bit more conviction? Could I have been more confident in that pitch?\u2019 That\u2019s a huge part of it, too. If you go out and throw something you don\u2019t have conviction in, you\u2019re just set up for failure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 In the aftermath of a seven-run outing in Triple A, Andrew Painter looked at his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,480,99],"class_list":["post-795300","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\/795300","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=795300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}